The Burning Bush at Horeb

The words

1. Affliction

   Suffering and distress.

   God says he has seen Israel’s affliction and heard their cry because of the taskmasters, connecting Moses’s call with their forced labor.

   Exodus 3:7 (opens a new tab) · Exodus 1:11–14 (opens a new tab) · NET Bible: Exodus 3:7 (opens a new tab)

2. Burning

   Exodus describes the bush burning with fire while remaining unconsumed, drawing Moses aside to see why it is not burned.

   Exodus 3:2–3 (opens a new tab)

3. Bush

   The angel of the LORD appears in a flame from within a bush; God then calls Moses by name as he turns aside.

   Did you know?

   Moses’s later blessing for Joseph, in Deuteronomy, includes the good will of the one who dwelt in the bush.

   Exodus 3:2–4 (opens a new tab) · Deuteronomy 33:1 (opens a new tab) · Deuteronomy 33:13 (opens a new tab) · Deuteronomy 33:16 (opens a new tab)

4. Consumed

   Burned up or destroyed.

   The bush is on fire without being consumed; Moses asks why it is not burnt and goes to look more closely.

   Exodus 3:2–3 (opens a new tab) · NET Bible: Exodus 3:3 (opens a new tab)

5. Flame of Fire

   The angel of the LORD appears to Moses in a flame of fire within the bush, before God calls from its midst.

   Exodus 3:2–4 (opens a new tab)

6. Hittites

   Hittites appear among the peoples named when God describes the land to which he will bring Israel out of Egypt.

   Exodus 3:7–8 (opens a new tab)

7. Holy Ground

   God warns Moses not to come nearer and tells him to remove his shoes because the ground where he stands is holy.

   Did you know?

   Joshua later receives a similar instruction to remove his shoe because the place where he stands is holy.

   Exodus 3:5 (opens a new tab) · Joshua 5:14–15 (opens a new tab)

8. Horeb

   Exodus calls Horeb the mountain of God, where Moses arrives with Jethro’s flock before he sees the burning bush.

   Did you know?

   First Kings later describes Elijah reaching Horeb, which that passage also calls the mount of God.

   Exodus 3:1–2 (opens a new tab) · Exodus 3:2–4 (opens a new tab) · 1 Kings 19:8–9 (opens a new tab)

9. Jebusites

   Jebusites close the list of peoples named in God’s description of the good and spacious land promised as Israel’s destination.

   Exodus 3:8 (opens a new tab)

10. Jethro

    Moses is tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law and priest of Midian, when he leads it to Horeb.

    Did you know?

    Later, Jethro advises Moses to choose able men to share the judging, with major cases still brought to Moses.

    Exodus 3:1 (opens a new tab) · Exodus 18:1 (opens a new tab) · Exodus 18:21–22 (opens a new tab)

11. Midian

    Moses flees to Midian when Pharaoh seeks to kill him; later, he tends the flock of its priest, Jethro.

    Exodus 2:15 (opens a new tab) · Exodus 3:1 (opens a new tab)

12. Milk and Honey

    God describes the destination after deliverance from Egypt as a good and spacious land flowing with milk and honey.

    Did you know?

    Deuteronomy later fills out the land’s abundance with wheat, barley, vines, figs, pomegranates, olive oil and honey.

    Exodus 3:8 (opens a new tab) · Deuteronomy 8:7–9 (opens a new tab)

13. Shoes

    Sandals, in the NET Bible’s rendering.

    Moses is told to put off his shoes from his feet as part of the warning that he stands on holy ground.

    Exodus 3:5 (opens a new tab) · NET Bible: Exodus 3:5 (opens a new tab)

14. Taskmasters

    God says he hears Israel’s cry because of the taskmasters; Exodus earlier describes overseers making their lives bitter with forced labor.

    Exodus 3:7 (opens a new tab) · Exodus 1:11–14 (opens a new tab)

15. Zipporah

    Before the bush account, Exodus names Zipporah as the priest’s daughter given to Moses as a wife; she then bears Gershom.

    Did you know?

    A later family notice names Eliezer alongside Gershom when Jethro brings Zipporah and her two sons to Moses.

    Exodus 2:16 (opens a new tab) · Exodus 2:21–22 (opens a new tab) · Exodus 18:2–6 (opens a new tab)