Listening to Moses

(11) Some time after that, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his kinsfolk and witnessed their labors. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his kinsmen. (12) He turned this way and that and, seeing no one about, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

(13) When he went out the next day, he found two Hebrews fighting; so he said to the offender, “Why do you strike your fellow?” (14) He retorted, “Who made you chief and ruler over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Moses was frightened, and thought: Then the matter is known!

(15) When Pharaoh learned of the matter, he sought to kill Moses; but Moses fled from Pharaoh. He arrived in the land of Midian, and sat down beside a well. (16) Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came to draw water, and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock; (17) but shepherds came and drove them off. Moses rose to their defense, and he watered their flock. (18) When they returned to their father Reuel, he said, “How is it that you have come back so soon today?” (19) They answered, “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds; he even drew water for us and watered the flock.” (20) He said to his daughters, “Where is he then? Why did you leave the man? Ask him in to break bread.” (21) Moses consented to stay with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah [as a wife].

(1) Now Moses, tending the flock of his father-in-law Yitro, the priest of Midian, drove the flock into the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. (2) An angel of YHVH appeared to him in a blazing fire out of a bush. He gazed, and there was a bush all aflame, yet the bush was not consumed. (3) Moses said, “I must turn aside to look at this marvelous sight; why doesn’t the bush burn up?” (4) When YHVH saw that he had turned aside to look, God called to him out of the bush: “Moses! Moses!” He answered, “Here I am.” (5) And God said, “Do not come closer. Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground. (6) I am,” God said, “the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

(10) Come, therefore, I will send you to Pharaoh, and you shall free My people, the Israelites, from Egypt.” (11) But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and free the Israelites from Egypt?” (12) And God said, “I will be with you; that shall be your sign that it was I who sent you. And when you have freed the people from Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain.”

(13) Moses said to God, “When I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?” (14) And God said to Moses, “Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh.” He continued, “Thus shall you say to the Israelites, ‘Ehyeh sent me to you.’” (15) And God said further to Moses, “Thus shall you speak to the Israelites: YHVH, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you: This shall be My name forever, This My appellation for all eternity.

(1) But Moses spoke up and said, “What if they do not believe in me and do not listen to my voice, but say: YHVH did not appear to you?”

(2) YHVH said to him, “What is that in your hand?” And he replied, “A rod.” (3) He said, “Cast it on the ground.” He cast it on the ground and it became a snake; and Moses recoiled from it. (4) Then YHVH said to Moses, “Put out your hand and grasp it by the tail”—he put out his hand and seized it, and it became a rod in his hand— (5) “that they may believe that YHVH, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, did appear to you.” (6) YHVH said to him further, “Put your hand into your bosom.” He put his hand into his bosom; and when he took it out, his hand was encrusted with snowy scales! (7) And He said, “Put your hand back into your bosom.”—He put his hand back into his bosom; and when he took it out of his bosom, there it was again like the rest of his body.— (8) “And if they do not believe you or pay heed to the first sign, they will believe the second. (9) And if they are not convinced by both these signs and still do not heed you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and it—the water that you take from the Nile—will turn to blood on the dry ground.”

(10) But Moses said to YHVH, “Please, O Lord, I have never been a man of words, either in times past or now that You have spoken to Your servant; I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” (11) YHVH said to him, “Who gives man speech? Who makes him mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, YHVH (12) Now go, and I will be with you as you speak and will instruct you what to say.”

(13) But he said, “Please, O Lord, make someone else Your agent.” (14) YHVH became angry with Moses, and He said, “There is your brother Aaron the Levite. He, I know, speaks readily. Even now he is setting out to meet you, and he will be happy to see you. (15) You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth—I will be with you and with him as you speak, and tell both of you what to do— (16) and he shall speak for you to the people. Thus he shall serve as your spokesman, with you playing the role of God to him, (17) and take with you this rod, with which you shall perform the signs.”

(1) YHVH said to Moses, “Say to Aaron: Hold out your arm with the rod over the rivers, the canals, and the ponds, and bring up the frogs on the land of Egypt.” (2) Aaron held out his arm over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. (3) But the magicians did the same with their spells, and brought frogs upon the land of Egypt. (4) Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Plead with YHVH to remove the frogs from me and my people, and I will let the people go to sacrifice to YHVH.” (5) And Moses said to Pharaoh, “You may have this triumph over me: for what time shall I plead in behalf of you and your courtiers and your people, that the frogs be cut off from you and your houses, to remain only in the Nile?” (6) “For tomorrow,” he replied. And [Moses] said, “As you say—that you may know that there is none like YHVH our God; (7) the frogs shall retreat from you and your courtiers and your people; they shall remain only in the Nile.” (8) Then Moses and Aaron left Pharaoh’s presence, and Moses cried out to YHVH in the matter of the frogs which He had inflicted upon Pharaoh.

(1) These are the words that Moses addressed to all Israel on the other side of the Jordan.—Through the wilderness, in the Arabah near Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Di-zahab,

(11) And YHVH said to him, “Who gives man speech? Who makes him mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, YHVH?