2. Mittoch (out of the midst of); I suppose it blazed up above it, hence the bush was be-er ba-esh (burned with fire) yet not consumed. Here we are in the full tide of Jehovah or Mal'ak' Jehovah.
4. Here He takes His title as nature-an additional proof of the way they (the expressions) are used. It was not merely a Person, but a Being who was such—God—hence Elohim in verse 6, "to look upon God"; but in verse 7 it is naturally Jehovah.
13. This shows that Israel had as much as forgotten any true God of their fathers, or did not know any God as their God.
14. The question then comes, what is eh'yeh (I am, or I shall be)? It is not ha-yah (he is), which has much more the sense of ginomai (has become), used for existence, but primarily of what did not exist (werden) before; eh'yeh is much more existence proceeding not from a beginning, a cause, but in, or from, self. It is not he on (He who is) exactly, which is simple existence at present; whereas eh'yeh seems to me to imply self-derived existence-a term, I admit, inconsistent as all mere human terms must be (unless eh'yeh itself, given of God) but which will be understood. I, and being, are both in eh'yeh, not in he on. It may be inquired if asher (that which) be "that which," and not an adverb "inasmuch as," so that "I am so that I am," or "I am because I am"; but of this, query.
He exists in the powers of His own existence—not caused—and in the will of His existence, not by it so as to make it a cause of His own existence, which is simply absurd, but in it, as we say self-existent, which happily hides the infirmity of human thought.
The Hebrew future [i.e., eh'yeh, I will be] is not simply future, but future to the thought in the mind, only "being" cannot here be separated from "I" as a consequence. "I" and "being" are coincident, yet morally "I" goes first; "am" is affirmed about "I," but also an immutable existence, but, as I said, this must be inquired into.
Jehovah is the name He takes with Israel, but this is the application of eh'yeh to continuance—existence relative to those in time.
11, 13, 14, 15. It is God, the Being who was such then absolutely "Eh'yeh "; and then Jehovah, the God of your fathers.
15. Eh'yeh (I am) had sent him, but it was Jehovah in personal relationship with them forever, and I'dor dor (unto all generations). Jehovah was the God of their fathers, but not the name in which He was revealed to them.
22. "Borrow" is certainly an unhappy word—it is "ask." They were going out with a high hand, after terrible judgments.
Note the difference of Moses in his intercourse with God at the bush, and what he was in Egypt, i.e., how entirely, when God is working by him, all question is gone-he is possessed, and moves on in unhesitating energy every step, not so much thinking about the power, as animated by it, having a just sense of what God was. The power was acting in him—God willed that his own state should be exercised, brought in question, brought out into his own consciousness—in him (Moses) the power of the circumstances predominates over a present God as to Moses' heart; but God working by Moses, every trace of this disappears—not that Moses was changed in this way morally not necessarily so, but God had taken him up into His hand, and was now using him; before, He was showing him to himself, that he might know it was not himself—this is important to notice. I note it here, the long sojourn in the desert which occurred, was not the presence of God which revealed, and brought out humblingly in one's own sight, but here, between God and Moses—the latter may be often needed too—nor was this the Moses-work in Egypt, it had wholly disappeared.
At any given time, God may leave us to pass on in peace, or in regular duty, which requires absolutely His power and presence, without placing us in either of these cases. It is important, in all, to be fully before God, and to remember that the absence of the power of circumstances over us, and our power over them is not necessarily our state, if God is using us, though He may employ the vessel so as to use it, as is indeed His way. Elijah would hardly have fled, if his soul had been in the power which was ministerially exercised by him; and that, in general, is what ought to be—but Paul wrote an inspired letter, and for a time was sorry he wrote it.