ing, and God remembered them.

THE VOICE OF GOD FROM THE BURNING BUSH.

_The Lord Commissions Moses to Lead His People Out of Bondage_.

Now Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the
priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the back of the wilderness,
and came to the mountain of God, to Horeb. And the angel of the Lord
appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he
looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not
consumed. And Moses said, "I will turn aside now, and see this great
sight, why the bush is not burnt."

And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him
out of the midst of the bush, and said, "Moses, Moses."

And he said, "Here am I."

And he said, "Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy
feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground." Moreover he
said, "I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of
Isaac, and the God of Jacob."

{143}

And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God. And the
Lord said, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are
in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for
I know their sorrows; and I am come down to deliver them out of the
hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good
land and a large, to a land flowing with milk and honey. And now,
behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come to me: moreover I
have seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. Come
now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest
bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt."

And Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and
that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?"

And he said, "Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be the
token unto thee, that I have sent thee: when thou hast brought forth
the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain."

And Moses said unto God, "Behold, when I come unto the children of
Israel, and shall say unto them, 'The God of your fathers hath sent me
unto you'; and they shall say to me, 'What is his name?' what shall I
say unto them?" And God said unto Moses, "I am that I am": and he
said, "Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, 'I am hath
sent me unto you.'"

[Footnote: These phrases are a reference to the name Jehovah, which
was thought to mean "