Exoduschapter 3
22 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th or 13th century BC · The Law
God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Exodus Overview.
This chapter is the call of Moses, and later calls of prophets in the Bible are read against it. It was written for a people who would ask by what right a runaway shepherd spoke for God. Moses has spent forty years in the desert keeping another man's sheep when it opens. Listen for the questions he asks and for the way each answer turns from Moses to God. At its centre stands the name Israel used for God ever after, and a reader should slow down there.
Context
- Who
- Israel in the wilderness, camped in front of that same mountain as they heard it read
- What
- A call narrative in which God appears to Moses in a burning bush, gives His name and sends him to Egypt.
- Where
- Horeb, the mountain of God, on the far side of the wilderness where Moses kept Jethro's flock.
- When
- About 1446 BC on the traditional early date, with the late date placing it in the thirteenth century BC.
- Why
- To ground Moses' errand and Israel's rescue in the name and the promise of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Historical context
The account is Moses' own by the book's own claim, and this chapter is his record of the day he was sent. At the time of the events he was a herdsman in another man's service, eighty years old by the reckoning of Acts 7:23 and Acts 7:30.
Show the rest of the historical context, 2 more paragraphs
The events fall in the year the exodus begins, about 1446 BC on the traditional early chronology. The place is Horeb, the far back country of the wilderness, and Israel was camped in front of that same mountain when the account was read to them. The occasion is the cry of Exodus 2:23, which the chapter answers.
A first hearer knew why a shepherd was that far out, since stock was moved to the back country in the dry months and ordinary grazing routes put Moses at the mountain. He knew that a desert bush burning is nothing, and that a bush which burns and stands is the sign. He knew the order to remove sandals as a recognized Near Eastern gesture, since priests in several traditions served barefoot, and it marked the ground as the god's own. He also knew what a divine name was for, because every god in Egypt had a name that could be used, invoked and bargained with. The name given here is built on the verb to be, and it refuses to be a handle.
Significance
The God who spoke here was not a new god. He introduces himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, so the covenant of Genesis 15 is coming due on schedule.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The man he sends is eighty years old, slow of speech, and wanted for killing in the country he is being sent back to. Israel was meant to notice where the power was.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
The corpus carries no English text for any commentator on this chapter, so nothing here is quoted. Rashi comments twice on the first verse and twice on the bush of verse 2. He comments again at the removing of the shoes, at the sending, and at the giving of the Name (Rashi on Exodus 3:5:1, 3:10:1, 3:14:1 and 3:15:1). Ibn Ezra comments at the call in verse 4, at the God of the fathers in verse 6, and at Moses asking what he shall say (Ibn Ezra on Exodus 3:4:1, 3:6:1 and 3:13:1). Sefaria reports no licence for the Rashi version it holds, and CC-BY-NC for the Ibn Ezra translation. The corpus therefore keeps the reference and the link and leaves the words with their publishers.
What the rabbis say
The rabbis take up Moses hiding his face at Berakhot 7a:30. On the command to take off the shoes they taught at Berakhot 62b:23 and Bava Batra 110a:3. On the voice that called him by name they taught in Bamidbar Rabbah 1:3 and 14:21. On the promise to be with him they taught in Bereshit Rabbah 16:5 and 76:1. The Name of verse 14 is taken up at Avot DeRabbi Natan 34:2 and Bava Batra 73a:8.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Exodus 3:5:1, 3:10:1, 3:14:1 and 3:15:1, cited by ref alone because Sefaria reports no licence for the version held; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Exodus 3:4:1, 3:6:1 and 3:13:1, cited by ref alone under the corpus licence rule; The Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 7a:30, Berakhot 62b:23, Bava Batra 110a:3 and Bava Batra 73a:8, cited by ref; The Midrash, Bamidbar Rabbah 1:3 and 14:21, Bereshit Rabbah 16:5 and 76:1, and Avot DeRabbi Natan 34:2, cited by ref.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
The Bush That Burned Unconsumed
Moses is keeping another man's sheep in Midian, and Acts 7:30 counts forty years passing there before this day. The text calls Horeb the mountain of God before anything has happened on it. Israel reaches the same mountain at 19:1, where it is called Sinai, and 17:6 puts the rock that gives water at Horeb as well, so one place carries the bush, the water and the law.
Exodus 3:1
“Jethro his father-in-law - Or “brother-in-law.” The word in the Hebrew is a word signifying relative by marriage. When Moses arrived in Midian, Reuel was an elderly man Exo 2:16; 40 years later (Exo 2:23 note), Reuel’s son, Jethro, had probably succeeded him. The backside - i. e. “to the west of the district.” Among the Hebrews the East is before a man, the west behind him, the south and north on the right and left hand. Desert - Or wilderness, not a barren waste, but a district supplying pasturage.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Exodus 3:1
“Even to Horeb - Horeb and Sinai were two tops of the same mountain. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him - It was an extraordinary manifestation of the divine glory; what was visible was produced by the ministry of an angel, but he heard God in it speaking to him.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Exodus 3:2-3
The speaker is called the angel of the LORD here and God in verse 4, and in verse 6 he says I am the God of thy father. Older writers including Matthew Henry and John Gill read the appearance as the Son before his incarnation, while other readers take the angel as a created messenger carrying God's own words. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown record the common reading of the bush as Israel in Egypt, burning under a persecution meant to finish it and standing unconsumed.
Exodus 3:2
“When the almighty Lord of the universe began to legislate through the Word and decided to make his power visible to Moses, he sent Moses a divine vision with the appearance of light, in the burning bush. Now a bramble bush is full of thorns. So too when the Word was concluding his legislation and his stay among men as their Lord, again he permitted himself to be crowned with thorns as a mystic symbol.”
Clement of Alexandria · written before 215 · The Instructor Book 2patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Exodus 3:2
“It was an angel of the Lord that appeared to him; some think, a created angel, who speaks in the language of him that sent him; others, the second person, the angel of the covenant, who is himself Jehovah. It was an extraordinary manifestation of the divine presence and glory; what was visible was produced by the ministry of an angel, but he heard God in it speaking to him.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Exodus 3:2
“A fire, therefore, being in the midst of such a desert bush was a "great sight." It is generally supposed to have been emblematic of the Israelites' condition in Egypt--oppressed by a grinding servitude and a bloody persecution, and yet, in spite of the cruel policy that was bent on annihilating them, they continued as numerous and thriving as ever.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
ConnectionsActs 7:30, Colossians 2:9
Moses turned aside to look because the bush kept burning without burning up. His curiosity is the hinge of the scene, for the next verse says God called to him when He saw that Moses had gone over to look. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, on verse 2, take the burning bush as a picture of Israel in Egypt, oppressed and still thriving.
Exodus 3:3
“When Moses had seen the bush burning and not being consumed he was astonished at the sight and said, "I will cross over and see this sight." He certainly also did not mean that he was about to cross over some earthly space, or to ascend mountains or to descend the steep sides of valleys. The vision was near him, in his countenance and in his eyes.”
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · HOMILIES ON GENESIS 12.2patristic
4 more voices on this verse
Exodus 3:3
“And Moses said, I will now turn aside,.... From the place where he was, and the flock he was feeding, and get nearer to the bush, which seems to have been on one side of him and not directly before him: and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt; inquire into, and find out, if he could, the reason of this strange and amazing sight; how it could be that a bush should be on fire and yet not burnt up, which might have been expected would have been destroyed at once; for what is a thorn…”
Exodus 3:3
“Hence Moses, when he was seeking the glory of heavenly contemplation, said, "I will now pass on, and see this great sight." For except he had withdrawn the footstep of the heart from the love of the world, he would never have been able to understand things above.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Morals on the Book of Job, Book 15, Section 68patristic
Exodus 3:3
“Moses, too, passing by things of this world, saw a great sight and said, "I will turn aside and see this great sight," for had he been held by the fleeting pleasures of this world he would not have seen so great a mystery.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · Concerning Repentance 1.14.74patristic
Exodus 3:3
“Moses says, "I must go over to look at this remarkable sight." If he does not go over, that is, if he does not escape all vice, he cannot behold the great marvel.”
Jerome · written before 420 · HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 51patristic
God speaks once Moses turns aside, so the sight comes first and the voice follows it. The name is doubled, Moses, Moses, as it is at Genesis 22:11 to Abraham, at Genesis 46:2 to Jacob, at 1 Samuel 3:10 to Samuel and at Acts 9:4 to Saul, and each of those doublings opens a commission or a rescue. His answer, Here am I, is the word Abraham gives at Genesis 22:1 and 22:11.
Exodus 3:4
“The Lord saw - The interchange of the two divine names is to be observed; “Jehovah” (Yahweh) saw, “God” called.”
4 more voices on this verse
Exodus 3:4
“This which he heard could not but surprise him much more than what he saw. The word of the Lord always went along with the glory of the Lord, for every divine vision was designed for divine revelation, Job iv. Divine calls are then effectual, (1.) When the Spirit of God makes them particular, and calls us by name.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Exodus 3:4
Was the Lord speaking through an angel? Or was the Lord that angel who has been called the "angel of great counsel" and is understood to be Christ? For Scripture said above, "the angel of the Lord appeared to him."
Augustine of Hippo · written before 430 · QUESTIONS ON EXODUS 3patristic
Exodus 3:4
“This certain evidence was given to Moses. He saw a fire, but no human agent to kindle it; he heard a voice, but no human lips from which it came; he saw no living Being, but One was in the bush, in the heat of the flames, who knew him and addressed him by name.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Exodus 3:4
“Why should we despair that God should speak in men, who spoke in the thorn bush? God did not despise the bush. Would that he might also give light to my thorns. Perhaps some may wonder that there is some light even in our thorns. Some of our thorns will not burn. There will be some whose shoes shall be put off their feet at the sound of my voice, that the steps of the mind may be freed from bodily hindrances.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · Concerning Virginity 1.1.2patristic
The word holy occurs here for the first time in Scripture, and it lands on a patch of desert ground. That ground was pasture the day before, and what marks it now is the presence speaking out of the bush. Joshua receives the same order at Joshua 5:15, loose thy shoe from off thy foot, for the place whereon thou standest is holy. Chuck Missler taught the law of first mention as a way of reading, and the first holy thing in Scripture being dirt under a shepherd's feet is one of its plainest cases.
Exodus 3:5
“Put off thy shoes - The reverence due to holy places thus rests upon God’s own command. The custom itself is well known from the observances of the temple, it was almost universally adopted by the ancients, and is retained in the East. Holy ground - This passage is almost conclusive against the assumption that the place was previously a sanctuary. Moses knew nothing of its holiness after some 40 years spent on the Peninsula. It became holy by the presence of God.”
2 more voices on this verse
Exodus 3:5
“Pass by like Moses, that you may see the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob and that you may see a great vision. This is a great vision, but if you wish to see it, remove the sandals from your feet, remove every bond of iniquity, remove the bonds of the world, leave behind the sandals which are earthly. Likewise Jesus sent the apostles without sandals, without money, gold and silver, so that they would not carry earthly things with them.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · FLIGHT FROM THE WORLD 5.25patristic
Exodus 3:5
“But the Eastern idea is not precisely the same as the Western. With us, the removal of the hat is an expression of reverence for the place we enter, or rather of Him who is worshipped there. With them the removal of the shoes is a confession of personal defilement and conscious unworthiness to stand in the presence of unspotted holiness.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Cross references
Exodus 3:5
- Quoted inActs 7:33“Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”
'Put off thy shoes... holy ground' (burning bush)
God names himself by three men he made promises to, and all three have been dead for centuries. Jesus quotes this verse at Matthew 22:32 and argues the resurrection from its tense, since God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Moses hides his face here, and at 33:20 he is told that no man sees God's face and lives.
Exodus 3:6
“I am the God of thy father - Though the word אבי abi, father, is here used in the singular, St Stephen, quoting this place, Act 7:32, uses the plural, Ὁ Θεος των πατερων σου, The God of thy Fathers; and that this is the meaning the following words prove: The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. These were the fathers of Moses in a direct line. This reading is confirmed by the Samaritan and by the Coptic. Abraham was the father of the Ishmaelites, and with him was the covenant first made.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Exodus 3:6
“Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, are particularly named, because with Abraham the covenant was first made, and with Isaac and Jacob often expressly renewed; and these three were distinguished from their brethren, and chosen to be the trustees of the covenant, when their brethren were rejected.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Exodus 3:6
“Moreover, the time, as well as all the circumstances of this miraculous appearance, were such as to give him an illustrious display of God's faithfulness to His promises. The period of Israel's journey and affliction in Egypt had been predicted (Ge 15:13), and it was during the last year of the term which had still to run that the Lord appeared in the burning bush.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Cross references
Exodus 3:6
- Quoted inLuke 20:37“Even Moses demonstrates that the dead are raised, in the passage about the burning bush. For he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’”
'the God of Abraham', resurrection argument at the bush
- Quoted inMark 12:26“But concerning the dead rising, have you not read about the burning bush in the Book of Moses, how God told him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?”
'I am the God of Abraham', resurrection argument
- Quoted inMatthew 22:31“But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what God said to you:”
ouk anegnote to rhethen hymin hypo tou theou ('have ye not read that which was spoken unto you BY GOD'), rhethen frame naming God, not a prophet, as speaker (Nicole's God-as-author class)
- Quoted inMatthew 22:32‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”
'I am the God of Abraham', resurrection argument ('have ye not read that which was spoken')
I Have Seen My People's Affliction
Exodus 3:7-8
Three verbs answer the close of chapter 2, where God heard the groaning, remembered his covenant, looked upon the people and had respect unto them. Seen, heard and know stand here against taskmasters, cry and sorrows, so the rescue begins as an answer to something God has been listening to. I am come down repeats the movement of Genesis 11:5 at Babel, and the good land described in verse 8 is the land promised to Abram at Genesis 15:18 to 15:21, where a longer list of the same peoples is given.
Cross references
Exodus 3:7
- Quoted inActs 7:34“I have indeed seen the oppression of My people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.’”
'I have seen the affliction of my people' (the LORD's commission of Moses)
I have come down to rescue them: God says He has come down to rescue Israel from Egypt and bring them to a good and spacious land flowing with milk and honey. The phrase describes good pasture and plenty, and the list of six peoples shows that the land was already occupied. Matthew Henry reads the coming down as a type of Christ, the eternal Word who came down from heaven to deliver His people.
Exodus 3:8
“This deliverance was typical of our redemption by Christ, in which the eternal Word did indeed come down from heaven to deliver us: it was his errand into the world.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Exodus 3:9-10
God says I am come down to deliver in verse 8 and I will send thee in verse 10, and the two sentences describe one rescue. The deliverance is his and the errand belongs to a man, which is the arrangement the rest of the book runs on. John Calvin reads the sending as God's ordinary way of working, using men as instruments while the power stays his own.
Exodus 3:9
“Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me,.... See Exo 2:23, and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them; which is repeated to observe the great notice he took of it; and the reason of his descent and appearance in this wonderful manner, as well as of the urgent necessity of Moses's going to deliver the people from their oppression.”
2 more voices on this verse
Exodus 3:9
“GOD had chosen the children of Israel, and He had determined to make of them a great nation and a peculiar people to whom He could communicate the Law and the Testimony, that they might keep the heavenly lamp burning until Christ should come. Jacob and his family had gone down into Egypt and, for a long time, they and their descendants were very happy there. The land of Goshen was very fruitful and the Israelites were greatly favored by the Egyptian king.”
Charles Spurgeon · written before 1892 · The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2631: “Israel's Cry and God's Answer” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular Baptist
Exodus 3:9
“Clamor: not like the clamor of the Sodomites, which signified iniquity without fear or shame.”
Augustine of Hippo · written before 430 · QUESTIONS ON EXODUS 5patristic
I am sending you to Pharaoh: Having said what He will do, God now names His agent and sends Moses to Pharaoh to bring the Israelites out. The verse joins divine action and human mission, since God has come down and yet sends a man. John Gill records differing identifications of this Pharaoh, citing Eusebius for Cenchres and Bishop Usher for Amenophis.
Exodus 3:11-12
This is the first of five objections Moses raises, at 3:11, 3:13, 4:1, 4:10 and 4:13, and the answer given here speaks about God rather than about Moses. Certainly I will be with thee moves the question off the man and onto the one sending him. The token offered can be checked only after the errand is finished, since the token is that the people will serve God on this mountain, which happens at 19:1 and 19:2. The word serve is the Hebrew abad, the root Exodus 1:13 and 1:14 use five times over for the bondage, so what is asked of Pharaoh is a change of master.
Exodus 3:11
“He thinks he wants courage, and therefore cannot go to Pharaoh: he thinks he wants conduct, and therefore cannot bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt; they are unarmed, undisciplined, quite dispirited, utterly unable to help themselves, Moses was incomparably the fittest of any man living for this work, eminent for learning, wisdom, experience, valour, faith, holiness, and yet Who am I?”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 3:11
“Who am I - These words indicate humility (compare Num 12:3), not fear. He feared failure, owing to incompetency, especially in the power of expression.”
God answers Moses' question about who he is with a promise of His presence. The sign He gives lies in the future, for when the people have come out they will worship God on this same mountain, as they do at Sinai in chapter 19. Adam Clarke allows two readings of the sign, either the burning bush itself or God's presence with Moses shown in his miracles.
Exodus 3:12
“Certainly I will be with thee - This great event shall not be left to thy wisdom and to thy power; my counsel shall direct thee, and my power shall bring all these mighty things to pass. And this shall be a token - Literally, And This to thee for a sign, i.e., this miraculous manifestation of the burning bush shall be a proof that I have sent thee; or, My being with thee, to encourage thy heart, strengthen thy hands, and enable thee to work miracles, shall be to thyself and to others the evidence of thy Divine mission.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
I AM Has Sent Me to You
Exodus 3:13-14
Moses asks for a name and receives a sentence, I AM THAT I AM, built on the Hebrew verb to be. The same verb stands in verse 12, where God said I will be with thee, so the name and the promise are made of one word. Keil and Delitzsch read it as the God who is, absolutely and unchangeably, and who therefore keeps what he swore to the fathers. Jesus takes the words to himself at John 8:58, before Abraham was, I am, and his hearers took up stones.
Exodus 3:13
“What is his name - The meaning of this question is evidently: “By which name shall I tell them that the promise is confirmed?” Each name of the Deity represented some aspect or manifestation of His attributes (compare the introduction to Genesis). What Moses needed was not a new name, but direction to use that name which would bear in itself a pledge of accomplishment.”
God answers the question about His name with I AM WHO I AM. The Hebrew is formed from the verb to be and stands behind the name LORD in the next verse. Adam Clarke sets out the ancient renderings, the Septuagint's I am he who exists and the Vulgate's I am who am. Jerome reads it as God's being, which alone is His own.
Exodus 3:14
There is one nature of God and one only; and this, and this alone, truly is. For absolute being is derived from no other source but is all its own. All things besides, that is, all things created, although they appear to be, soon are not. For there was a time when they were not, and that which once was not may again cease to be. God alone who is eternal, that is to say, who has no beginning, really deserves to be called an essence. Therefore also he says of him, "I am has sent me."
Jerome · written before 420 · LETTER 15.4patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Exodus 3:14
“I am that I am - אהיה אשר אהיה Eheyeh asher Eheyeh. These words have been variously understood. The Vulgate translates Ego Sum Qui Sum, I am who am. The Septuagint, Εγω ειμι ὁ Ων, I am he who exists. The Syriac, the Persic, and the Chaldee preserve the original words without any gloss. The Arabic paraphrases them, The Eternal, who passes not away; which is the same interpretation given by Abul Farajius, who also preserves the original words, and gives the above as their interpretation.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Exodus 3:14
“Your I am only exists because of His I Am. And as you exist from Him, so it is only from Him that you can find the reason and purpose of your existence.”
Jonathan Cahn · The Book of Mysteries (excerpted in Charisma Magazine) (2016)Messianic Jewish
ConnectionsJohn 8:58
The word memorial occurs here for the first time in Scripture and it is applied to the name. The name is tied in the same breath to the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob, so it arrives attached to a history rather than as a bare title. Exodus 6:3 later says the fathers knew God as God Almighty and that by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them, while Genesis uses the name from 2:4 onward and Abram speaks it at 15:2. The older commentators read known there as known in the character the name declares, and the documentary reading takes the verse as evidence of separate sources.
Exodus 3:15
“The Lord God ... - Better, Jehovah יהוה yehovâh, God of your fathers, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob. It corresponds exactly to the preceding verse, the words “I am” and “Jehovah” (Yahweh) being equivalent. This name met all the requirements of Moses, involving a two-fold pledge of accomplishment; the pledges of ancient benefits and of a new manifestation. Name ... memorial - The name signifies that by which God makes Himself known, the memorial that by which His people worship Him.”
Exodus 3:16-17
Israel has elders while it is still in slavery, and that body is the first Moses is sent to. The message he carries, I have surely visited you, picks up the last words of Genesis, where Joseph told his brothers God will surely visit you at 50:24 and took an oath about his bones at 50:25. The elders are handed the sentence their fathers were left holding, and the land named in verse 17 is the land Joseph named.
Exodus 3:16
“Elders of Israel - Though it is not likely the Hebrews were permitted to have any regular government at this time, yet there can be no doubt of their having such a government in the time of Joseph, and for some considerable time after; the elders of each tribe forming a kind of court of magistrates, by which all actions were tried, and legal decisions made, in the Israelitish community. I have surely visited you - An exact fulfillment of the prediction of Joseph, Gen 50:24, God will surely visit you, and in the same words too.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
I have promised to bring you up: This is the message the elders are to hear, that God has promised to bring them up from their affliction into the land of the six peoples of Canaan. The verse repeats the promise of verse 8 almost word for word, so the elders receive what Moses received at the bush. Adam Clarke, on verse 16, notes that this visit fulfils Joseph's words in Genesis 50:24.
Exodus 3:17
“And I have said,.... Within himself, resolved in his own mind, and had declared it to Moses: I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt: with which they were afflicted in Egypt, and by the Egyptians; this he both purposed and promised to bring them out of: unto the land of the Canaanites, &c. then in the possession of the Canaanites, and others after named; See Gill on Exo 3:8.”
Exodus 3:18-19
The request Moses is told to put to Pharaoh is worship, three days out into the wilderness to sacrifice, and the contest of chapters 5 to 12 turns on that one word. Pharaoh's later offers each try to keep a piece of it, sacrifice inside the land at 8:25, only the men at 10:11, and the flocks and herds left behind at 10:24, and Moses refuses every one. God tells Moses in advance that the king of Egypt will refuse, so the failure of chapter 5 arrives already announced.
Exodus 3:18
“They shall hearken to thy voice - This assurance was necessary to encourage him in an enterprise so dangerous and important. Three days’ journey into the wilderness - Evidently intending Mount Sinai, which is reputed to be about three days’ journey, the shortest way, from the land of Goshen. In ancient times, distances were computed by the time required to pass over them.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 3:18
“Moreover, they must only beg leave of Pharaoh to go as far as Mount Sinai to worship God, and say nothing to him of going quite away to Canaan; the latter would have been immediately rejected, but the former was a very modest and reasonable request, and his denying it was utterly inexcusable and justified them in the total deserting of his kingdom.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
unless a mighty hand compels him: God tells Moses in advance that Pharaoh will refuse unless a mighty hand compels him. The warning prepares Moses for the resistance of chapters 5 to 12. Albert Barnes records two readings, one that Pharaoh yields only to force and one that he refuses even when struck. Clement of Alexandria sees in the verse both God's foreknowledge and His offer of repentance to Pharaoh.
Exodus 3:19
“He said to Moses, "Go and speak to Pharaoh, that he may let my people go, but I know that he will not let them go.…" He manifests his divinity by foreseeing what is to happen and also his love for man by offering to the free will of man an opportunity to repent.”
Clement of Alexandria · written before 215 · The Instructor Book 1patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 3:19
“No, not - See the marginal rendering. Others explain it to mean, Pharaoh will not let the people go even when severely smitten.”
Exodus 3:20-22
The word wonders occurs here for the first time in Scripture, and the stretched out hand returns at 6:6 and 7:5 as the way God describes what he is about to do. The spoiling of Egypt in verse 22 discharges Genesis 15:14, where Abram was told his seed would come out with great substance, and it happens at 12:35 and 12:36. Adam Clarke argues that the verb rendered borrow is the ordinary Hebrew word for asking, and the transfer is described from Egypt's own side as a thing given. The same gold builds the calf in chapter 32 and the tabernacle in chapter 35.
you will not go away empty-handed: God promises to make the Egyptians favorable toward Israel, so that the people will leave with goods in hand. The promise echoes Genesis 15:14, where God told Abraham that his descendants would come out with many possessions, and it is fulfilled in 12:35 and 36. Tertullian, on the next verse, treats the goods as back wages owed for years of forced labor.
Every woman shall ask her neighbor: Each Israelite woman is to ask her Egyptian neighbor for silver, gold and clothing, and Israel will carry off the wealth of Egypt as spoil. Adam Clarke argues that the Hebrew verb means simply to ask or to demand, the sense it has again in 12:35. Tertullian reads the goods as the arrears owed to the Hebrews for their forced labor on Egypt's bricks and cities.
Exodus 3:22
“The Egyptians put in a claim on the Hebrews for these gold and silver vessels. The Hebrews assert a counterclaim, alleging that by the bond of their respective fathers, attested by the written engagement of both parties, there were due to them the arrears of that laborious slavery of theirs for the bricks they had so painfully made and the cities and palaces which they had built.”
Tertullian · written before 220 · AGAINST MARCION 2.20.2patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Exodus 3:22
“Every woman shall borrow - This is certainly not a very correct translation: the original word שאל shaal signifies simply to ask, request, demand, require, inquire, etc.; but it does not signify to borrow in the proper sense of that word, though in a very few places of Scripture it is thus used. In this and the parallel place, Exo 12:35, the word signifies to ask or demand, and not to borrow, which is a gross mistake into which scarcely any of the versions, ancient or modern, have fallen, except our own.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: Narrative prose, a call narrative built as a commission with the objections to it answered one at a time, as Calvin classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, named three times | The same triple naming stands at verse 6, at verse 15 and again at verse 16. All three men have been dead for centuries when it is spoken. The name arrives attached to a history rather than as a bare title, and the errand to the elders at verse 16 carries the same three names down to them.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible. | Exodus 3:6, Exodus 3:15, Exodus 3:16 |
| The promise and the name made of one verb | God answers the first objection at verse 12 by saying he will be with Moses. He answers the request for a name at verse 14 with a sentence built on the same Hebrew verb, the verb to be. Keil and Delitzsch read the name as the God who is, absolutely and unchangeably, and who therefore keeps what he swore to the fathers. The promise and the name are made of one word.Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch. | Exodus 3:12, Exodus 3:14 |
| The six nations of the land, listed twice | Verse 8 lists the peoples who hold the land Israel is being brought to, and verse 17 lists them again in the message for the elders. The land promised to Abram at Genesis 15:18 to 15:21 carries a longer list of the same peoples. The repetition puts the same sentence in God's mouth and then in Moses' mouth, so the elders hear what Moses heard.Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch. | Exodus 3:8, Exodus 3:17 |
| A commission answered by objections | Moses raises the first objection at verse 11, asking who he is to go to Pharaoh. He raises the second at verse 13, asking what he shall say when the people ask the name. Three more follow at Exodus 4:1, 4:10 and 4:13. John Calvin reads the sending as God's ordinary way of working, using men as instruments while the power stays his own.John Calvin, Commentary on the Four Last Books of Moses Arranged in the Form of a Harmony. | Exodus 3:11, Exodus 3:13 |
| Three verbs of attention set against three words for the trouble | Verse 7 puts seen, heard and know against the affliction, the cry and the sufferings. Verse 9 says the same thing again in fewer words, the cry has reached me and I have seen the oppression. The three verbs answer the close of chapter 2, where God heard the groaning, remembered his covenant and looked on the people. The rescue opens as the answer to something God has been listening to.Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch. | Exodus 3:7, Exodus 3:9 |
The chapter is the answer to the last three verses of chapter 2. God heard the groaning, remembered the covenant, looked on the people and took notice, and this chapter opens with him saying that he has seen and heard and come down. What begins here is the keeping of a word given to Abraham at Genesis 15.
9 more paragraphs on the patterns
One place carries three events in this book. The bush burns at Horeb in verse 1, the rock gives water at Horeb at Exodus 17:6, and the law is given at the same mountain under the name Sinai at Exodus 19:1. The text calls it the mountain of God in verse 1, before anything has happened on it.
The errand also carries its own outcome in advance. God tells Moses at verse 19 that the king of Egypt will refuse, so the failure of chapter 5 arrives already announced. Verse 22 tells him that Israel will leave with silver, gold and clothing, which discharges Genesis 15:14 and happens at Exodus 12:35 and 12:36. Adam Clarke reads the verb rendered borrow at verse 22 as the ordinary Hebrew word for asking, and the transfer is described from Egypt's own side as a thing given.
The New Testament's use
Jesus quotes verse 6 at Matthew 22:32 and argues the resurrection from the tense of the verb, since God is the God of the living. He takes the words of verse 14 to himself at John 8:58, and his hearers took up stones. Acts 7:30 counts forty years in Midian before the day of the bush, and the doubled call of verse 4 has the shape of the call at Acts 9:4.
The debated point
The speaker at verse 2 is called the angel of the LORD, at verse 4 he is called God, and at verse 6 he says that he is the God of Moses' father. Matthew Henry and John Gill read the appearance as the Son before his incarnation. Other readers take the angel as a created messenger carrying God's own words. Both readings are held by teachers this site cites, and no verdict is stated here.
The name of verse 15 is set against Exodus 6:3, which says the fathers knew God as God Almighty and that by his name JEHOVAH he was not known to them. Genesis uses the name from 2:4 onward and Abram speaks it at Genesis 15:2. The older commentators read known at Exodus 6:3 as known in the character the name declares. The documentary reading, argued by Julius Wellhausen in his Prolegomena to the History of Israel of 1878, takes the verse as evidence of separate sources.
Where to go deeper
The sight itself is laid out at the burning bush. The wonders promised at verse 20 are laid out at the Ten Plagues. The covenant the token of verse 12 points at is laid out at the Mosaic covenant, and the deliverance the errand sets in motion is laid out at the Exodus. The name given at verse 14 is carried through its forms at the divine name, and what a name is in Scripture is set out at the name.
Keep studying
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
John Calvin, Commentary on the Four Last Books of Moses Arranged in the Form of a Harmony, on Exodus 3 and Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, on Exodus 3.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Chuck Missler, Learn the Bible in 24 Hours; Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 1; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Letter 15.4; John Calvin, Commentary on the Four Last Books of Moses Arranged in the Form of a Harmony; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Tertullian, Against Marcion 2.20.2.