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Exodus 3:1-10
Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the
priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and
came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel
of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush;
he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed.
Then Moses said, "I must turn aside and look at this great
sight, and see why the bush is not burned up." When the
LORD saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him
out of the bush, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here
I am." Then he said, "Come no closer! Remove the sandals
from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy
ground." He said further, "I am 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.
Then the LORD said, "I have observed the misery of my people
who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their
taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come
down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up
out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with
milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites,
the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen
how the Egyptians oppress them. So come, I will send you to
Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt." |
Notice in this first Elohist verse that Moses is the subject of the sentence and that God is referred to as "God."
Then God, or God's angel, takes over the action, and the narrator now refers to God as LORD, as sign of the Yahwist. In the next passage, God and Moses are subjects, but God is referred to as "God."
Then God speaks again to distance himself from Moses.
The references to God and to God's familiarity with Moses "family" tip us off to the Elohist.
In this section, God is given the typical
Yahwist name "LORD," and is the principal actor and
speaker.
This passage is a little tricky, but notice
that the reference to the people is now to "the Israelites,"
and that God says he will deliver them not just by himself but
through Moses. |