God

Isra'el then said to Yosef, "You see that I am dying, but God will be with you and will bring you back to the land of your ancestors.

I wait for your deliverance, ADONAI.

but his bow remained taut; and his arms were made nimble by the hands of the Mighty One of Ya'akov, from there, from the Shepherd, the Stone of Isra'el,

by the God of your father, who will help you, by El Shaddai, who will bless you with blessings from heaven above, or: that says beautiful words. blessings from the deep, lying below, blessings from the breasts and the womb.

'Say to Yosef, "I beg you now, please forgive your brothers' crime and wickedness in doing you harm."' So now, we beg of you, forgive the crime of the servants of the God of your father."Yosef wept when they spoke to him;

But Yosef said to them, "Don't be afraid! Am I in the place of God?

You meant to do me harm, but God meant it for good -so that it would come about as it is today, with many people's lives being saved.

Yosef said to his brothers, "I am dying. But God will surely remember you and bring you up out of this land to the land which he swore to Avraham, Yitz'chak and Ya'akov."

Then Yosef took an oath from the sons of Isra'el: "God will surely remember you, and you are to carry my bones up from here."

However, the midwives were God-fearing women, so they didn't do as the king of Egypt ordered but let the boys live.

Therefore God prospered the midwives, and the people continued to multiply and grow very powerful.

Indeed, because the midwives feared God, he made them founders of families.

Sometime during those many years the king of Egypt died, but the people of Isra'el still groaned under the yoke of slavery, and they cried out, and their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God.

God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Avraham, Yitz'chak and Ya'akov.

God saw the people of Isra'el, and God acknowledged them.

Now Moshe was tending the sheep of Yitro his father-in-law, the priest of Midyan. Leading the flock to the far side of the desert, he came to the mountain of God, to Horev.

The angel of ADONAI appeared to him in a fire blazing from the middle of a bush. He looked and saw that although the bush was flaming with fire, yet the bush was not being burned up.

When ADONAI saw that he had gone over to see, God called to him from the middle of the bush, "Moshe! Moshe!" He answered, "Here I am."

I am the God of your father," he continued, "the God of Avraham, the God of Yitz'chak and the God of Ya'akov." Moshe covered his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

ADONAI said, "I have seen how my people are being oppressed in Egypt and heard their cry for release from their slavemasters, because I know their pain.

I have come down to rescue them from the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that country to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, the place of the Kena'ani, Hitti, Emori, P'rizi, Hivi and Y'vusi.

Yes, the cry of the people of Isra'el has come to me, and I have seen how terribly the Egyptians oppress them.

Therefore, now, come; and I will send you to Pharaoh; so that you can lead my people, the descendants of Isra'el, out of Egypt."

Moshe said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and lead the people of Isra'el out of Egypt?"

He replied, "I will surely be with you. Your sign that I have sent you will be that when you have led the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain."