Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Shoshanna Walker <rosewalk AT concentric.net>]

But this is a Nname - not a phrase connoting action.

Although all the Rabbinic commentaries discourse on what future 
actions G-d is referring to - hence the reason G-d uses future tense 
in this Name.

Shoshanna


That may be more information than you wanted. Anyway, the short answer
is that translators often translate the verb in Ex. 3.14 as a present
tense because it is quite common for a yiqtol to represent an action
that occurs in the present (from the perspective of the speaker).