Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Trevor Peterson" <speederson AT erols.com>]

> Everything I know about storytelling tells me that this response is not a
> theological or theontological proposition but an irritated reaction to 
> repeated interruption.  What the response "means" is that the Deity is 
> annoyed.  The outburst, however, discharges the irritation which prompted
> it, and the Deity immediately moderates His tone and proceeds to give Moses
> the *real* answer: "Tell the sons of Israel 'YHWH, the god of your fathers
> ... has sent me to you.'  *This* is my name ... "

So what's your take on the second half of v. 14?  I could see the first
half possibly being this outburst you suggest, but it seems to me like
something more substantive has to be meant, by the time you get to 14b. 
And since 14b seems to build directly off of 14a, that might diminish the
likelihood of your suggestion.  In other words, if God could go on to
identify Himself as )eHyE (a designation which, to my knowledge, is never
used elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible), it seems like it would have to
develop some sort of serious assertion in the preceding clause.

Trevor Peterson
CUA/Semitics