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Exodus 3:2

And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.

KJV

Apparuitque ei Dominus in flamma ignis de medio rubi : et videbat quod rubus arderet, et non combureretur.

Vulgate

ὤφθη δὲ αὐτῷ ἄγγελος Κυρίου ἐν πυρὶ φλογὸς ἐκ τοῦ βάτου· καὶ ὁρᾷ ὅτι ὁ βάτος καίεται πυρί, ὁ δὲ βάτος οὐ κατεκαίετο.

LXX

And the angel of Jehovah appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.

ASV

וַ֠/יֵּרָא מַלְאַ֨ךְ יְהֹוָ֥ה אֵלָ֛י/ו בְּ/לַבַּת אֵ֖שׁ מִ/תּ֣וֹךְ הַ/סְּנֶ֑ה וַ/יַּ֗רְא וְ/הִנֵּ֤ה הַ/סְּנֶה֙ בֹּעֵ֣ר בָּ/אֵ֔שׁ וְ/הַ/סְּנֶ֖ה אֵינֶ֥/נּוּ אֻכָּֽל

Hebrew

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In this verse

Symbols Fire

In the original Hebrew

12 distinct Hebrew words appear in this verse.

אֵ֖שׁ
'sh
noun · 376×
אֵ֥ין
'yn
noun · 787×
אֶל
'l
preposition · 5475×
בִֽעַרְתָּ֥
b'rt
verb · 91×
הִנֵּ֥ה
hnh
pronoun · 838×
יְהוָ֖ה
yhvh
proper_noun · 6455×
יַּ֣רְא
yr'
verb · 1312×
לַבַּת
lbt
noun · 1×
ם
m
verb · 811×
מַלְאַ֣ךְ
ml'k
noun · 212×
סְנֶ֑ה
snh
noun · 6×
ת֣וֹךְ
tvk
noun · 416×

Themes

Doctrines that cite this verse

Typology

Theophany

Miracle

Historic Christian voices

10 passages from patristic writers, Reformers, and church catechisms citing this verse.

§2575Here again the initiative is God's. From the midst of the burning bush he calls Moses.20 This event will remain one of the primordial images of prayer in the spiritual tradition of Jews and Christians alike. When "the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob" calls Moses to be his servant, it is because he is the living God who wants men to live. God reveals himself in order to s…
2. But that what I say may become clearer, we must needs in what follows attend to the very words. What then are these? I make known unto you, brethren, says he, the gospel which I preached unto you. Do you see with what modesty he commences? Do you see how from the beginning he points out that he is bringing in no new nor strange thing? For he who makes known that which was al…
Tertullian argues that it was always the Son, not the Father, who appeared in the Old Testament theophanies. The Son appeared to Abraham at Mamre, wrestled with Jacob, spoke from the burning bush, and appeared to Joshua as commander of the Lord's army. The invisible Father acts through the visible Son.
At the burning bush, Moses encounters the self-existent God who cannot be contained by any name. The fire that burns without consuming symbolizes the divine nature that is eternal and self-sustaining. When God says "I AM THAT I AM," He reveals that existence itself is His essence — He is Being in its purest form, beyond all predication.
The orthodox writers of the Church have correctly and wisely gathered from certain passages that the Word of God is the eternal Son of the Father, who appeared to the patriarchs under the name of the Angel of the LORD. For although it is true that angels sometimes appeared; yet when the Scripture says that the Angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in the burning bush (see Exod. i…
Even under the Old Covenant, God never manifested Himself to His people except through the Mediator. For this reason the ancient Church always held that the Son of God was the visible image of the invisible Father. When God said to Moses, 'I will send an Angel before thee; take heed before Him, for My name is in Him' (see Exod. xxiii. 20-21), it was the Son who was meant. When …

Cross-references

  • 1Kgs 19:12 — And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.
  • 2Cor 1:8 — For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life:
  • Acts 7:30 — And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sina an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush.
  • Dan 3:27 — And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king’s counsellors, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither wer
  • Deut 4:20 — But the LORD hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day.
  • Deut 33:16 — And for the precious things of the earth and fulness thereof, and for the good will of him that dwelt in the bush: let the blessing come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the top of the head of him th
  • Deut 33:16 — And for the precious things of the earth and fulness thereof, and for the good will of him that dwelt in the bush: let the blessing come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the top of the head of him th
  • Exod 3:4 — And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.
  • Exod 3:16 — Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen
  • Exod 3:16 — Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen
  • Exod 19:18 — And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.
  • Exod 23:20 — Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.
  • Exod 24:17 — And the sight of the glory of the LORD was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel.
  • Gen 15:13 — And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;
  • Gen 15:17 — And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.
  • Gen 16:7 — And the angel of the LORD found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur.
  • Gen 22:15 — And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time,
  • Gen 48:16 — The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.
  • Hos 12:4 — Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us;
  • Isa 43:2 — When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame k
  • Isa 54:11 — O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires.
  • Isa 63:9 — In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.
  • Judg 13:6 — Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, A man of God came unto me, and his countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God, very terrible: but I asked him not whence he was, neither
  • Lev 9:24 — And there came a fire out from before the LORD, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat: which when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces.
  • Luke 20:37 — Now that the dead are raised, even Moses shewed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
  • Luke 20:37 — Now that the dead are raised, even Moses shewed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
  • Mal 3:1 — Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the LORD, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold,
  • Mark 12:26 — And as touching the dead, that they rise: have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?
  • Mark 12:26 — And as touching the dead, that they rise: have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?
  • Num 20:16 — And when we cried unto the LORD, he heard our voice, and sent an angel, and hath brought us forth out of Egypt: and, behold, we are in Kadesh, a city in the uttermost of thy border:
  • Ps 66:12 — Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water: but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place.
  • Rev 8:3 — And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was
  • Rom 8:3 — For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: