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And the angel of the LORD appeared unto 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 now turn aside, 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. 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 unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have also 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.

New Defender's Study Bible Notes

3:2 angel of the LORD. This is clearly a theophany, one of the pre-incarnate appearances of the divine Word. Later verses stipulate that God, not a created angel, was speaking to Moses (e.g., Exodus 3:4).


3:3 this great sight. The sight of the bush burning in a desert was, no doubt, quite an ordinary sight. The fact that the bush was not consumed by the flame, however, was obviously miraculous. In modern scientific terminology, the laws of thermodynamics were being violated, and these are the most inviolable of all scientific laws.


3:4 Moses, Moses. When God calls a name twice, it is clear that the occasion is of great importance, as here when He called Moses. Note also the double calls: “Abraham, Abraham” (Genesis 22:11); “Samuel, Samuel” (I Samuel 3:10); “Simon, Simon” (Luke 22:31,32); “Saul, Saul” (Acts 9:4); and “Jerusalem, Jerusalem” (Matthew 23:37,38).


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