Exodus 3:14

Summary

In this verse, God responds to Moses' question about his name with the phrase 'eh.Yeh 'a.Sher 'eh.Yeh ("I am that I am" / "I will be that I will be"). God then instructs Moses to tell the Israelites that 'eh.Yeh ("I am") has sent him to them.

Key words

• 'eh.Yeh ("I am", H1961) — qal imperfect, first person. The imperfect aspect in Biblical Hebrew can denote ongoing, habitual, or future action; it is not fixed to a single English tense the way "I am" suggests.
• 'a.Sher ("that/which", H0834A) — relative particle connecting the two occurrences of 'eh.Yeh, producing a self-referential construction where the verb is defined by itself.
• 'E.lo.Him ("God", H0430G) — masculine plural noun, here functioning as the grammatical subject with a singular verb (i.Yo.mer, "he said"), a common pattern for this noun in reference to the deity of Israel.
• she.la.Cha.ni ("he has sent me", H7971G + H9030) — qal perfect verb with first-person pronominal suffix "me" attached; the perfect aspect marks this as a completed action, contrasting with the imperfect 'eh.Yeh that precedes it.
• koh ("thus", H3541) — adverb introducing direct speech, signaling that what follows is the exact wording Moses is to repeat.

What the text says

The verse contains two speech acts introduced separately by va-i.Yo.mer ("and he said," H9001 + H0559), each marked by the narrative vav that chains sequential events. In the first, God answers Moses' unstated question with 'eh.Yeh 'a.Sher 'eh.Yeh — the same verb form 'eh.Yeh repeated and linked by the relative particle 'a.Sher. Because the verb is qal imperfect, the construction can be read as ongoing ("I am who I am"), habitual, or future-oriented ("I will be who I will be"), a range the English gloss "I am" narrows to a single sense.

In the second speech act, God instructs Moses using the adverb koh ("thus") to introduce direct speech intended for v.Nei Yis.ra.'El ("the sons/people of Israel," a construct phrase). Here the same word 'eh.Yeh reappears, now functioning as what Moses is to report as the name/identity of the sender, followed by she.la.Cha.ni ("he has sent me"), a qal perfect verb with the suffixed pronoun "me." The shift from imperfect ('eh.Yeh) to perfect (she.la.Cha.ni) marks a grammatical distinction between the self-referential identity formula and the completed act of sending.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders 'eh.Yeh 'a.Sher 'eh.Yeh as Ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ὤν ("I am the one who is"), using a participial construction (ὁ ὤν, "the being one") rather than reproducing the Hebrew's repeated imperfect verb with a relative clause. In the second instance, the LXX renders 'eh.Yeh as Ὁ ὢν ("The one who is"), again using the participle rather than a first-person verb form. The Vulgate follows a similar pattern: Ego sum qui sum ("I am who I am") for the first phrase, but Qui est ("He who is," third person) for the second occurrence of 'eh.Yeh, shifting from first to third person where the Hebrew maintains the same first-person form ('eh.Yeh) in both places.