30. “When forty years had passed, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush.
31. When Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight. As he drew near to look at it, the voice of the Lord came to him, saying,
32. ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.’ Moses trembled and dared not look.
33. “Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off the shoes from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.
34. I have indeed seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt. I have heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them. Now come, I will send you to Egypt.’
35. “This Moses, whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who appointed you a ruler and a judge?’ God sent as both ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.
36. He led them out after he had shown wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and at the Red Sea, and for forty years in the wilderness.
37. “This is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. Him you shall hear.’
38. This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who received living oracles to give to us,
39. whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust away. And in their hearts they turned back to Egypt,
40. saying to Aaron, ‘Make for us gods to go before us. For we do not know what has become of this Moses, who led us out of the land of Egypt.’
41. So they made a calf in those days, and offered a sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their hands.
42. But God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the Prophets: ‘O House of Israel, have you offered to Me slain animals and sacrificesfor forty years in the wilderness?
43. Yes, you even raised the shrine of Moloch,and the star of your god Remphan,idols which you made to worship;therefore I will exile you beyond Babylon.’
44. “Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, telling Moses to make it as He had commanded, according to the pattern that he had seen,