Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Daniel Wagner" <dan.wagner AT netzero.net>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Stoney Breyer <stoney AT touchwood.net>
To: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Sent: Friday, May 18, 2001 3:46 PM

Subject: Re: _)aSHER_ in Ex. 3:14 (was "I AM")


> Dear Trevor Peterson:
> 
> Permit me to address your points in reverse order ...
> >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.
> 
> But surely the fact that the designation is never used again suggests very 
> strongly that we should NOT take seriously the implication that His name is 
> 'ehyeh?

Hardly so. Several other divine names are singularly revealed, e.g., 
"Jehovah-Jireh," Yahweh-Is-There, Yahweh-Rophe, Yahweh-Zidkenu come to mind 
but many more. Each is contextually relevant to the needs of the moment, and 
the one in Ex. 3 is no exception.

>  . . . I say "implication" because in fact the Deity does NOT 
> "assert" His name to be 'ehyeh.  He only tells Moses to tell the sons of 
> Israel that that's who sent him.  I'm suggesting He doesn't mean it 
> seriously.

But the formula could be different simply because of the uniqueness of the 
name, and to allow for an rhetorical element.

> 
> >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.
> 
> I have not made myself clear.  Let me put it in script form, transforming 
> the wayyo'mers into speech headings and adding interpretive directions to 
> the actors in parentheses:
> 
> MOSES:  (interrupting again) ... and they say to me "What's his name?" -- 
> what do I tell them?
> 
> DEITY:          (exploding)  I'll be who I'll be! (sarcastic) Tell the 
> sons of Israel I'll be sent you!  (calming down) 

In isolation this may be possible, but what contextual evidence is there that 
Moses was asking a frustrating question? Granted, there was plenty about 
Moses' responses in his calling dialogue that "annoyed" God, if i could use 
that term. But it seems to be a progression, and the anger comes in chapter 
4:14. Your view that it comes so early in the progression seems unusual and 
out-of-order in the narrative to me.

> Tell the sons of Israel 
> that YHWH, god of their fathers ... sent you; (laboring his point to make 
> sure there's no misunderstanding) *this* is my name, *this* my memorial age 
> after age.

_YHWH_ is likely related to, or at least an intentional allusion to, _)HYH_, 
which would explain the follow-up here.

Dan Wagner



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