Exodus 3 King James Version (KJV)
3 Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.
2 And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.
3 And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.
4 And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.
5 And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.
6 Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.
7 And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;
8 And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
9 Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them.
10 Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.
11 And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?
12 And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain.
13 And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?
14 And God said unto Moses, I Am That I Am: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you.
15 And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.
16 Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt:
17 And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey.
18 And they shall hearken to thy voice: and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall say unto him, The Lord God of the Hebrews hath met with us: and now let us go, we beseech thee, three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.
19 And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a mighty hand.
20 And I will stretch out my hand, and smite Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst thereof: and after that he will let you go.
21 And I will give this people favour in the sight of the Egyptians: and it shall come to pass, that, when ye go, ye shall not go empty.
22 But every woman shall borrow of her neighbour, and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: and ye shall put them upon your sons, and upon your daughters; and ye shall spoil the Egyptians.
Commentary
God calls Moses (3:1-12)
While Moses was minding sheep at Mount Sinai (also called Mount Horeb, after the range in which it was situated), the unseen God, who for eighty years had silently guided his life, made himself known to him. The revelation of God in the burning bush showed that though this God was unapproachably holy, he could dwell among earthly things without destroying them (3:1-6).
God was now going to use Moses to deliver his people from bondage in Egypt and bring them into a new homeland in Canaan. Moses was hesitant when he saw the task that lay ahead, but God assured him of divine help. Once Moses had led the Israelites out of Egypt and brought them to Mount Sinai, he would know with assurance that Israel would conquer all enemies and possess the promised land (7-12).
The God of Israel (3:13-22)
If Moses was to present himself to the people of Israel as the one who would lead them out of Egypt, he would need to convince them that he knew God’s purposes for them. But he doubted whether they would understand, since they did not know the character of him whom they vaguely called the God of their ancestors. In asking God for help in explaining his purposes to them, Moses was wanting to know not simply the name of God, but the character of the God who owned that name (13).
On certain occasions when God gave a fresh revelation of himself, he revealed a new title for himself that summarized the revelation in one or two words. The name that God announced to Moses on this occasion was ‘I am’.
The name ‘I am’ and the few words of divine explanation that accompanied it were deliberately mysterious, for God’s concern was not to satisfy curiosity, but to make himself known to those who wished to know him. His name indicated a character that would be revealed in the triumphant events to come. The eternal, unchangeable, ever-present, ever-active God would prove himself to be always dependable and completely able to meet every need of his people. He would be whatever he would choose to prove himself to be in the varied circumstances Israel would meet (14-17).
Although Moses would eventually be accepted by the Israelites, he would meet only stubbornness in the Egyptian king. He would have an early demonstration of the character of his opponent in Pharaoh’s refusal to allow the Israelites’ reasonable request to offer sacrifices in a place that was not offensive to the
Egyptians (cf. 8:26-27). So great would be the display of God’s power in overcoming such stubbornness, that the Egyptians would gladly give their riches to the Israelites (a debt they owed after so many years of slave labour) in order to be rid of them (18-22; see 12:33-36).
The name of God
Israel’s ancestors knew God as ‘the LORD’, Yahweh (or Jehovah) (Gen 2:4; 12:1; 26:2; 28:21; 49:18), but the name meant little to the Israelites of Moses’ time. God’s revelation to Moses in the ‘I am’ statement of Exodus 3:14 was an explanation of what the name Yahweh should have meant to God’s people.
In the Hebrew language the word translated ‘I am’ is related to the name Yahweh. Originally, Hebrew was written with consonants only, and the readers put in the vowels as they read. It is believed that ‘Yahweh’ is the correct pronunciation of the word YHWH (the name of Israel’s God), though absolute certainty is not possible, as there are no Hebrew records old enough to preserve the original pronunciation. By the time it had become the practice to add the vowels in written Hebrew, the Jews no longer spoke the name YHWH. They claimed this showed their reverence for the holy name of God, but for many it was more a superstition. Whatever the reason, the practice developed that when Jews read the Scriptures, instead of speaking the word YHWH, they substituted the word adonai, meaning ‘lord’ or ‘master’.
When the Hebrew Bible added vowels to the consonants for the first time (about 300 BC), it put the vowels of adonai to the consonants YHWH. This produced a new word, Jehovah, though Jews continued to substitute adonai for YHWH when speaking. Translators of English versions of the Bible usually avoid the pronunciation problem by using the expression ‘the LORD’ (in capital letters) as the substitute for YHWH.