The Birth of Moses

2 Now a man from ^(A)the house of Levi went and ^[a]married a daughter of Levi. ² The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw ^[b]that he was ^[c](B)beautiful, she hid him for three months. ³ But when she could hide him no longer, she got him a ^[d](C)wicker ^[e]basket and covered it over with tar and pitch. Then she put the child into it and set it among the ^(D)reeds by the bank of the Nile. ^4 (E)His sister stood at a distance to ^[f]find out what would ^[g]happen to him.

⁵ The daughter of Pharaoh came down ^(F)to bathe at the Nile, with her maidens walking alongside the Nile; and she saw the ^[h]basket among the reeds and sent her maid, and she brought it to her. ⁶ When she opened it, she ^[i]saw the child, and behold, the ^[j]boy was crying. And she had pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” ⁷ Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call ^[k]a nurse for you from the Hebrew women that she may nurse the child for you?” ⁸ Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go ahead.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. ⁹ Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. ¹⁰ The child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter and ^(G)he became her son. And she named him ^[l]Moses, and said, “Because I ^[m]drew him out of the water.”

¹¹ Now it came about in those days, ^(H)when Moses had grown up, that he went out to his brethren and looked on their ^[n](I)hard labors; and ^(J)he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. ¹² So he ^[o]looked this way and that, and when he saw there was no one around, he ^(K)struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. ¹³ He went out ^(L)the next day, and behold, two Hebrews were ^[p]fighting with each other; and he said to the ^[q]offender, “Why are you striking your companion?” ¹⁴ But he said, “^(M)Who made you a ^[r]prince or a judge over us? Are you ^[s]intending to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and said, “Surely the matter has become known.”

Moses Escapes to Midian

¹⁵ When Pharaoh heard of this matter, he tried to kill Moses. But ^(N)Moses fled from the presence of Pharaoh and ^[t]settled in the land of Midian, and he sat down ^(O)by a well.

¹⁶ Now ^(P)the priest of Midian had seven daughters; and ^(Q)they came to draw water and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. ¹⁷ Then the shepherds came and drove them away, but ^(R)Moses stood up and helped them and watered their flock. ¹⁸ When they came to ^(S)Reuel their father, he said, “Why have you come back so soon today?” ¹⁹ So they said, “An Egyptian delivered us from the hand of the shepherds, and what is more, he even drew the water for us and watered the flock.” ²⁰ He said to his daughters, “Where is he then? Why is it that you have left the man behind? Invite him ^[u]to have something to eat.” ^21 (T)Moses was willing to dwell with the man, and he gave his daughter ^(U)Zipporah to Moses. ²² Then she gave birth to ^(V)a son, and he named him ^[v]Gershom, for he said, “I have been ^(W)a ^[w]sojourner in a foreign land.”

²³ Now it came about in the course of those many days that the king of Egypt died. And the sons of Israel ^(X)sighed because of the bondage, and they cried out; and ^(Y)their cry for help because of their bondage rose up to God. ²⁴ So ^(Z)God heard their groaning; and God remembered ^(AA)His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ^25 (AB)God saw the sons of Israel, and God ^[x]took notice of them.

The Burning Bush

3 Now Moses was pasturing the flock of ^(AC)Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the ^[y]west side of the wilderness and came to ^(AD)Horeb, the ^(AE)mountain of God. ^2 (AF)The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of ^[z]a ^(AG)bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed. ³ So Moses said, “^[aa](AH)I must turn aside now and see this ^[ab]marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up.” ⁴ When the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, ^(AI)God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” ⁵ Then He said, “Do not come near here; ^(AJ)remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” ⁶ He said also, “^(AK)I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” ^(AL)Then Moses hid his face, for he was ^(AM)afraid to look at God.

⁷ The Lord said, “I have surely ^(AN)seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings. ⁸ So I have come down ^(AO)to deliver them from the ^[ac]power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a ^(AP)good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of ^(AQ)the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. ⁹ Now, behold, ^(AR)the cry of the sons of Israel has come to Me; furthermore, I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them.

The Mission of Moses

¹⁰ Therefore, come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh, ^(AS)so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.” ¹¹ But Moses said to God, “^(AT)Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?” ¹² And He said, “Certainly ^(AU)I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: ^(AV)when you have brought the people out of Egypt, ^(AW)you shall ^[ad]worship God at this mountain.”

¹³ Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?” ¹⁴ God said to Moses, “^[ae](AX)I AM WHO ^[af]I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘^[ag]I AM has sent me to you.’” ¹⁵ God, furthermore, said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘^(AY)The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is My name forever, and this is My ^(AZ)memorial-name ^[ah]to all generations. ¹⁶ Go and ^(BA)gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘^(BB)The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “^[ai](BC)I am indeed concerned about you and what has been done to you in Egypt. ¹⁷ So ^(BD)I said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of ^(BE)the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, to a land ^(BF)flowing with milk and honey.”’ ^18 (BG)They will ^[aj]pay heed to what you say; and ^(BH)you with the elders of Israel will come to the king of Egypt and you will say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. So now, please, let us go a ^(BI)three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.’ ¹⁹ But I know that the king of Egypt ^(BJ)will not permit you to go, ^(BK)except ^[ak]under compulsion. ²⁰ So I will stretch out ^(BL)My hand and strike Egypt with all My ^(BM)miracles which I shall do in the midst of it; and ^(BN)after that he will let you go. ²¹ I will grant this people ^(BO)favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and it shall be that when you go, you will not go empty-handed. ²² But every woman ^(BP)shall ask of her neighbor and the woman who lives in her house, articles of silver and articles of gold, and clothing; and you will put them on your sons and daughters. Thus you will ^(BQ)plunder the Egyptians.”

Moses Given Powers

4 Then Moses said, “What if they will not believe me or ^(BR)listen ^[al]to what I say? For they may say, ‘^(BS)The Lord has not appeared to you.’” ² The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” And he said, “^(BT)A staff.” ³ Then He said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and ^(BU)it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it. ⁴ But the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand and grasp it by its tail”—so he stretched out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his ^[am]hand— ⁵ “that ^(BV)they may believe that ^(BW)the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”

⁶ The Lord furthermore said to him, “Now put your hand into your bosom.” So he put his hand into his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was ^(BX)leprous like snow. ⁷ Then He said, “Put your hand into your bosom again.” So he put his hand into his bosom again, and when he took it out of his bosom, behold, ^(BY)it was restored like the rest of his flesh. ⁸ “If they will not believe you or ^[an]heed the ^[ao]witness of the first sign, they may believe the ^[ap]witness of the last sign. ⁹ But if they will not believe even these two signs or heed what you say, then you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground; and the water which you take from the Nile ^(BZ)will become blood on the dry ground.”

¹⁰ Then Moses said to the Lord, “Please, Lord, ^(CA)I have never been ^[aq]eloquent, neither ^[ar]recently nor in time past, nor since You have spoken to Your servant; for I am ^[as]slow of speech and ^[at]slow of tongue.” ¹¹ The Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or ^(CB)who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? ¹² Now then go, and ^(CC)I, even I, will be with your mouth, and ^(CD)teach you what you are to say.” ¹³ But he said, “Please, Lord, now ^[au]send the message by whomever You will.”

Aaron to Be Moses’ Mouthpiece

¹⁴ Then the anger of the Lord burned against Moses, and He said, “Is there not your brother Aaron the Levite? I know that ^[av]he speaks fluently. And moreover, behold, ^(CE)he is coming out to meet you; when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. ¹⁵ You are to speak to him and ^(CF)put the words in his mouth; and I, even I, will be with your mouth and his mouth, and I will teach you what you are to do. ¹⁶ Moreover, ^(CG)he shall speak for you to the people; and he will be as a mouth for you and you will be as God to him. ¹⁷ You shall take in your hand ^(CH)this staff, ^(CI)with which you shall perform the signs.”

¹⁸ Then Moses departed and returned to ^[aw]Jethro ^(CJ)his father-in-law and said to him, “Please, let me go, that I may return to my brethren who are in Egypt, and see if they are still alive.” And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.” ¹⁹ Now the Lord said to Moses in Midian, “Go ^[ax]back to Egypt, for ^(CK)all the men who were seeking your life are dead.” ²⁰ So Moses took his wife and his ^(CL)sons and mounted them on a donkey, and returned to the land of Egypt. Moses also took the ^(CM)staff of God in his hand.

²¹ The Lord said to Moses, “When you go ^[ay]back to Egypt see that you perform before Pharaoh all ^(CN)the wonders which I have put in your ^[az]power; but ^(CO)I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. ²² Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord, “^(CP)Israel is My son, My firstborn. ²³ So I said to you, ‘^(CQ)Let My son go that he may serve Me’; but you have refused to let him go. Behold, ^(CR)I will kill your son, your firstborn.”’”

²⁴ Now it came about at the lodging place on the way that the Lord met him and ^(CS)sought to put him to death. ²⁵ Then Zipporah took ^(CT)a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin and ^[ba]threw it at Moses’ feet, and she said, “You are indeed a bridegroom of blood to me.” ²⁶ So He let him alone. At that time she said, “You are a bridegroom of blood”—^[bb]because of the circumcision.

^27 (CU)Now the Lord said to Aaron, “Go to meet Moses in the wilderness.” So he went and met him at the ^(CV)mountain of God and kissed him. ^28 (CW)Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord with which He had sent him, and ^(CX)all the signs that He had commanded him to do. ²⁹ Then Moses and Aaron went and ^(CY)assembled all the elders of the sons of Israel; ³⁰ and ^(CZ)Aaron spoke all the words which the Lord had spoken to Moses. He then performed the ^(DA)signs in the sight of the people. ³¹ So ^(DB)the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord ^[bc](DC)was concerned about the sons of Israel and that He had seen their affliction, then ^(DD)they bowed low and worshiped.

Rank in the Kingdom

18 ^(A)At that ^[a]time the disciples came to Jesus and said, “^(B)Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” ² And He called a child to Himself and set him ^[b]before them, ³ and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you ^[c]are converted and ^(C)become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. ⁴ Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. ⁵ And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me; ⁶ but ^(D)whoever ^(E)causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it ^[d]would be better for him to have a ^[e]heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

Stumbling Blocks

⁷ “Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks! For ^(F)it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes!

⁸ “^(G)If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame, than ^[f]to have two hands or two feet and be cast into the eternal fire. ^9 (H)If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than ^[g]to have two eyes and be cast into the ^[h](I)fiery hell.

¹⁰ “See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that ^(J)their angels in heaven continually see the face of My Father who is in heaven. ¹¹ [^[i](K)For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.]

Ninety-nine Plus One

¹² “What do you think? ^(L)If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for the one that is straying? ¹³ If it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray. ¹⁴ So it is not the will ^[j]of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish.

Discipline and Prayer

¹⁵ “^(M)If your brother sins^[k], go and ^[l]show him his fault ^[m]in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. ¹⁶ But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that ^(N)by the mouth of two or three witnesses every ^[n]fact may be confirmed. ¹⁷ If he refuses to listen to them, ^(O)tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, ^(P)let him be to you as ^[o]a Gentile and ^[p]a tax collector. ¹⁸ Truly I say to you, ^(Q)whatever you ^[q]bind on earth ^[r]shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you ^[s]loose on earth ^[t]shall have been loosed in heaven.

¹⁹ “Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, ^(R)it shall be done for them ^[u]by My Father who is in heaven. ²⁰ For where two or three have gathered together in My name, ^(S)I am there in their midst.”

Forgiveness

²¹ Then Peter came and said to Him, “Lord, ^(T)how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to ^(U)seven times?” ²² Jesus *said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to ^(V)seventy times seven.

²³ “For this reason ^(W)the kingdom of heaven ^[v]may be compared to a king who wished to ^(X)settle accounts with his slaves. ²⁴ When he had begun to settle them, one who owed him ^[w]ten thousand talents was brought to him. ²⁵ But since he ^[x](Y)did not have the means to repay, his lord commanded him ^(Z)to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made. ²⁶ So the slave fell to the ground and ^(AA)prostrated himself before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you everything.’ ²⁷ And the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and ^(AB)forgave him the ^[y]debt. ²⁸ But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred ^[z]denarii; and he seized him and began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe.’ ²⁹ So his fellow slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you.’ ³⁰ But he was unwilling ^[aa]and went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what was owed. ³¹ So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened. ³² Then summoning him, his lord *said to him, ‘You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. ^33 (AC)Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?’ ³⁴ And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. ^35 (AD)My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from ^[ab]your heart.”