Exodus 3:2
וַיֵּרָא מַלְאַךְ יְהֹוָה אֵלָיו בְּלַבַּת־אֵשׁ מִתּוֹךְ הַסְּנֶה וַיַּרְא וְהִנֵּה הַסְּנֶה בֹּעֵר בָּאֵשׁ וְהַסְּנֶה אֵינֶנּוּ אֻכָּֽל׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וַ֠יֵּרָא מַלְאַ֨ךְ יְהֹוָ֥ה אֵלָ֛יו בְּלַבַּת־אֵ֖שׁ מִתּ֣וֹךְ הַסְּנֶ֑ה וַיַּ֗רְא וְהִנֵּ֤ה הַסְּנֶה֙ בֹּעֵ֣ר בָּאֵ֔שׁ וְהַסְּנֶ֖ה אֵינֶ֥נּוּ אֻכָּֽל׃
ὤφθη δὲ αὐτῷ ἄγγελος Κύρου ἐν πυρὶ φλογὸς ἐκ τοῦ βάτου· καὶ ὁρᾷ ὅτι ὁ βάτος καίεται πυρί, ὁ δὲ βάτος οὐ κατεκαίετο.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Apparuitque ei Dominus in flamma ignis de medio rubi: et videbat quod rubus arderet, et non combureretur.
Allí se le apareció el ángel de Yehová en una llama de fuego en medio de una zarza. Moisés miró y vio que la zarza ardía en llamas, pero no se consumía.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y apareciósele el Angel de Jehová en una llama de fuego en medio de una zarza: y él miró, y vió que la zarza ardía en fuego, y la zarza no se consumía.
There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from within a bush. Moses saw the bush ablaze with fire, but it was not consumed.
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse describes the angel of Yehovah appearing to Moses in a flame of fire from within a bush. Moses then looks and observes that the bush is burning yet not being consumed, a scene marked by repetition of the root "to see" in two different verbal stems.
Key words
- mal'akh ("angel of", H4397) — masculine singular construct noun; links directly to Yehovah, producing "angel of Yehovah" rather than an independent divine appearance.
- i.ye.ra' ("he appeared", H7200) — niphal (passive/reflexive) form of the root "to see": the angel is the one who "makes himself seen" to Moses.
- i.Yar' ("he saw", H7200) — same root as above but in qal (simple active) form: now Moses is the active subject who "sees" the burning bush.
- bo.'Er ("burning", H1197) — qal participle, masculine singular: describes the bush as continuously "in a state of burning," not a single completed act.
- 'u.Kal ("consumed", H0398) — pual (intensive passive) participle: expresses the bush as one that "is being consumed," negated by the preceding 'ei.Ne.nu ("not it", H0369 + suffix), yielding "it was not being consumed."
What the text says
The sentence is built on two occurrences of the same Hebrew root for "seeing" but in different stems: first niphal (i.ye.ra', "he appeared/was seen") describing the angel's self-manifestation, then qal (i.Yar', "he saw") describing Moses' own perception. This grammatical pairing creates a movement from passive appearance to active human observation within the same narrative root, a nuance that translations rendering both simply as "appeared" and "saw" (as in English or Spanish versions) do not visually connect as sharing one root.
The clause describing the bush's condition uses two participles: bo.'Er ("burning") describes an ongoing state, and 'u.Kal ("consumed"), negated by 'ei.Ne.nu, denies an ongoing process of destruction. The construction 'ei.Ne.nu 'u.Kal literally reads "there is not it, [being] consumed" — a durative negation emphasizing the continuous unconsumed state of the bush, rather than a single completed non-event.
Differences between versions
The Hebrew and LXX both specify "the angel of Yehovah" (mal'akh Yehovah / ἄγγελος Κύρου) as the one who appears. The Vulgate instead reads "Apparuitque ei Dominus" ("the Lord appeared to him"), omitting the construct "angel of" found in the Hebrew and Greek texts. The LXX renders the flame-fire construction as ἐν πυρὶ φλογὸς ("in fire of flame"), inverting the Hebrew order labbat 'esh ("flame of fire").
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.