A Crisis of Language: Slavery and Divine Speech

(1) For the leader; for Jeduthun. A psalm of David. (2) I resolved I would watch my step
lest I offend by my speech;
I would keep my mouth muzzled
while the wicked man was in my presence. (3) I was dumb, silent;
I was verya still
while my pain was intense. (4) My mind was in a rage,
my thoughts were all aflame;
I spoke out: (5) Tell me, O LORD, what my term is,
what is the measure of my days;
I would know how fleeting my life is. (6) You have made my life just handbreadths long;
its span is as nothing in Your sight;
no man endures any longer than a breath. (7) Man walks about as a mere shadow;
mere futility is his hustle and bustle,
amassing and not knowing who will gather in. (8) What, then, can I count on, O Lord?
In You my hope lies. (9) Deliver me from all my transgressions;
make me not the butt of the benighted. (10) I am dumb, I do not speak up,
for it is Your doing. (11) Take away Your plague from me;
I perish from Your blows. (12) You chastise a man in punishment for his sin,
consuming like a moth what he treasures.
No man is more than a breath. Selah.
(13) Hear my prayer, O LORD;
give ear to my cry;
do not disregard my tears;
for like all my forebears
I am an alien, resident with You. (14) Look away from me, that I may recover,
before I pass away and am gone.

(15) When Pharaoh learned of the matter, he sought to kill Moses; but Moses fled from Pharaoh. He arrived*arrived Lit. “sat” or “settled.” 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 wife. (22) She bore a son whom he named Gershom,*Gershom Associated with ger sham, “a stranger there.” for he said, “I have been a stranger in a foreign land.”

(1) Now Moses, tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, drove the flock into the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

(2) ... Our teachers have said: Once, while Moses our Teacher was tending [his father-in-law] Yitro’s sheep, one of the sheep ran away. Moses ran after it until it reached a small, shaded place. There, the lamb came across a pool and began to drink. As Moses approached the lamb, he said, “I did not know you ran away because you were thirsty. You are so exhausted!” He then put the lamb on his shoulders and carried him back. The Holy One said, “Since you tend the sheep of human beings with such overwhelming love - by your life, I swear you shall be the shepherd of My sheep, Israel.”

(2) An angel of the LORD 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 the LORD 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 He said, “Do not come closer. Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground. (6) I am,” He 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. (7) And the LORD continued, “I have marked well the plight of My people in Egypt and have heeded their outcry because of their taskmasters; yes, I am mindful of their sufferings. (8) I have come down to rescue them from the Egyptians and to bring them out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, the region of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. (9) Now the cry of the Israelites has reached Me; moreover, I have seen how the Egyptians oppress them. (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’ [house] has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is [God’s] name?’ what shall I say to them?” (14) And God said to Moses, “Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh,”*Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh Meaning of Heb. uncertain; variously translated: “I Am That I Am”; “I Am Who I Am”; “I Will Be What I Will Be”; etc. continuing, “Thus shall you say to the Israelites, ‘Ehyeh*Ehyeh Others “I Am” or “I Will Be.” sent me to you.’” (15) And God said further to Moses, “Thus shall you speak to the Israelites: יהוה,*יהוה This name (y-h-w-h; traditionally read Adonai “the Lord”) is here associated with the verb hayah “to be.” the God of your fathers’ [house]—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.