Who Saw and Called Moses?
Exodus 3:4
Excerpt
A literal translation of both Lord and God is confusing, for it suggests that the one who saw was not the one who called. This is a literary seam, where two different traditions have been joined together, one tradition using the sacred name [YHWH] (Lord) and the other using the usual word for deity, ’[Elohim] (God). The confusion is easily avoided by using the pronoun in place of God, as in 3:4 [TEV]: “When the Lord saw … he called.” 3:4 [TEV] transfers the use of “God” to verse 5, where it fits more naturally in place of the pronoun “he.”
This confusion about the participants is increased with the reference to “the angel” in 3:2a. As explained above, the clause in 3:2a should be understood as a summary or preview statement, with the details of how it happened then listed in sequence. Only one participant in dialogue with Moses is intended throughout the narrative; he is called the Lord, God, and “the angel,” depending on the perspective of the tradition.
Osborn, Noel D., and Howard A. Hatton. A Handbook on Exodus. New York: United Bible Societies, 1999. Print. UBS Handbook Series.
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