Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Yes, go.” So the young woman went and called the child’s mother to come.

Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse him for me, and I will pay you for doing it.” So the woman took the child and nursed him.

When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, with the explanation, “Because I drew him up out of the water.”

Moses Flees to Midian

After some time, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his own people and observed their forced labor. He saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his own people.

After he looked this way and that, and he saw that no one was there, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

The next day when he went out, he came upon two Hebrew men who were fighting. He said to the one in the wrong, “Why were you striking your fellow Hebrew?”

The man said, “Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Are you planning to kill me just as you killed the Egyptian?” Moses was afraid and thought, “What I have done has definitely become known.”

When Pharaoh heard what Moses had done, he sought to kill Moses. Moses, however, fled from Pharaoh’s presence and went to live in the land of Midian. There he sat down by a well.

Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came and started drawing water. They filled the troughs to water their father’s flock,

but some shepherds came and drove them away. Moses, however, stood up and helped them. He then watered their flock.

When the daughters came to Reuel, their father, he said, “Why have you returned so early today?”

They said, “An Egyptian man rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock.”

Reuel said to his daughters, “Where is he? Why have you left the man there? Invite him to have something to eat.”

She gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, for he said, “I have become an alien living in a foreign land.”

God Hears Israel’s Groaning

After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned because of their slavery. They cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God.

So God heard their groaning, and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

Moses and the Burning Bush

Now Moses was shepherding the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, a priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

The Angel of the class="small-caps" >Lord appeared to him in blazing fire from within a bush. Moses saw that the bush was on fire, but the bush was not burning up.

So he said, “I will go over and look at this amazing sight—to find out why the bush is not burning up.”

When the class="small-caps" >Lord saw that Moses had gone over to take a look, God called to him from the middle of the bush and said, “Moses! Moses!” Moses said, “I am here.”

The class="small-caps" >Lord said, “Do not come any closer. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

He then said, “I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

The class="small-caps" >Lord said, “I have certainly seen the misery of my people in Egypt, and I have heard their cry for help because of their slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering.

So I have come down to deliver them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

Now indeed, the Israelites’ cry for help has come to me. Yes, I have seen how the Egyptians are oppressing them.