Moses is in the back of the wilderness tending sheep when the angel of the LORD appears in a flame of fire from the middle of a bush that burns without being consumed. The burning-but-not-consumed bush has drawn interpreters from the rabbis onward. The best reading is the most direct: the presence of the holy God, fire, is among his covenant people who are in affliction, and the affliction has not consumed them. The bush is Israel.
Moses turns aside to see. And God calls from the bush: Moses, Moses. The doubled name: the urgency of divine address. Take off your sandals; the ground you are standing on is holy. Moses hides his face, afraid to look at God.
I am the God of your father: the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The covenant continuity is asserted before anything else. Then the four declarations of the most important verse in the chapter: I have most certainly seen the affliction of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sorrows. And I have come down to deliver them.
Thread 1 is in every verb. The four-fold engagement of chapter 2: heard, remembered, looked, knew, becomes in chapter 3 four first-person declarations of active engagement: seen, heard, know, come down. The reaching is now personal, direct, and mobile: God has descended into the situation. Thread 2 is in my people: the covenant possessive frames the entire commission. Thread 5 is the dispensational hinge: the age of Egyptian bondage is ending; the Mosaic period is beginning.
I have surely seen, I have heard, I know their sorrows, I am come down to deliver: four declarations of divine engagement in a single verse; the God who remembered in chapter 2 is now present in fire and speaking in the first person.
רָאֹה רָאִיתִי אֶת עֳנִי עַמִּי (raoah raiti et oni ammi): I have surely seen the affliction of my people: the infinitive absolute raoah intensifies the finite verb raiti: I have most certainly seen, I have completely seen; the emphatic construction signals that God is not reporting casual awareness but declaring total comprehension of what has been happening; oni (affliction, misery, oppression); ammi (my people, the possessive is the covenant relationship) · וָאֵרֵד לְהַצִּילוֹ (vaered lehatsilo): and I am come down to deliver them: vaered (I have come down, Qal imperfect with waw consecutive; the descent is God's own act, from above to the level of human suffering); lehatsilo (to deliver, rescue, snatch from danger, Hiphil infinitive of natsal; the deliverance is decisive, a snatching-from)
threads t1 · t2 · t5 · see Exodus 2:24-25 · Acts 7:30-34 · Hebrews 11:27
Moses is in the back of the wilderness tending sheep when the angel of the LORD appears in a flame of fire from the middle of a bush that burns without being consumed. The burning-but-not-consumed bush has drawn interpreters from the rabbis onward. The best reading is the most direct: the presence of the holy God, fire, is among his covenant people who are in affliction, and the affliction has not consumed them. The bush is Israel.
Moses turns aside to see. And God calls from the bush: Moses, Moses. The doubled name: the urgency of divine address. Take off your sandals; the ground you are standing on is holy. Moses hides his face, afraid to look at God.
I am the God of your father: the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The covenant continuity is asserted before anything else. Then the four declarations of the most important verse in the chapter: I have most certainly seen the affliction of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sorrows. And I have come down to deliver them.
Thread 1 is in every verb. The four-fold engagement of chapter 2: heard, remembered, looked, knew, becomes in chapter 3 four first-person declarations of active engagement: seen, heard, know, come down. The reaching is now personal, direct, and mobile: God has descended into the situation. Thread 2 is in my people: the covenant possessive frames the entire commission. Thread 5 is the dispensational hinge: the age of Egyptian bondage is ending; the Mosaic period is beginning.
I have surely seen, I have heard, I know their sorrows, I am come down to deliver: four declarations of divine engagement in a single verse; the God who remembered in chapter 2 is now present in fire and speaking in the first person.
רָאֹה רָאִיתִי אֶת עֳנִי עַמִּי (raoah raiti et oni ammi): I have surely seen the affliction of my people: the infinitive absolute raoah intensifies the finite verb raiti: I have most certainly seen, I have completely seen; the emphatic construction signals that God is not reporting casual awareness but declaring total comprehension of what has been happening; oni (affliction, misery, oppression); ammi (my people, the possessive is the covenant relationship) · וָאֵרֵד לְהַצִּילוֹ (vaered lehatsilo): and I am come down to deliver them: vaered (I have come down, Qal imperfect with waw consecutive; the descent is God's own act, from above to the level of human suffering); lehatsilo (to deliver, rescue, snatch from danger, Hiphil infinitive of natsal; the deliverance is decisive, a snatching-from)
threads t1 · t2 · t5 · see Exodus 2:24-25 · Acts 7:30-34 · Hebrews 11:27
Moses is in the back of the wilderness tending sheep when the angel of the LORD appears in a flame of fire from the middle of a bush that burns without being consumed. The burning-but-not-consumed bush has drawn interpreters from the rabbis onward. The best reading is the most direct: the presence of the holy God, fire, is among his covenant people who are in affliction, and the affliction has not consumed them. The bush is Israel.
Moses turns aside to see. And God calls from the bush: Moses, Moses. The doubled name: the urgency of divine address. Take off your sandals; the ground you are standing on is holy. Moses hides his face, afraid to look at God.
I am the God of your father: the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The covenant continuity is asserted before anything else. Then the four declarations of the most important verse in the chapter: I have most certainly seen the affliction of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sorrows. And I have come down to deliver them.
Thread 1 is in every verb. The four-fold engagement of chapter 2: heard, remembered, looked, knew, becomes in chapter 3 four first-person declarations of active engagement: seen, heard, know, come down. The reaching is now personal, direct, and mobile: God has descended into the situation. Thread 2 is in my people: the covenant possessive frames the entire commission. Thread 5 is the dispensational hinge: the age of Egyptian bondage is ending; the Mosaic period is beginning.
I have surely seen, I have heard, I know their sorrows, I am come down to deliver: four declarations of divine engagement in a single verse; the God who remembered in chapter 2 is now present in fire and speaking in the first person.
רָאֹה רָאִיתִי אֶת עֳנִי עַמִּי (raoah raiti et oni ammi): I have surely seen the affliction of my people: the infinitive absolute raoah intensifies the finite verb raiti: I have most certainly seen, I have completely seen; the emphatic construction signals that God is not reporting casual awareness but declaring total comprehension of what has been happening; oni (affliction, misery, oppression); ammi (my people, the possessive is the covenant relationship) · וָאֵרֵד לְהַצִּילוֹ (vaered lehatsilo): and I am come down to deliver them: vaered (I have come down, Qal imperfect with waw consecutive; the descent is God's own act, from above to the level of human suffering); lehatsilo (to deliver, rescue, snatch from danger, Hiphil infinitive of natsal; the deliverance is decisive, a snatching-from)
threads t1 · t2 · t5 · see Exodus 2:24-25 · Acts 7:30-34 · Hebrews 11:27
Moses is in the back of the wilderness tending sheep when the angel of the LORD appears in a flame of fire from the middle of a bush that burns without being consumed. The burning-but-not-consumed bush has drawn interpreters from the rabbis onward. The best reading is the most direct: the presence of the holy God, fire, is among his covenant people who are in affliction, and the affliction has not consumed them. The bush is Israel.
Moses turns aside to see. And God calls from the bush: Moses, Moses. The doubled name: the urgency of divine address. Take off your sandals; the ground you are standing on is holy. Moses hides his face, afraid to look at God.
I am the God of your father: the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The covenant continuity is asserted before anything else. Then the four declarations of the most important verse in the chapter: I have most certainly seen the affliction of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sorrows. And I have come down to deliver them.
Thread 1 is in every verb. The four-fold engagement of chapter 2: heard, remembered, looked, knew, becomes in chapter 3 four first-person declarations of active engagement: seen, heard, know, come down. The reaching is now personal, direct, and mobile: God has descended into the situation. Thread 2 is in my people: the covenant possessive frames the entire commission. Thread 5 is the dispensational hinge: the age of Egyptian bondage is ending; the Mosaic period is beginning.
I have surely seen, I have heard, I know their sorrows, I am come down to deliver: four declarations of divine engagement in a single verse; the God who remembered in chapter 2 is now present in fire and speaking in the first person.
רָאֹה רָאִיתִי אֶת עֳנִי עַמִּי (raoah raiti et oni ammi): I have surely seen the affliction of my people: the infinitive absolute raoah intensifies the finite verb raiti: I have most certainly seen, I have completely seen; the emphatic construction signals that God is not reporting casual awareness but declaring total comprehension of what has been happening; oni (affliction, misery, oppression); ammi (my people, the possessive is the covenant relationship) · וָאֵרֵד לְהַצִּילוֹ (vaered lehatsilo): and I am come down to deliver them: vaered (I have come down, Qal imperfect with waw consecutive; the descent is God's own act, from above to the level of human suffering); lehatsilo (to deliver, rescue, snatch from danger, Hiphil infinitive of natsal; the deliverance is decisive, a snatching-from)
threads t1 · t2 · t5 · see Exodus 2:24-25 · Acts 7:30-34 · Hebrews 11:27
Moses is in the back of the wilderness tending sheep when the angel of the LORD appears in a flame of fire from the middle of a bush that burns without being consumed. The burning-but-not-consumed bush has drawn interpreters from the rabbis onward. The best reading is the most direct: the presence of the holy God, fire, is among his covenant people who are in affliction, and the affliction has not consumed them. The bush is Israel.
Moses turns aside to see. And God calls from the bush: Moses, Moses. The doubled name: the urgency of divine address. Take off your sandals; the ground you are standing on is holy. Moses hides his face, afraid to look at God.
I am the God of your father: the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The covenant continuity is asserted before anything else. Then the four declarations of the most important verse in the chapter: I have most certainly seen the affliction of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sorrows. And I have come down to deliver them.
Thread 1 is in every verb. The four-fold engagement of chapter 2: heard, remembered, looked, knew, becomes in chapter 3 four first-person declarations of active engagement: seen, heard, know, come down. The reaching is now personal, direct, and mobile: God has descended into the situation. Thread 2 is in my people: the covenant possessive frames the entire commission. Thread 5 is the dispensational hinge: the age of Egyptian bondage is ending; the Mosaic period is beginning.
I have surely seen, I have heard, I know their sorrows, I am come down to deliver: four declarations of divine engagement in a single verse; the God who remembered in chapter 2 is now present in fire and speaking in the first person.
רָאֹה רָאִיתִי אֶת עֳנִי עַמִּי (raoah raiti et oni ammi): I have surely seen the affliction of my people: the infinitive absolute raoah intensifies the finite verb raiti: I have most certainly seen, I have completely seen; the emphatic construction signals that God is not reporting casual awareness but declaring total comprehension of what has been happening; oni (affliction, misery, oppression); ammi (my people, the possessive is the covenant relationship) · וָאֵרֵד לְהַצִּילוֹ (vaered lehatsilo): and I am come down to deliver them: vaered (I have come down, Qal imperfect with waw consecutive; the descent is God's own act, from above to the level of human suffering); lehatsilo (to deliver, rescue, snatch from danger, Hiphil infinitive of natsal; the deliverance is decisive, a snatching-from)
threads t1 · t2 · t5 · see Exodus 2:24-25 · Acts 7:30-34 · Hebrews 11:27
Moses is in the back of the wilderness tending sheep when the angel of the LORD appears in a flame of fire from the middle of a bush that burns without being consumed. The burning-but-not-consumed bush has drawn interpreters from the rabbis onward. The best reading is the most direct: the presence of the holy God, fire, is among his covenant people who are in affliction, and the affliction has not consumed them. The bush is Israel.
Moses turns aside to see. And God calls from the bush: Moses, Moses. The doubled name: the urgency of divine address. Take off your sandals; the ground you are standing on is holy. Moses hides his face, afraid to look at God.
I am the God of your father: the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The covenant continuity is asserted before anything else. Then the four declarations of the most important verse in the chapter: I have most certainly seen the affliction of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sorrows. And I have come down to deliver them.
Thread 1 is in every verb. The four-fold engagement of chapter 2: heard, remembered, looked, knew, becomes in chapter 3 four first-person declarations of active engagement: seen, heard, know, come down. The reaching is now personal, direct, and mobile: God has descended into the situation. Thread 2 is in my people: the covenant possessive frames the entire commission. Thread 5 is the dispensational hinge: the age of Egyptian bondage is ending; the Mosaic period is beginning.
I have surely seen, I have heard, I know their sorrows, I am come down to deliver: four declarations of divine engagement in a single verse; the God who remembered in chapter 2 is now present in fire and speaking in the first person.
רָאֹה רָאִיתִי אֶת עֳנִי עַמִּי (raoah raiti et oni ammi): I have surely seen the affliction of my people: the infinitive absolute raoah intensifies the finite verb raiti: I have most certainly seen, I have completely seen; the emphatic construction signals that God is not reporting casual awareness but declaring total comprehension of what has been happening; oni (affliction, misery, oppression); ammi (my people, the possessive is the covenant relationship) · וָאֵרֵד לְהַצִּילוֹ (vaered lehatsilo): and I am come down to deliver them: vaered (I have come down, Qal imperfect with waw consecutive; the descent is God's own act, from above to the level of human suffering); lehatsilo (to deliver, rescue, snatch from danger, Hiphil infinitive of natsal; the deliverance is decisive, a snatching-from)
threads t1 · t2 · t5 · see Exodus 2:24-25 · Acts 7:30-34 · Hebrews 11:27
Moses is in the back of the wilderness tending sheep when the angel of the LORD appears in a flame of fire from the middle of a bush that burns without being consumed. The burning-but-not-consumed bush has drawn interpreters from the rabbis onward. The best reading is the most direct: the presence of the holy God, fire, is among his covenant people who are in affliction, and the affliction has not consumed them. The bush is Israel.
Moses turns aside to see. And God calls from the bush: Moses, Moses. The doubled name: the urgency of divine address. Take off your sandals; the ground you are standing on is holy. Moses hides his face, afraid to look at God.
I am the God of your father: the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The covenant continuity is asserted before anything else. Then the four declarations of the most important verse in the chapter: I have most certainly seen the affliction of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sorrows. And I have come down to deliver them.
Thread 1 is in every verb. The four-fold engagement of chapter 2: heard, remembered, looked, knew, becomes in chapter 3 four first-person declarations of active engagement: seen, heard, know, come down. The reaching is now personal, direct, and mobile: God has descended into the situation. Thread 2 is in my people: the covenant possessive frames the entire commission. Thread 5 is the dispensational hinge: the age of Egyptian bondage is ending; the Mosaic period is beginning.
I have surely seen, I have heard, I know their sorrows, I am come down to deliver: four declarations of divine engagement in a single verse; the God who remembered in chapter 2 is now present in fire and speaking in the first person.
רָאֹה רָאִיתִי אֶת עֳנִי עַמִּי (raoah raiti et oni ammi): I have surely seen the affliction of my people: the infinitive absolute raoah intensifies the finite verb raiti: I have most certainly seen, I have completely seen; the emphatic construction signals that God is not reporting casual awareness but declaring total comprehension of what has been happening; oni (affliction, misery, oppression); ammi (my people, the possessive is the covenant relationship) · וָאֵרֵד לְהַצִּילוֹ (vaered lehatsilo): and I am come down to deliver them: vaered (I have come down, Qal imperfect with waw consecutive; the descent is God's own act, from above to the level of human suffering); lehatsilo (to deliver, rescue, snatch from danger, Hiphil infinitive of natsal; the deliverance is decisive, a snatching-from)
threads t1 · t2 · t5 · see Exodus 2:24-25 · Acts 7:30-34 · Hebrews 11:27
Moses is in the back of the wilderness tending sheep when the angel of the LORD appears in a flame of fire from the middle of a bush that burns without being consumed. The burning-but-not-consumed bush has drawn interpreters from the rabbis onward. The best reading is the most direct: the presence of the holy God, fire, is among his covenant people who are in affliction, and the affliction has not consumed them. The bush is Israel.
Moses turns aside to see. And God calls from the bush: Moses, Moses. The doubled name: the urgency of divine address. Take off your sandals; the ground you are standing on is holy. Moses hides his face, afraid to look at God.
I am the God of your father: the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The covenant continuity is asserted before anything else. Then the four declarations of the most important verse in the chapter: I have most certainly seen the affliction of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sorrows. And I have come down to deliver them.
Thread 1 is in every verb. The four-fold engagement of chapter 2: heard, remembered, looked, knew, becomes in chapter 3 four first-person declarations of active engagement: seen, heard, know, come down. The reaching is now personal, direct, and mobile: God has descended into the situation. Thread 2 is in my people: the covenant possessive frames the entire commission. Thread 5 is the dispensational hinge: the age of Egyptian bondage is ending; the Mosaic period is beginning.
I have surely seen, I have heard, I know their sorrows, I am come down to deliver: four declarations of divine engagement in a single verse; the God who remembered in chapter 2 is now present in fire and speaking in the first person.
רָאֹה רָאִיתִי אֶת עֳנִי עַמִּי (raoah raiti et oni ammi): I have surely seen the affliction of my people: the infinitive absolute raoah intensifies the finite verb raiti: I have most certainly seen, I have completely seen; the emphatic construction signals that God is not reporting casual awareness but declaring total comprehension of what has been happening; oni (affliction, misery, oppression); ammi (my people, the possessive is the covenant relationship) · וָאֵרֵד לְהַצִּילוֹ (vaered lehatsilo): and I am come down to deliver them: vaered (I have come down, Qal imperfect with waw consecutive; the descent is God's own act, from above to the level of human suffering); lehatsilo (to deliver, rescue, snatch from danger, Hiphil infinitive of natsal; the deliverance is decisive, a snatching-from)
threads t1 · t2 · t5 · see Exodus 2:24-25 · Acts 7:30-34 · Hebrews 11:27
Moses is in the back of the wilderness tending sheep when the angel of the LORD appears in a flame of fire from the middle of a bush that burns without being consumed. The burning-but-not-consumed bush has drawn interpreters from the rabbis onward. The best reading is the most direct: the presence of the holy God, fire, is among his covenant people who are in affliction, and the affliction has not consumed them. The bush is Israel.
Moses turns aside to see. And God calls from the bush: Moses, Moses. The doubled name: the urgency of divine address. Take off your sandals; the ground you are standing on is holy. Moses hides his face, afraid to look at God.
I am the God of your father: the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The covenant continuity is asserted before anything else. Then the four declarations of the most important verse in the chapter: I have most certainly seen the affliction of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sorrows. And I have come down to deliver them.
Thread 1 is in every verb. The four-fold engagement of chapter 2: heard, remembered, looked, knew, becomes in chapter 3 four first-person declarations of active engagement: seen, heard, know, come down. The reaching is now personal, direct, and mobile: God has descended into the situation. Thread 2 is in my people: the covenant possessive frames the entire commission. Thread 5 is the dispensational hinge: the age of Egyptian bondage is ending; the Mosaic period is beginning.
I have surely seen, I have heard, I know their sorrows, I am come down to deliver: four declarations of divine engagement in a single verse; the God who remembered in chapter 2 is now present in fire and speaking in the first person.
רָאֹה רָאִיתִי אֶת עֳנִי עַמִּי (raoah raiti et oni ammi): I have surely seen the affliction of my people: the infinitive absolute raoah intensifies the finite verb raiti: I have most certainly seen, I have completely seen; the emphatic construction signals that God is not reporting casual awareness but declaring total comprehension of what has been happening; oni (affliction, misery, oppression); ammi (my people, the possessive is the covenant relationship) · וָאֵרֵד לְהַצִּילוֹ (vaered lehatsilo): and I am come down to deliver them: vaered (I have come down, Qal imperfect with waw consecutive; the descent is God's own act, from above to the level of human suffering); lehatsilo (to deliver, rescue, snatch from danger, Hiphil infinitive of natsal; the deliverance is decisive, a snatching-from)
threads t1 · t2 · t5 · see Exodus 2:24-25 · Acts 7:30-34 · Hebrews 11:27
Moses is in the back of the wilderness tending sheep when the angel of the LORD appears in a flame of fire from the middle of a bush that burns without being consumed. The burning-but-not-consumed bush has drawn interpreters from the rabbis onward. The best reading is the most direct: the presence of the holy God, fire, is among his covenant people who are in affliction, and the affliction has not consumed them. The bush is Israel.
Moses turns aside to see. And God calls from the bush: Moses, Moses. The doubled name: the urgency of divine address. Take off your sandals; the ground you are standing on is holy. Moses hides his face, afraid to look at God.
I am the God of your father: the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The covenant continuity is asserted before anything else. Then the four declarations of the most important verse in the chapter: I have most certainly seen the affliction of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sorrows. And I have come down to deliver them.
Thread 1 is in every verb. The four-fold engagement of chapter 2: heard, remembered, looked, knew, becomes in chapter 3 four first-person declarations of active engagement: seen, heard, know, come down. The reaching is now personal, direct, and mobile: God has descended into the situation. Thread 2 is in my people: the covenant possessive frames the entire commission. Thread 5 is the dispensational hinge: the age of Egyptian bondage is ending; the Mosaic period is beginning.
I have surely seen, I have heard, I know their sorrows, I am come down to deliver: four declarations of divine engagement in a single verse; the God who remembered in chapter 2 is now present in fire and speaking in the first person.
רָאֹה רָאִיתִי אֶת עֳנִי עַמִּי (raoah raiti et oni ammi): I have surely seen the affliction of my people: the infinitive absolute raoah intensifies the finite verb raiti: I have most certainly seen, I have completely seen; the emphatic construction signals that God is not reporting casual awareness but declaring total comprehension of what has been happening; oni (affliction, misery, oppression); ammi (my people, the possessive is the covenant relationship) · וָאֵרֵד לְהַצִּילוֹ (vaered lehatsilo): and I am come down to deliver them: vaered (I have come down, Qal imperfect with waw consecutive; the descent is God's own act, from above to the level of human suffering); lehatsilo (to deliver, rescue, snatch from danger, Hiphil infinitive of natsal; the deliverance is decisive, a snatching-from)
threads t1 · t2 · t5 · see Exodus 2:24-25 · Acts 7:30-34 · Hebrews 11:27
Moses is in the back of the wilderness tending sheep when the angel of the LORD appears in a flame of fire from the middle of a bush that burns without being consumed. The burning-but-not-consumed bush has drawn interpreters from the rabbis onward. The best reading is the most direct: the presence of the holy God, fire, is among his covenant people who are in affliction, and the affliction has not consumed them. The bush is Israel.
Moses turns aside to see. And God calls from the bush: Moses, Moses. The doubled name: the urgency of divine address. Take off your sandals; the ground you are standing on is holy. Moses hides his face, afraid to look at God.
I am the God of your father: the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The covenant continuity is asserted before anything else. Then the four declarations of the most important verse in the chapter: I have most certainly seen the affliction of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sorrows. And I have come down to deliver them.
Thread 1 is in every verb. The four-fold engagement of chapter 2: heard, remembered, looked, knew, becomes in chapter 3 four first-person declarations of active engagement: seen, heard, know, come down. The reaching is now personal, direct, and mobile: God has descended into the situation. Thread 2 is in my people: the covenant possessive frames the entire commission. Thread 5 is the dispensational hinge: the age of Egyptian bondage is ending; the Mosaic period is beginning.
I have surely seen, I have heard, I know their sorrows, I am come down to deliver: four declarations of divine engagement in a single verse; the God who remembered in chapter 2 is now present in fire and speaking in the first person.
רָאֹה רָאִיתִי אֶת עֳנִי עַמִּי (raoah raiti et oni ammi): I have surely seen the affliction of my people: the infinitive absolute raoah intensifies the finite verb raiti: I have most certainly seen, I have completely seen; the emphatic construction signals that God is not reporting casual awareness but declaring total comprehension of what has been happening; oni (affliction, misery, oppression); ammi (my people, the possessive is the covenant relationship) · וָאֵרֵד לְהַצִּילוֹ (vaered lehatsilo): and I am come down to deliver them: vaered (I have come down, Qal imperfect with waw consecutive; the descent is God's own act, from above to the level of human suffering); lehatsilo (to deliver, rescue, snatch from danger, Hiphil infinitive of natsal; the deliverance is decisive, a snatching-from)
threads t1 · t2 · t5 · see Exodus 2:24-25 · Acts 7:30-34 · Hebrews 11:27
Moses is in the back of the wilderness tending sheep when the angel of the LORD appears in a flame of fire from the middle of a bush that burns without being consumed. The burning-but-not-consumed bush has drawn interpreters from the rabbis onward. The best reading is the most direct: the presence of the holy God, fire, is among his covenant people who are in affliction, and the affliction has not consumed them. The bush is Israel.
Moses turns aside to see. And God calls from the bush: Moses, Moses. The doubled name: the urgency of divine address. Take off your sandals; the ground you are standing on is holy. Moses hides his face, afraid to look at God.
I am the God of your father: the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The covenant continuity is asserted before anything else. Then the four declarations of the most important verse in the chapter: I have most certainly seen the affliction of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sorrows. And I have come down to deliver them.
Thread 1 is in every verb. The four-fold engagement of chapter 2: heard, remembered, looked, knew, becomes in chapter 3 four first-person declarations of active engagement: seen, heard, know, come down. The reaching is now personal, direct, and mobile: God has descended into the situation. Thread 2 is in my people: the covenant possessive frames the entire commission. Thread 5 is the dispensational hinge: the age of Egyptian bondage is ending; the Mosaic period is beginning.
I have surely seen, I have heard, I know their sorrows, I am come down to deliver: four declarations of divine engagement in a single verse; the God who remembered in chapter 2 is now present in fire and speaking in the first person.
רָאֹה רָאִיתִי אֶת עֳנִי עַמִּי (raoah raiti et oni ammi): I have surely seen the affliction of my people: the infinitive absolute raoah intensifies the finite verb raiti: I have most certainly seen, I have completely seen; the emphatic construction signals that God is not reporting casual awareness but declaring total comprehension of what has been happening; oni (affliction, misery, oppression); ammi (my people, the possessive is the covenant relationship) · וָאֵרֵד לְהַצִּילוֹ (vaered lehatsilo): and I am come down to deliver them: vaered (I have come down, Qal imperfect with waw consecutive; the descent is God's own act, from above to the level of human suffering); lehatsilo (to deliver, rescue, snatch from danger, Hiphil infinitive of natsal; the deliverance is decisive, a snatching-from)
threads t1 · t2 · t5 · see Exodus 2:24-25 · Acts 7:30-34 · Hebrews 11:27
Moses has five objections. Who am I to go? (3:11), inadequacy. What shall I tell them your name is? (3:13), this verse. What if they don't believe me? (4:1), credibility. I am slow of speech (4:10), incapacity. Please send someone else (4:13), refusal. God meets every objection: the burning bush as sign, the divine name, the rod turned to serpent, the brother Aaron as spokesman. The back-and-forth is the record of a genuinely reluctant man and a genuinely patient God.
Ehyeh asher ehyeh, I AM WHO I AM. The name is the answer to the question of who sent him, and it is the answer that cannot be improved upon. The divine name YHWH is derived from this same hayah root: the self-existent, necessarily-being one whose existence depends on nothing outside himself. When Jesus says ego eimi, I am, throughout John's Gospel without a predicate (John 8:58: before Abraham was, I am), he is claiming this name.
This is my name forever, zeh shemi le-olam, and my memorial unto all generations. The name given at the burning bush is the name by which God will be known to the end of time. Thread 1 is in the I AM who is present-without-cause, reaching without need, giving without obligation. Thread 2 is in the specificity: the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the covenant chain that began in Genesis 12 is the chain through which this name operates.
I AM THAT I AM, ehyeh asher ehyeh, the most foundational divine self-revelation in the OT; the name that grounds all subsequent divine speech, that Jesus will claim as his own, and that every bush burning without being consumed points toward.
אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה (ehyeh asher ehyeh): I AM THAT I AM: ehyeh (first person singular imperfect of hayah, to be; I will be, I am; the name describes the self-existent, eternally present God whose being depends on nothing outside himself); asher (who, that, which, the relative pronoun; the name is reflexively self-referential: I am who I am, I will be what I will be); the imperfect tense in Hebrew does not merely describe present existence but ongoing, continuous, unbounded being
threads t1 · t2 · see Exodus 6:3 · John 8:58 · Revelation 1:8
Moses has five objections. Who am I to go? (3:11), inadequacy. What shall I tell them your name is? (3:13), this verse. What if they don't believe me? (4:1), credibility. I am slow of speech (4:10), incapacity. Please send someone else (4:13), refusal. God meets every objection: the burning bush as sign, the divine name, the rod turned to serpent, the brother Aaron as spokesman. The back-and-forth is the record of a genuinely reluctant man and a genuinely patient God.
Ehyeh asher ehyeh, I AM WHO I AM. The name is the answer to the question of who sent him, and it is the answer that cannot be improved upon. The divine name YHWH is derived from this same hayah root: the self-existent, necessarily-being one whose existence depends on nothing outside himself. When Jesus says ego eimi, I am, throughout John's Gospel without a predicate (John 8:58: before Abraham was, I am), he is claiming this name.
This is my name forever, zeh shemi le-olam, and my memorial unto all generations. The name given at the burning bush is the name by which God will be known to the end of time. Thread 1 is in the I AM who is present-without-cause, reaching without need, giving without obligation. Thread 2 is in the specificity: the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the covenant chain that began in Genesis 12 is the chain through which this name operates.
I AM THAT I AM, ehyeh asher ehyeh, the most foundational divine self-revelation in the OT; the name that grounds all subsequent divine speech, that Jesus will claim as his own, and that every bush burning without being consumed points toward.
אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה (ehyeh asher ehyeh): I AM THAT I AM: ehyeh (first person singular imperfect of hayah, to be; I will be, I am; the name describes the self-existent, eternally present God whose being depends on nothing outside himself); asher (who, that, which, the relative pronoun; the name is reflexively self-referential: I am who I am, I will be what I will be); the imperfect tense in Hebrew does not merely describe present existence but ongoing, continuous, unbounded being
threads t1 · t2 · see Exodus 6:3 · John 8:58 · Revelation 1:8
Moses has five objections. Who am I to go? (3:11), inadequacy. What shall I tell them your name is? (3:13), this verse. What if they don't believe me? (4:1), credibility. I am slow of speech (4:10), incapacity. Please send someone else (4:13), refusal. God meets every objection: the burning bush as sign, the divine name, the rod turned to serpent, the brother Aaron as spokesman. The back-and-forth is the record of a genuinely reluctant man and a genuinely patient God.
Ehyeh asher ehyeh, I AM WHO I AM. The name is the answer to the question of who sent him, and it is the answer that cannot be improved upon. The divine name YHWH is derived from this same hayah root: the self-existent, necessarily-being one whose existence depends on nothing outside himself. When Jesus says ego eimi, I am, throughout John's Gospel without a predicate (John 8:58: before Abraham was, I am), he is claiming this name.
This is my name forever, zeh shemi le-olam, and my memorial unto all generations. The name given at the burning bush is the name by which God will be known to the end of time. Thread 1 is in the I AM who is present-without-cause, reaching without need, giving without obligation. Thread 2 is in the specificity: the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the covenant chain that began in Genesis 12 is the chain through which this name operates.
I AM THAT I AM, ehyeh asher ehyeh, the most foundational divine self-revelation in the OT; the name that grounds all subsequent divine speech, that Jesus will claim as his own, and that every bush burning without being consumed points toward.
אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה (ehyeh asher ehyeh): I AM THAT I AM: ehyeh (first person singular imperfect of hayah, to be; I will be, I am; the name describes the self-existent, eternally present God whose being depends on nothing outside himself); asher (who, that, which, the relative pronoun; the name is reflexively self-referential: I am who I am, I will be what I will be); the imperfect tense in Hebrew does not merely describe present existence but ongoing, continuous, unbounded being
threads t1 · t2 · see Exodus 6:3 · John 8:58 · Revelation 1:8
Moses has five objections. Who am I to go? (3:11), inadequacy. What shall I tell them your name is? (3:13), this verse. What if they don't believe me? (4:1), credibility. I am slow of speech (4:10), incapacity. Please send someone else (4:13), refusal. God meets every objection: the burning bush as sign, the divine name, the rod turned to serpent, the brother Aaron as spokesman. The back-and-forth is the record of a genuinely reluctant man and a genuinely patient God.
Ehyeh asher ehyeh, I AM WHO I AM. The name is the answer to the question of who sent him, and it is the answer that cannot be improved upon. The divine name YHWH is derived from this same hayah root: the self-existent, necessarily-being one whose existence depends on nothing outside himself. When Jesus says ego eimi, I am, throughout John's Gospel without a predicate (John 8:58: before Abraham was, I am), he is claiming this name.
This is my name forever, zeh shemi le-olam, and my memorial unto all generations. The name given at the burning bush is the name by which God will be known to the end of time. Thread 1 is in the I AM who is present-without-cause, reaching without need, giving without obligation. Thread 2 is in the specificity: the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the covenant chain that began in Genesis 12 is the chain through which this name operates.
I AM THAT I AM, ehyeh asher ehyeh, the most foundational divine self-revelation in the OT; the name that grounds all subsequent divine speech, that Jesus will claim as his own, and that every bush burning without being consumed points toward.
אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה (ehyeh asher ehyeh): I AM THAT I AM: ehyeh (first person singular imperfect of hayah, to be; I will be, I am; the name describes the self-existent, eternally present God whose being depends on nothing outside himself); asher (who, that, which, the relative pronoun; the name is reflexively self-referential: I am who I am, I will be what I will be); the imperfect tense in Hebrew does not merely describe present existence but ongoing, continuous, unbounded being
threads t1 · t2 · see Exodus 6:3 · John 8:58 · Revelation 1:8
Moses has five objections. Who am I to go? (3:11), inadequacy. What shall I tell them your name is? (3:13), this verse. What if they don't believe me? (4:1), credibility. I am slow of speech (4:10), incapacity. Please send someone else (4:13), refusal. God meets every objection: the burning bush as sign, the divine name, the rod turned to serpent, the brother Aaron as spokesman. The back-and-forth is the record of a genuinely reluctant man and a genuinely patient God.
Ehyeh asher ehyeh, I AM WHO I AM. The name is the answer to the question of who sent him, and it is the answer that cannot be improved upon. The divine name YHWH is derived from this same hayah root: the self-existent, necessarily-being one whose existence depends on nothing outside himself. When Jesus says ego eimi, I am, throughout John's Gospel without a predicate (John 8:58: before Abraham was, I am), he is claiming this name.
This is my name forever, zeh shemi le-olam, and my memorial unto all generations. The name given at the burning bush is the name by which God will be known to the end of time. Thread 1 is in the I AM who is present-without-cause, reaching without need, giving without obligation. Thread 2 is in the specificity: the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the covenant chain that began in Genesis 12 is the chain through which this name operates.
I AM THAT I AM, ehyeh asher ehyeh, the most foundational divine self-revelation in the OT; the name that grounds all subsequent divine speech, that Jesus will claim as his own, and that every bush burning without being consumed points toward.
אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה (ehyeh asher ehyeh): I AM THAT I AM: ehyeh (first person singular imperfect of hayah, to be; I will be, I am; the name describes the self-existent, eternally present God whose being depends on nothing outside himself); asher (who, that, which, the relative pronoun; the name is reflexively self-referential: I am who I am, I will be what I will be); the imperfect tense in Hebrew does not merely describe present existence but ongoing, continuous, unbounded being
threads t1 · t2 · see Exodus 6:3 · John 8:58 · Revelation 1:8
Moses has five objections. Who am I to go? (3:11), inadequacy. What shall I tell them your name is? (3:13), this verse. What if they don't believe me? (4:1), credibility. I am slow of speech (4:10), incapacity. Please send someone else (4:13), refusal. God meets every objection: the burning bush as sign, the divine name, the rod turned to serpent, the brother Aaron as spokesman. The back-and-forth is the record of a genuinely reluctant man and a genuinely patient God.
Ehyeh asher ehyeh, I AM WHO I AM. The name is the answer to the question of who sent him, and it is the answer that cannot be improved upon. The divine name YHWH is derived from this same hayah root: the self-existent, necessarily-being one whose existence depends on nothing outside himself. When Jesus says ego eimi, I am, throughout John's Gospel without a predicate (John 8:58: before Abraham was, I am), he is claiming this name.
This is my name forever, zeh shemi le-olam, and my memorial unto all generations. The name given at the burning bush is the name by which God will be known to the end of time. Thread 1 is in the I AM who is present-without-cause, reaching without need, giving without obligation. Thread 2 is in the specificity: the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the covenant chain that began in Genesis 12 is the chain through which this name operates.
I AM THAT I AM, ehyeh asher ehyeh, the most foundational divine self-revelation in the OT; the name that grounds all subsequent divine speech, that Jesus will claim as his own, and that every bush burning without being consumed points toward.
אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה (ehyeh asher ehyeh): I AM THAT I AM: ehyeh (first person singular imperfect of hayah, to be; I will be, I am; the name describes the self-existent, eternally present God whose being depends on nothing outside himself); asher (who, that, which, the relative pronoun; the name is reflexively self-referential: I am who I am, I will be what I will be); the imperfect tense in Hebrew does not merely describe present existence but ongoing, continuous, unbounded being
threads t1 · t2 · see Exodus 6:3 · John 8:58 · Revelation 1:8
Moses has five objections. Who am I to go? (3:11), inadequacy. What shall I tell them your name is? (3:13), this verse. What if they don't believe me? (4:1), credibility. I am slow of speech (4:10), incapacity. Please send someone else (4:13), refusal. God meets every objection: the burning bush as sign, the divine name, the rod turned to serpent, the brother Aaron as spokesman. The back-and-forth is the record of a genuinely reluctant man and a genuinely patient God.
Ehyeh asher ehyeh, I AM WHO I AM. The name is the answer to the question of who sent him, and it is the answer that cannot be improved upon. The divine name YHWH is derived from this same hayah root: the self-existent, necessarily-being one whose existence depends on nothing outside himself. When Jesus says ego eimi, I am, throughout John's Gospel without a predicate (John 8:58: before Abraham was, I am), he is claiming this name.
This is my name forever, zeh shemi le-olam, and my memorial unto all generations. The name given at the burning bush is the name by which God will be known to the end of time. Thread 1 is in the I AM who is present-without-cause, reaching without need, giving without obligation. Thread 2 is in the specificity: the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the covenant chain that began in Genesis 12 is the chain through which this name operates.
I AM THAT I AM, ehyeh asher ehyeh, the most foundational divine self-revelation in the OT; the name that grounds all subsequent divine speech, that Jesus will claim as his own, and that every bush burning without being consumed points toward.
אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה (ehyeh asher ehyeh): I AM THAT I AM: ehyeh (first person singular imperfect of hayah, to be; I will be, I am; the name describes the self-existent, eternally present God whose being depends on nothing outside himself); asher (who, that, which, the relative pronoun; the name is reflexively self-referential: I am who I am, I will be what I will be); the imperfect tense in Hebrew does not merely describe present existence but ongoing, continuous, unbounded being
threads t1 · t2 · see Exodus 6:3 · John 8:58 · Revelation 1:8
Moses has five objections. Who am I to go? (3:11), inadequacy. What shall I tell them your name is? (3:13), this verse. What if they don't believe me? (4:1), credibility. I am slow of speech (4:10), incapacity. Please send someone else (4:13), refusal. God meets every objection: the burning bush as sign, the divine name, the rod turned to serpent, the brother Aaron as spokesman. The back-and-forth is the record of a genuinely reluctant man and a genuinely patient God.
Ehyeh asher ehyeh, I AM WHO I AM. The name is the answer to the question of who sent him, and it is the answer that cannot be improved upon. The divine name YHWH is derived from this same hayah root: the self-existent, necessarily-being one whose existence depends on nothing outside himself. When Jesus says ego eimi, I am, throughout John's Gospel without a predicate (John 8:58: before Abraham was, I am), he is claiming this name.
This is my name forever, zeh shemi le-olam, and my memorial unto all generations. The name given at the burning bush is the name by which God will be known to the end of time. Thread 1 is in the I AM who is present-without-cause, reaching without need, giving without obligation. Thread 2 is in the specificity: the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the covenant chain that began in Genesis 12 is the chain through which this name operates.
I AM THAT I AM, ehyeh asher ehyeh, the most foundational divine self-revelation in the OT; the name that grounds all subsequent divine speech, that Jesus will claim as his own, and that every bush burning without being consumed points toward.
אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה (ehyeh asher ehyeh): I AM THAT I AM: ehyeh (first person singular imperfect of hayah, to be; I will be, I am; the name describes the self-existent, eternally present God whose being depends on nothing outside himself); asher (who, that, which, the relative pronoun; the name is reflexively self-referential: I am who I am, I will be what I will be); the imperfect tense in Hebrew does not merely describe present existence but ongoing, continuous, unbounded being
threads t1 · t2 · see Exodus 6:3 · John 8:58 · Revelation 1:8
Moses has five objections. Who am I to go? (3:11), inadequacy. What shall I tell them your name is? (3:13), this verse. What if they don't believe me? (4:1), credibility. I am slow of speech (4:10), incapacity. Please send someone else (4:13), refusal. God meets every objection: the burning bush as sign, the divine name, the rod turned to serpent, the brother Aaron as spokesman. The back-and-forth is the record of a genuinely reluctant man and a genuinely patient God.
Ehyeh asher ehyeh, I AM WHO I AM. The name is the answer to the question of who sent him, and it is the answer that cannot be improved upon. The divine name YHWH is derived from this same hayah root: the self-existent, necessarily-being one whose existence depends on nothing outside himself. When Jesus says ego eimi, I am, throughout John's Gospel without a predicate (John 8:58: before Abraham was, I am), he is claiming this name.
This is my name forever, zeh shemi le-olam, and my memorial unto all generations. The name given at the burning bush is the name by which God will be known to the end of time. Thread 1 is in the I AM who is present-without-cause, reaching without need, giving without obligation. Thread 2 is in the specificity: the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the covenant chain that began in Genesis 12 is the chain through which this name operates.
I AM THAT I AM, ehyeh asher ehyeh, the most foundational divine self-revelation in the OT; the name that grounds all subsequent divine speech, that Jesus will claim as his own, and that every bush burning without being consumed points toward.
אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה (ehyeh asher ehyeh): I AM THAT I AM: ehyeh (first person singular imperfect of hayah, to be; I will be, I am; the name describes the self-existent, eternally present God whose being depends on nothing outside himself); asher (who, that, which, the relative pronoun; the name is reflexively self-referential: I am who I am, I will be what I will be); the imperfect tense in Hebrew does not merely describe present existence but ongoing, continuous, unbounded being
threads t1 · t2 · see Exodus 6:3 · John 8:58 · Revelation 1:8
Moses has five objections. Who am I to go? (3:11), inadequacy. What shall I tell them your name is? (3:13), this verse. What if they don't believe me? (4:1), credibility. I am slow of speech (4:10), incapacity. Please send someone else (4:13), refusal. God meets every objection: the burning bush as sign, the divine name, the rod turned to serpent, the brother Aaron as spokesman. The back-and-forth is the record of a genuinely reluctant man and a genuinely patient God.
Ehyeh asher ehyeh, I AM WHO I AM. The name is the answer to the question of who sent him, and it is the answer that cannot be improved upon. The divine name YHWH is derived from this same hayah root: the self-existent, necessarily-being one whose existence depends on nothing outside himself. When Jesus says ego eimi, I am, throughout John's Gospel without a predicate (John 8:58: before Abraham was, I am), he is claiming this name.
This is my name forever, zeh shemi le-olam, and my memorial unto all generations. The name given at the burning bush is the name by which God will be known to the end of time. Thread 1 is in the I AM who is present-without-cause, reaching without need, giving without obligation. Thread 2 is in the specificity: the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the covenant chain that began in Genesis 12 is the chain through which this name operates.
I AM THAT I AM, ehyeh asher ehyeh, the most foundational divine self-revelation in the OT; the name that grounds all subsequent divine speech, that Jesus will claim as his own, and that every bush burning without being consumed points toward.
אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה (ehyeh asher ehyeh): I AM THAT I AM: ehyeh (first person singular imperfect of hayah, to be; I will be, I am; the name describes the self-existent, eternally present God whose being depends on nothing outside himself); asher (who, that, which, the relative pronoun; the name is reflexively self-referential: I am who I am, I will be what I will be); the imperfect tense in Hebrew does not merely describe present existence but ongoing, continuous, unbounded being
threads t1 · t2 · see Exodus 6:3 · John 8:58 · Revelation 1:8