Go to Related Reading
About this book

Onkelos Exodus

About this book

The Burning Bush and the Call of Moses

Chapter 3

1 And Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the chief of Midian, and he led the flock to the place of the best pastures of the wilderness,⁠ and came to the mountain on which the glory of the Lord was revealed, to Horeb. 2 And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire in the middle of a bush. And he looked, and saw the bush burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed. 3 And Moses said, I will turn aside now and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned up. 4 And the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, and the Lord called to him from the middle of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses! And he said, Here I am. 5 And He said, Do not come near here; take the sandals off your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy. 6 And He said, I am the God of your fathers; the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look at the glory of the Lord. 7 And the Lord said, The bondage of My people who are in Egypt is surely revealed before Me, and their cry because of their taskmasters is heard before Me; for their afflictions are revealed before Me;⁠ 8 and I have revealed Myself to deliver them from the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, a land producing milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9 And now, look, the cry of the sons of Israel has come up before Me, and the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them is also revealed before Me. 10 And now, come, I will send you to Pharaoh, and will bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt. 11 And Moses said before the Lord, Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh to bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt? 12 And He said, Because My Memra shall be your helper:⁠ and this shall be the sign that I have sent you: when you lead the people out of Egypt, you shall worship before the Lord on this mountain. 13 And Moses said before the Lord, Look, when I come to the sons 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? 14 And the Lord said to Moses, EHEYEH ASHER EHEYEH. And He said, This is what you shall say to the sons of Israel, EHEYEH has sent me to you. 15 The Lord also said to Moses, This is what you shall say to the sons of Israel, 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 My Memorial for every generation. 16 Go and gather the elders of Israel and say to them, The Lord, the God of your fathers, has revealed Himself to me, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, I have surely remembered you, and what has been done to you in Egypt; 17 and I have said that I will bring you up from the bondage of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, to a land producing milk and honey. 18 And they will obey you, and you shall go, you and the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt, and say to him, The Lord, the God of the Jews, has called us; and now let us go a journey of three days into the desert, so that we may sacrifice before the Lord our God. 19 But it is known before Me that the king of Egypt will not let you go, not even because of the One whose power is mighty. 20 But I will send the blow of My power, and will strike the Egyptians with all My miracles which I will perform among them, and after that they will send you away. 21 And I will make this people find favor in the eyes of the Egyptians, and when you go, you shall not go empty-handed. 22 But each woman shall ask her neighbor and the woman who lives in her house for articles of silver and of gold and for clothing, and you shall put them on your sons and on your daughters, and so you shall empty Egypt.

Texts in conversation

Compare Exodus 3:12 and Onkelos Exodus 3:12

Hebrew Bible · Targum

Share:

Summary

Exodus 3 gives reassurance by saying God “will be with you,” using language that suggests physical presence. The Aramaic translation in Targum Onkelos replaces this with “My Memra will help you,” using a mediating term to avoid God acting like a human.

Passages

Exodus 3:12

Hebrew Bible
11 Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, or that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” 12 He replied, “Surely I will be with you, and this will be the sign to you that I have sent you: When you bring the people out of Egypt, you and they will serve God at this mountain.” 13 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?”
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Exodus

Onkelos Exodus 3:12

Targum
11 And Moses said before the Lord, Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh to bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt? 12 And He said, Because My Memra shall be your helper: and this shall be the sign that I have sent you: when you lead the people out of Egypt, you shall worship before the Lord on this mountain. 13 And Moses said before the Lord, Look, when I come to the sons 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?
50–500 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Onkelos Exodus

References

"... 'My Memra will help you' ... the biblical phrase 'because I will be with you' is rejected by the targumist as being too anthropomorphic ..."
Israel Drazin and Stanley M. Wagner, Onkelos on the Torah, Exodus: Understanding the Bible Text (Jerusalem: Gefen, 2006), 15.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Tags

Your feedback

Exodus 3:12 and Onkelos Exodus 3:12

Leave a comment

Your questions and comments are welcome!

Comments

Glossary

Search the Library