Volta
Scripturebiblical dating

The Burning Bush

Also called: Call of Moses, Finding of Moses

A story told in religious scripture.

A story told in the Book of Exodus: Moses, drawn from the Nile and raised by Pharaoh’s daughter, fled to Midian, and on Mount Horeb was called by God from a bush that burned without being consumed.

The “Burning Bush” at St Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai, said to descend from the bush of the Bible
The “Burning Bush” at St Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai, said to descend from the bush of the Bible

Dale Gillard · CC BY 2.0 · Source

This is the story told in the Book of Exodus. When Pharaoh ordered every Hebrew boy thrown into the Nile, a Levite mother hid her baby for three months, then laid him in a papyrus basket among the reeds. Pharaoh’s daughter, coming to bathe, drew him out, named him Moses — “I drew him out of the water” — and raised him.

Grown up, Moses killed an Egyptian who was beating one of his people and fled to Midian, where he married Zipporah, daughter of the priest Jethro, and kept sheep. One day on Horeb, the mountain of God, a bush caught fire but was not consumed, and from it God called Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Asked his name, God answered, “I am who I am.”

When Moses protested that he was slow of speech, God gave him his brother Aaron as spokesman. At St Catherine’s Monastery in southern Sinai a bush said to descend from it still grows.

Show on the map

The map in 1250 BC

Open the full map

OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles © OpenStreetMap contributors

States at the time
New Kingdom of Egypt
Places
Midian, Mount Sinai

People

  • Moses

    key figure · Leader and prophet of Israel in the Hebrew Bible, who is said to have led the Israelites out of Egypt and received the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai; he does not appear in records outside the Bible

  • Aaron

    related figure · Elder brother of Moses in the Hebrew Bible, who spoke for him before Pharaoh and became the first high priest of Israel; he is said to have died on Mount Hor

Before and after

Earlier
1250 BC Crossing of the Red Sea
Later
1250 BC The Ten Commandments at Sinai

Themes that include this event

  • The Exodus1279 BC – 1208 BC

    From slavery and the burning bush, the ten plagues and the parted sea, to the Ten Commandments at Sinai, forty years in the wilderness and Moses on Mount Nebo — the Exodus as the Hebrew Bible tells it, followed on the map alongside Ramesses II’s capital and the Merneptah Stele, the first record to name “Israel”