Slaves in Egypt · The Burning Bush

In context

Exodus picks up where Genesis left off. Jacob’s family, seventy people, had come to Egypt, and Joseph and his brothers had died there (Exodus 1:1–6). God had told Abram that his descendants would live as foreigners in a land not theirs, serving its people and mistreated for four hundred years (Genesis 15:13–14). Now a new king who “didn’t know Joseph” makes the Israelites slaves, building the storage cities Pithom and Raamses (1:8–11). This part is hard to read: Pharaoh orders the Hebrews’ newborn sons killed (1:15–16, 22).

Moses’ name sounds like the Hebrew for “draw out,” the WEB notes (2:10). Grown up, he kills an Egyptian he sees striking a Hebrew, and flees to Midian (2:11–15); Stephen later says he was forty then, and spent forty years in Midian before the burning bush (Acts 7:23, 29–30). His father-in-law is called Reuel in 2:18 and Jethro from 3:1. At Horeb, “God’s mountain,” God gives his name, “I AM WHO I AM,” and Yahweh, and promises, “Certainly I will be with you” (3:12–15). Moses says he is slow of speech and asks God to send someone else; the Lord, angry, names his brother Aaron to speak for him (4:10–16). The short passage about Zipporah on the road (4:24–26) is hard to understand.