'God' in the Bible

The Hebrew midwives, however, feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt had told them; they let the boys live.

So God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied and became very numerous.

Since the midwives feared God, He gave them families.

After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned because of their difficult labor, and they cried out; and their cry for help ascended to God because of the difficult labor.

So God heard their groaning, and He remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

God saw the Israelites, and He took notice.

Meanwhile, Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called out to him from the bush, “Moses, Moses!”“Here I am,” he answered.

Then He continued, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God.

But Moses asked God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

He answered, “I will certainly be with you, and this will be the sign to you that I have sent you: when you bring the people out of Egypt, you will all worship God at this mountain.”

Then Moses asked God, “If I go to the Israelites and say to them: The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me, ‘What is His name?’ what should I tell them?”

God replied to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.”

God also said to Moses, “Say this to the Israelites: Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever; this is how I am to be remembered in every generation.

“Go and assemble the elders of Israel and say to them: Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, has appeared to me and said: I have paid close attention to you and to what has been done to you in Egypt.

They will listen to what you say. Then you, along with the elders of Israel, must go to the king of Egypt and say to him: Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Now please let us go on a three-day trip into the wilderness so that we may sacrifice to Yahweh our God.

“This will take place,” He continued, “so they will believe that Yahweh, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”

He will speak to the people for you. He will be your spokesman, and you will serve as God to him.

Now the Lord had said to Aaron, “Go and meet Moses in the wilderness.” So he went and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him.

Later, Moses and Aaron went in and said to Pharaoh, “This is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says: Let My people go, so that they may hold a festival for Me in the wilderness.”

Then they answered, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go on a three-day trip into the wilderness so that we may sacrifice to Yahweh our God, or else He may strike us with plague or sword.”

But require the same quota of bricks from them as they were making before; do not reduce it. For they are slackers—that is why they are crying out, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’

Then God spoke to Moses, telling him, “I am Yahweh.

I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty, but I did not reveal My name Yahweh to them.

I will take you as My people, and I will be your God. You will know that I am Yahweh your God, who delivered you from the forced labor of the Egyptians.

The Lord answered Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother will be your prophet.

Tell him: Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to tell you: Let My people go, so that they may worship Me in the wilderness, but so far you have not listened.

“Tomorrow,” he answered.Moses replied, “As you have said, so you may know there is no one like Yahweh our God,

“This is the finger of God,” the magicians said to Pharaoh. But Pharaoh’s heart hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Go sacrifice to your God within the country.”

But Moses said, “It would not be right to do that, because what we will sacrifice to the Lord our God is detestable to the Egyptians. If we sacrifice what the Egyptians detest in front of them, won’t they stone us?

We must go a distance of three days into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God as He instructs us.”

Pharaoh responded, “I will let you go and sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness, but don’t go very far. Make an appeal for me.”

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and say to him: This is what Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let My people go, so that they may worship Me.

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Get up early in the morning and present yourself to Pharaoh. Tell him: This is what Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews says: Let My people go, so that they may worship Me.

But as for you and your officials, I know that you still do not fear Yahweh our God.”

So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and told him, “This is what Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, says: How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me? Let My people go, that they may worship Me.

Pharaoh’s officials asked him, “How long must this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, so that they may worship Yahweh their God. Don’t you realize yet that Egypt is devastated?”

So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh. “Go, worship Yahweh your God,” Pharaoh said. “But exactly who will be going?”

Pharaoh urgently sent for Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned against Yahweh your God and against you.

Please forgive my sin once more and make an appeal to Yahweh your God, so that He will take this death away from me.”

Moses responded, “You must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings to prepare for Yahweh our God.

Even our livestock must go with us; not a hoof will be left behind because we will take some of them to worship Yahweh our God. We will not know what we will use to worship Yahweh until we get there.”

When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them along the road to the land of the Philistines, even though it was nearby; for God said, “The people will change their minds and return to Egypt if they face war.”

Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, because Joseph had made the Israelites swear a solemn oath, saying, “God will certainly come to your aid; then you must take my bones with you from this place.”

Then the Angel of God, who was going in front of the Israelite forces, moved and went behind them. The pillar of cloud moved from in front of them and stood behind them.

The Lord is my strength and my song;He has become my salvation.This is my God, and I will praise Him,my father’s God, and I will exalt Him.

He said, “If you will carefully obey the Lord your God, do what is right in His eyes, pay attention to His commands, and keep all His statutes, I will not inflict any illnesses on you that I inflicted on the Egyptians. For I am Yahweh who heals you.”

“I have heard the complaints of the Israelites. Tell them: At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will eat bread until you are full. Then you will know that I am Yahweh your God.”

Moses’ father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, heard about everything that God had done for Moses and His people Israel, and how the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt.

and the other Eliezer (because he had said, “The God of my father was my helper and delivered me from Pharaoh’s sword”).

Moses’ father-in-law Jethro, along with Moses’ wife and sons, came to him in the wilderness where he was camped at the mountain of God.

Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and sacrifices to God, and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat a meal with Moses’ father-in-law in God’s presence.

Moses replied to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God.

Now listen to me; I will give you some advice, and God be with you. You be the one to represent the people before God and bring their cases to Him.

But you should select from all the people able men, God-fearing, trustworthy, and hating bribes. Place them over the people as commanders of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens.

If you do this, and God so directs you, you will be able to endure, and also all these people will be able to go home satisfied.”

Moses went up the mountain to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain: “This is what you must say to the house of Jacob, and explain to the Israelites:

Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain.

As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him in the thunder.

Then God spoke all these words:

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery.

You must not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the fathers’ sin, to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,

Do not misuse the name of the Lord your God, because the Lord will not leave anyone unpunished who misuses His name.

but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. You must not do any work—you, your son or daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the foreigner who is within your gates.

Honor your father and your mother so that you may have a long life in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

“You speak to us, and we will listen,” they said to Moses, “but don’t let God speak to us, or we will die.”

Moses responded to the people, “Don’t be afraid, for God has come to test you, so that you will fear Him and will not sin.”

And the people remained standing at a distance as Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.

But if he didn’t intend any harm, and yet God caused it to happen by his hand, I will appoint a place for you where he may flee.

“You must not blaspheme God or curse a leader among your people.

Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord God.

“Bring the best of the firstfruits of your land to the house of the Lord your God.“You must not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

Worship the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. I will remove illnesses from you.

and they saw the God of Israel. Beneath His feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire stone, as clear as the sky itself.

God did not harm the Israelite nobles; they saw Him, and they ate and drank.

So Moses arose with his assistant Joshua and went up the mountain of God.

I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God.

And they will know that I am Yahweh their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, so that I might dwell among them. I am Yahweh their God.

When He finished speaking with Moses on Mount Sinai, He gave him the two tablets of the testimony, stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God.

When the people saw that Moses delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said to him, “Come, make us a god who will go before us because this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt—we don’t know what has happened to him!”

He took the gold from their hands, fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it into an image of a calf.Then they said, “Israel, this is your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!”

They have quickly turned from the way I commanded them; they have made for themselves an image of a calf. They have bowed down to it, sacrificed to it, and said, ‘Israel, this is your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.’”

But Moses interceded with the Lord his God: “Lord, why does Your anger burn against Your people You brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a strong hand?

The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was God’s writing, engraved on the tablets.

They said to me, ‘Make us a god who will go before us because this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt—we don’t know what has happened to him!’

He told them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says, ‘Every man fasten his sword to his side; go back and forth through the camp from entrance to entrance, and each of you kill his brother, his friend, and his neighbor.’”

So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Oh, these people have committed a grave sin; they have made a god of gold for themselves.

Then the Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed:Yahweh—Yahweh is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in faithful love and truth,

You are never to bow down to another god because Yahweh, being jealous by nature, is a jealous God.

Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel.

For I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your territory. No one will covet your land when you go up three times a year to appear before the Lord your God.

“Bring the best firstfruits of your land to the house of the Lord your God.“You must not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.”