Exodus 3:13
New International Version
Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”

New Living Translation
But Moses protested, “If I go to the people of Israel and tell them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ they will ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what should I tell them?”

English Standard Version
Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”

Berean Standard Bible
Then Moses asked God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is His name?’ What should I tell them?”

King James Bible
And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?

New King James Version
Then Moses said to God, “Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?”

New American Standard Bible
Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?”

NASB 1995
Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?”

NASB 1977
Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I shall say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?”

Legacy Standard Bible
Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am about to come to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ And they will say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?”

Amplified Bible
Then Moses said to God, “Behold, when I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers (ancestors) has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?”

Christian Standard Bible
Then Moses asked God, “If I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name? ’ what should I tell them? ”

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Then Moses asked God, “If I go to the Israelites and say to them: The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me, ‘What is His name?’ what should I tell them?”

American Standard Version
And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? What shall I say unto them?

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And Moshe said to God, “Behold, I shall go to the children of Israel and I shall say to them, LORD JEHOVAH, God of your fathers has sent me unto you”, and they will say to me, ‘What is his name?’ What shall I say to them?”

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And Moses said to God, Behold, I shall go forth to the children of Israel, and shall say to them, The God of our fathers has sent me to you; and they will ask me, What is his name? What shall I say to them?

Contemporary English Version
Moses answered, "I will tell the people of Israel that the God their ancestors worshiped has sent me to them. But what should I say, if they ask me your name?"

Douay-Rheims Bible
Moses said to God: Lo, I shall go to the children of Israel, and say to them: The God of your fathers hath sent me to you. If they should say to me: What is his name? what shall I say to them?

English Revised Version
And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Then Moses replied to God, "Suppose I go to the people of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' What should I tell them?"

Good News Translation
But Moses replied, "When I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your ancestors sent me to you,' they will ask me, 'What is his name?' So what can I tell them?"

International Standard Version
Moses told God, "Look! When I go to the Israelis and tell them, 'The God of your ancestors sent me to you,' they'll say to me, 'What is his name?' What should I say to them?"

JPS Tanakh 1917
And Moses said unto God: 'Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them: The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me: What is His name? what shall I say unto them?'

Literal Standard Version
And Moses says to God, “Behold, I am coming to the sons of Israel, and have said to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they have said to me, What [is] His Name? What do I say to them?”

Majority Standard Bible
Then Moses asked God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is His name?’ What should I tell them?”

New American Bible
“But,” said Moses to God, “if I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what do I tell them?”

NET Bible
Moses said to God, "If I go to the Israelites and tell them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?'--what should I say to them?"

New Revised Standard Version
But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”

New Heart English Bible
And Moses said to God, "Look, when I come to the children of Israel, and tell them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you;' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' What should I tell them?"

Webster's Bible Translation
And Moses said to God, Behold, when I come to the children of Israel, and shall say to them, The God of your fathers hath sent me to you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? What shall I say to them?

World English Bible
Moses said to God, “Behold, when I come to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what should I tell them?”

Young's Literal Translation
And Moses saith unto God, 'Lo, I am coming unto the sons of Israel, and have said to them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you, and they have said to me, What is His name? what do I say unto them?'

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Moses at the Burning Bush
12“I will surely be with you,” God said, “and this will be the sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, all of you will worship God on this mountain.” 13Then Moses asked God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is His name?’ What should I tell them?” 14God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ”…

Cross References
Acts 3:13
The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus. You handed Him over and rejected Him before Pilate, even though he had decided to release Him.

Exodus 3:12
"I will surely be with you," God said, "and this will be the sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, all of you will worship God on this mountain."

Exodus 3:14
God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.'"

Exodus 3:15
God also told Moses, "Say to the Israelites, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers--the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob--has sent me to you.' This is My name forever, and this is how I am to be remembered in every generation.

Exodus 7:16
Then say to him, 'The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to tell you: Let My people go, so that they may worship Me in the wilderness. But you have not listened until now.


Treasury of Scripture

And Moses said to God, Behold, when I come to the children of Israel, and shall say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say to them?

What is his name.

Exodus 3:14
And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

Exodus 15:3
The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name.

Genesis 32:29
And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there.

Jump to Previous
Children Fathers Israel Israelites Moses Suppose What
Jump to Next
Children Fathers Israel Israelites Moses Suppose What
Exodus 3
1. Moses keeps Jethro's flock.
2. God appears to him in a burning bush.
9. He sends him to deliver Israel.
13. The name of God.
15. His message to Israel, and Pharaoh, whose opposition is foretold.
20. He is assured of Israel's deliverance.














(13) What is his name?--In Egypt, and wherever polytheism prevailed, every god had, as a matter of course, a name. Among the Israelites hitherto God had been known only by titles, as El or Elohim, "the Lofty One; "Shaddai," the Powerful; "Jahveh, or Jehovah, "the Existent." These titles were used with some perception of their meaning; no one of them had as yet passed into a proper name. Moses, imagining that the people might have become so far Egyptianised as to be no longer content with this state of things, asks God by what name he shall speak of Him to them. Who shall he say has appeared to him?

Verse 13. - What is his name? It is not at all clear why Moses should suppose that the Israelites would ask him this question, nor does it even appear that they did ask it. Perhaps, however, he thought that, as the Egyptians used the word "god," generically, and had a special name for each particular god - as Ammon, Phthah, Ra, Mentu, Her, Osiris, and the like - when he told his people of "the God of their fathers," they would conclude that he, too, had a proper name, and would wish to know it. The Egyptians set much store by the names of their gods, which in every ease had a meaning. Ammen was "the concealed (god)," Phthah, "the revealer," Ra,"the swift," etc. Hitherto Israel's God had had no name that could be called a proper name more than any other. He had been known as "El," "The High;" "Shad-dai," "The Strong;" and "Jehovah," "The Existent;" but these terms had all been felt to be descriptive epithets, and none of them had passed as yet into a proper name. What was done at this time, by the authority of God himself, was to select from among the epithets one to be distinctly a proper name, and at the same time to explain its true meaning as something more than "The Existent" - as really "The Alone Existent" - the source of all existence. Henceforth this name, which had previously been but little used and perhaps less understood, predominated over every other, was cherished by the Jews themselves as a sacred treasure, and recognised by those around them as the proper appellation of the one and only God whom the Israelites worshipped. It is found in this sense on the Moabite stone ('Records of the Past,' vol. 11, p. 166), in the fragments of Philo-Byblius, and elsewhere.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
Then Moses
מֹשֶׁ֜ה (mō·šeh)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 4872: Moses -- a great Israelite leader, prophet and lawgiver

asked
וַיֹּ֨אמֶר (way·yō·mer)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 559: To utter, say

God,
הָֽאֱלֹהִ֗ים (hā·’ĕ·lō·hîm)
Article | Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 430: gods -- the supreme God, magistrates, a superlative

“Suppose
הִנֵּ֨ה (hin·nêh)
Interjection
Strong's 2009: Lo! behold!

I
אָנֹכִ֣י (’ā·nō·ḵî)
Pronoun - first person common singular
Strong's 595: I

go
בָא֮ (ḇā)
Verb - Qal - Participle - masculine singular
Strong's 935: To come in, come, go in, go

to
אֶל־ (’el-)
Preposition
Strong's 413: Near, with, among, to

the Israelites
בְּנֵ֣י (bə·nê)
Noun - masculine plural construct
Strong's 1121: A son

and say
וְאָמַרְתִּ֣י (wə·’ā·mar·tî)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Conjunctive perfect - first person common singular
Strong's 559: To utter, say

to them,
לָהֶ֔ם (lā·hem)
Preposition | third person masculine plural
Strong's Hebrew

‘The God
אֱלֹהֵ֥י (’ĕ·lō·hê)
Noun - masculine plural construct
Strong's 430: gods -- the supreme God, magistrates, a superlative

of your fathers
אֲבוֹתֵיכֶ֖ם (’ă·ḇō·w·ṯê·ḵem)
Noun - masculine plural construct | second person masculine plural
Strong's 1: Father

has sent
שְׁלָחַ֣נִי (šə·lā·ḥa·nî)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person masculine singular | first person common singular
Strong's 7971: To send away, for, out

me to you,’
אֶל־ (’el-)
Preposition
Strong's 413: Near, with, among, to

and they ask
וְאָֽמְרוּ־ (wə·’ā·mə·rū-)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Conjunctive perfect - third person common plural
Strong's 559: To utter, say

me,
לִ֣י (lî)
Preposition | first person common singular
Strong's Hebrew

‘What
מַה־ (mah-)
Interrogative
Strong's 4100: What?, what!, indefinitely what

is His name?’
שְּׁמ֔וֹ (šə·mōw)
Noun - masculine singular construct | third person masculine singular
Strong's 8034: A name

What
מָ֥ה (māh)
Interrogative
Strong's 4100: What?, what!, indefinitely what

should I tell
אֹמַ֖ר (’ō·mar)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - first person common singular
Strong's 559: To utter, say

them?”
אֲלֵהֶֽם׃ (’ă·lê·hem)
Preposition | third person masculine plural
Strong's 413: Near, with, among, to


Links
Exodus 3:13 NIV
Exodus 3:13 NLT
Exodus 3:13 ESV
Exodus 3:13 NASB
Exodus 3:13 KJV

Exodus 3:13 BibleApps.com
Exodus 3:13 Biblia Paralela
Exodus 3:13 Chinese Bible
Exodus 3:13 French Bible
Exodus 3:13 Catholic Bible

OT Law: Exodus 3:13 Moses said to God Behold when (Exo. Ex)
Exodus 3:12
Top of Page
Top of Page