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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Exodus 3:13 - 3:13
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When Moses had been thus emboldened by the assurance of divine assistance to undertake the mission, he inquired what he was to say, in case the people asked him for the name of the God of their fathers. The supposition that the people might ask the name of their fathers' God is not to be attributed to the fact, that as the Egyptians had separate names for their numerous deities, the Israelites also would want to know the name of their own God. For, apart from the circumstance that the name by which God had revealed Himself to the fathers cannot have vanished entirely from the memory of the people, and more especially of Moses, the mere knowledge of the name would not have been of much use to them. The question, “What is His name?” presupposed that the name expressed the nature and operations of God, and that God would manifest in deeds the nature expressed in His name. God therefore told him His name, or, to speak more correctly, He explained the name יהוה, by which He had made Himself known to Abraham at the making of the covenant (Gen 15:7), in this way, אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה, “I am that I am,” and designated Himself by this name as the absolute God of the fathers, acting with unfettered liberty and self-dependence. This name precluded any comparison between the God of the Israelites and the deities of the Egyptians and other nations, and furnished Moses and his people with strong consolation in their affliction, and a powerful support to their confidence in the realization of His purposes of salvation as made known to the fathers. To establish them in this confidence, God added still further: “This is My name for ever, and My memorial unto all generations;” that is to say, God would even manifest Himself in the nature expressed by the name Jehovah, and by this He would have all generations both know and revere Him. שֵׁם, the name, expresses the objective manifestation of the divine nature; זֵבֶר, memorial, the subjective recognition of that nature on the part of men. דֹּר דֹּר, as in Exo 17:16 and Pro 27:24. The repetition of the same word suggests the idea of uninterrupted continuance and boundless duration (Ewald, §313a). The more usual expression is וָדֹר יָדֹר, Deu 32:7; Psa 10:6; Psa 33:11; or דֹּרִים דֹּר, Psa 72:5; Psa 102:25; Isa 51:8.