23. “When Moses was about 40 years old, he decided to visit his own people, the people of Israel.
24. He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he defended him. Moses hit the Egyptian to pay him back for hurting the man. He hit him so hard that it killed him.
25. Moses thought that his people would understand that God was using him to save them. But they did not understand.
26. “The next day, Moses saw two of his own people fighting. He tried to make peace between them. He said, ‘Men, you are brothers! Why are you trying to hurt each other?’
27. The man who was hurting the other one pushed Moses away and said to him, ‘Did anyone say you could be our ruler and judge?
28. Will you kill me just as you killed that Egyptian yesterday?’
29. When Moses heard him say this, he left Egypt. He went to live in the land of Midian, where he was a stranger. During the time he lived there, he had two sons.
30. “Forty years later Moses was in the desert near Mount Sinai. An angel appeared to him in the flame of a burning bush.
31. When Moses saw this, he was amazed. He went near to look closer at it. He heard a voice; it was the Lord’s.
32. The Lord said, ‘I am the same God your ancestors had—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ Moses began to shake with fear. He was afraid to look at the bush.
33. “The Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, because the place where you are now standing is holy ground.
34. I have seen my people suffer much in Egypt. I have heard my people crying and have come down to save them. Come now, Moses, I am sending you back to Egypt.’