Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Exodus 3:13 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 13. 13And 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?
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
The line at 3:13 records “And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of…” and gives this movement its next narrated or instructed action.
Read It With
- Exodus 3:13–15
Read Exodus 3:13 with 3:13–15. The line at 3:13 records “And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of…” and gives this movement its next narrated or instructed action. The whole unit shows: Moses asks what name to give Israel; the answer 'I AM THAT I AM' and the ancestral name YHWH disclose presence and identity while leaving the Hebrew formulation open to more than one nuance.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Moses asks for the divine name after receiving the commission and promise of presence, so the answer identifies the sender of Israel's deliverance rather than supplying a magical formula. Within the book's larger movement, this unit makes the following contribution: Moses asks what name to give Israel; the answer 'I AM THAT I AM' and the ancestral name YHWH disclose presence and identity while leaving the Hebrew formulation open to more than one nuance. At 3:13, the wording “And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of…” makes this verse's contribution precise. The line at 3:13 records “And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of…” and gives this movement its next narrated or instructed action.
Read Exodus 3:13–15 together
Why these verses belong together: The divine name and promised presence forms one grammatical or narrative sequence and should not be divided into independent slogans.
Verse 13. 13 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?
Verse 14. 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.
Verse 15. 15 And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.
Follow the Context
- The unit opens at 3:13 with this development: Moses asks what name to give Israel; the answer 'I AM THAT I AM' and the ancestral name YHWH disclose presence and identity while leaving the Hebrew formulation open to more than one nuance.
- By 3:15, the narrated speech, instruction, action, or outcome has completed the movement named “The Divine Name Is Given.”
Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation
“And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of…”
In plain language: The line at 3:13 records “And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of…” and gives this movement its next narrated or instructed action.
Moses asks what name to give Israel; the answer 'I AM THAT I AM' and the ancestral name YHWH disclose presence and identity while leaving the Hebrew formulation open to more than one nuance. The phrase belongs to 3:13–15.
Why it matters: Careful interpreters agree that the received text states the following: Moses asks what name to give Israel; the answer 'I AM THAT I AM' and the ancestral name YHWH disclose presence and identity while leaving the Hebrew formulation open to more than one nuance. They disagree over source layers, date, historical recovery, archaeology, Hebrew details, ritual development, legal use, and canonical relationship in different proportions; this study treats the final form directly while marking those alternatives as probable or uncertain rather than settled fact.
How certain? probableWhat This Verse Is Not Saying
Exodus 3:13 does not detach the verse's specific words—“And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of…”—from their role in “The Divine Name Is Given” or turn them into an independent command, promise, judgment, ritual, or authorization. Read Exodus 3:13 with 3:13–15. The divine-name disclosure does not support magical pronunciation, speculative codes, coercive certainty, antisemitic claims about Jewish reading practice, or flattening genuine Hebrew ambiguity. In context, The line at 3:13 records “And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of…” and gives this movement its next narrated or instructed action.
What Remains True
Because Exodus 3:13 contributes “And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of…” to “The Divine Name Is Given,” its proportionate enduring truth is: God's self-disclosure joins identity, remembered promise, and active presence without placing the divine mystery under human control.
How It Can Shape Life
- At Exodus 3:13, the line “And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of…” serves this contextual meaning: Moses asks what name to give Israel; the answer 'I AM THAT I AM' and the ancestral name YHWH disclose presence and identity while leaving the Hebrew formulation open to more than one nuance. The bounded action is: A proportionate application of “The Divine Name Is Given” is this: Use sacred language with humility: distinguish what the text says, what grammar may imply, and what remains beyond confident explanation.
Teach It Back
Explain why Exodus 3:13 says “And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of…” inside 3:13–15. Name its actor and effect, one historical, Hebrew, compositional, legal, ritual, or ethical limit, one person or group bearing risk, and one conclusion the verse does not authorize.
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Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Exodus 3:13–15 — The Divine Name Is GivenSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
Exodus 3:13 remains inside this material limit: Careful interpreters agree that the received text states the following: Moses asks what name to give Israel; the answer 'I AM THAT I AM' and the ancestral name YHWH disclose presence and identity while leaving the Hebrew formulation open to more than one nuance. They disagree over source layers, date, historical recovery, archaeology, Hebrew details, ritual development, legal use, and canonical relationship in different proportions; this study treats the final form directly while marking those alternatives as probable or uncertain rather than settled fact.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: Exodus 3:13–15, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Exodus
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, names, speech, law, ritual vocabulary, older-English controls, and translation limits.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Exod.xml, words and morphology for 3:13–15
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Exodus with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
eBible.org distribution of the NET Bible, PDF generated 2026-08-12
Supports: Unit-bounded Hebrew, syntax, lexical, textual, name, measure, legal, ritual, and older-English notes; silence is not evidence.
Exact location: NET Bible Exodus PDF, complete 127-page PDF, translation and verse-attached translator notes for 3:13–15
Open source ↗open university course study guide
The Burning Bush Study Guide
Joel S. Baden and John J. Collins
Yale Bible Study, 2019 course edition
Supports: Oppression, Moses traditions, name revelation, commission, source-critical alternatives, and narrative transition to rescue.
Exact location: Yale Bible Study, 'The Burning Bush,' complete study guide pp. 1–5, sections on Exodus 1–6, oppression, Moses, divine-name disclosures, call, and source differences; applied to Exodus 3:13–15
Open source ↗open university course study guide
Exodus Introduction Study Guide
Joel S. Baden and John J. Collins
Yale Bible Study, 2019 course edition
Supports: Book movement, historicity and archaeology limits, literary plurality, final-form reading, and Exodus's place in Torah.
Exact location: Yale Bible Study, Exodus Introduction study guide, pp. 1–6: 'Exodus and the Patriarchs,' 'The Historicity of the Exodus,' 'The Sources in Exodus,' and 'The Book of Exodus'
Open source ↗