What Is God's Name? Exodus 3:13–15 Explained
Short answer: In Exodus 3:13–15 Moses asks what he should tell the Israelites when they ask for God's name. God answers first with the declaration I AM WHO I AM, then tells Moses to say that I AM has sent him, and then gives the name Yahweh, identified as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God calls this his name forever and his memorial to all generations, so the God now sending Moses to rescue Israel is the same God who made covenant with the fathers and has made himself known by name.
A name given in the middle of a conversation
The setting matters before the words do. Moses is standing at a burning bush on Mount Horeb, in wilderness outside Egypt, and God has just told him he has seen Israel's affliction, heard their cry, and come down to deliver them (3:7–10). This is a commission scene, and it is built as a dialogue: Moses objects, God answers, Moses objects again. The first objection in 3:11 was personal, who am I to go to Pharaoh, and God met it with presence, promising to be with him. The second objection in 3:13 shifts ground. Moses is no longer asking about himself. He is asking what he should say when Israel asks which God has sent him.
That question tells us what kind of moment this is. Israel has lived for generations among a people who worship many gods, and a claim that the God of the fathers has spoken raises an obvious follow-up: what is his name? The request is not idle curiosity. It is the question of a suffering people who need to know whether the one speaking is the God who made promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God's answer comes in two movements. He gives the name in 3:14, and then in 3:15 he ties that name to the fathers and calls it his name forever. The name is not offered as a puzzle but as an identification.
Notice what follows immediately. God does not let the name stand alone as a piece of information. In 3:16–17 he sends Moses to gather the elders and announce that Yahweh has visited them, has seen what is done to them, and will bring them up to a land flowing with milk and honey. The name is given for a mission, spoken to a burdened people as the guarantee that the exodus is the work of the God of their fathers. That shape should guard us against treating the name as a technique, a charm for healing or protection or success. The text gives the name as a ground for trusting the God who is present with his people, not as a promise that every outcome we want will follow.
The passage closes the gap between who God is and what he will do. Moses asked for a name to carry into Egypt, and God gave him one attached to a promise and a people. The name is not a password that bends circumstances. It is the self-identification of the God who has seen affliction and has come down, and it is meant to be trusted because of who speaks it, not wielded because of what we want from it.
The name God gives Moses
Moses has already been told that God will be with him. Now he asks a second question: when the Israelites ask for a name, what should he say? God answers twice. First he says, “I AM WHO I AM,” and then tells Moses to say that I AM has sent him. The wording is deliberately open. God does not hand Moses a label to manage; he identifies himself as the one who simply is. The name is tied to his own being and to the promise of presence already spoken on the mountain.
Then God gives the name Yahweh and immediately fastens it to the fathers: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That order matters. The name is not news about a stranger god who has just appeared. It is the identity of the covenant God the patriarchs knew, now speaking to their descendants in Egypt. God also calls this his memorial to all generations, which means the name is how he is to be remembered and invoked. It is given to be spoken in worship and prayer, not decoded like a riddle or hidden formula.
Here is where care is needed. The name is a ground of trust in God's presence, not a technique for securing outcomes. Treating it as a charm for healing, protection, or success turns a person into a formula and God into a mechanism. The text gives no such guarantee. What it gives is a God who names himself, attaches his name to his covenant faithfulness, and sends Moses with that name on his lips. Trust rests in the God who is there, not in the syllables themselves.
The name God gives to Moses
The setting matters for reading verses 13–15. God has just told Moses he has seen Israel's affliction, heard their cry, and come down to deliver them. Moses already objected once, asking who he was to go to Pharaoh, and God answered with presence rather than credentials: certainly I will be with you. Now the second objection turns outward. Moses pictures standing before a people surrounded by many gods and being asked which one sent him. The question is not idle curiosity. It is the question of a suffering people who need to know whether the one speaking is the God of their fathers or another claimant.
God answers with both a declaration and a name. He says “I AM WHO I AM,” then tells Moses to say that I AM has sent him. He adds that this is Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and that this is his name forever, his memorial to all generations. The claim is striking in its plainness: the God now acting to rescue Israel is the same God who made covenant with the fathers, and he has made himself known by name. The name is not a riddle to solve but a self-identification from the one who speaks.
Verses 16–17 show what the name is for. God immediately sends Moses to gather the elders and announce that Yahweh has visited them and will bring them up from affliction to a land flowing with milk and honey. The name is given for a mission, spoken to a suffering people as the guarantee that the exodus is the work of the God of their fathers. That cautions us against treating the divine name as a charm or technique for obtaining healing, protection, or success. The text gives the name as ground for trusting God's presence, not as a guarantee of outcomes we dictate.
Where readers differ on the name
Moses asks a practical question: what should he tell the people when they ask for God's name? God answers with the words of Exodus 3:14: “I AM WHO I AM,” and then tells Moses to say that I AM has sent him. Careful readers hear different emphases here. Some stress self-existence, God simply is, depending on nothing. Others notice that the answer follows God's promise in 3:12 to be with Moses, and hear the name as a pledge of faithful presence. Both readings sit inside the text. What the text does not do is explain the name as a formula Moses can use to control events.
The second answer in 3:15 adds something the first does not. God tells Moses to name him as Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the name forever and his memorial to all generations. Readers differ on how the two answers relate. Some treat verse 15 as an explanation of verse 14, unpacking the earlier words. Others read verse 14 as leading into verse 15, where the name is finally given. Either way, the name is tied to the patriarchs and to a specific people. It is not a free-floating secret. It identifies the God who has already been involved with this family.
Traditions differ over how the name should be spoken and written today, and the text itself does not settle pronunciation. Some read the name aloud, some substitute a title, some write it with vowels omitted. These are practices, not commands the passage gives. What stays central is that God names himself, that the name belongs to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and that Moses is sent with it to a people God has promised to rescue. The name is a ground of trust in God's presence. It is never a technique for securing healing, protection, or success.
The name that goes with his people into the Gospel
Moses asks a practical question. He is not asking for a philosophy lesson but for credentials he can carry into Egypt. God answers with a name and with a promise already attached to it: this God is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the one who saw the affliction of his people and came down to deliver them (3:13–17). Notice the order. The name is given so Moses can say who is sending him, and the sending is toward rescue. The name is a ground of trust in the presence of God, not a formula for controlling him.
The New Testament does not treat this name as a relic. Jesus speaks in the same self-identifying form, saying who he is rather than merely describing himself, and the Gospel of John builds its signs and sayings around that claim. The God who named himself at the bush is the God who acts to save, and the church confesses that this saving action reaches its center in the cross and resurrection. The pattern of Exodus 3 holds: God sees, hears, comes down and delivers. In Christ he comes down not to a mountain but into human flesh, and delivers not from Egypt alone but from sin and death.
This matters for how we use the name. It is not a charm, a technique or a guarantee of healing, protection or success. The text gives the name as a reason to trust the God who is present with his people, not as a lever that secures the outcome we want. Moses receives a promise of presence, and even he will face Pharaoh's refusal before he sees the exodus. So we pray in the name, we trust the God who bears it, and we leave the timing and the shape of deliverance to him, who has already shown in Christ how far he will go to save.
Trusting the God who gives his name
Notice what Moses receives and what he does not. He asks what to say when the elders press him, and God gives him a name and a message: tell them Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, has sent you (3:14–15). He is not handed a plan for Pharaoh's resistance or a timetable for the wilderness. The name is a ground for trust, not a lever for results. That distinction matters in ordinary life. We are tempted to turn God's name into a technique that secures the outcome we want, whether healing, safety or success. The text gives us something better and humbler: a God who has bound himself to a people and sends them with his presence.
The grace comes first. Before Moses is asked to go, God says, “Certainly I will be with you” (3:12). The command to return to Egypt rests on a promise already spoken to a man with no standing and a people with no power. That order shapes how we respond. Reverent use of God's name begins with remembering who is speaking, the God who visits his people and sees their affliction (3:16). Honest prayer follows, the kind that names our fear and asks for help rather than the kind that recites a formula and expects a transaction. We come to a Father who has already acted in Christ, not to a mechanism we operate.
Then comes readiness to go where he sends, leaving outcomes to him. Moses is told to gather the elders and speak the message, and the rest is God's to accomplish. We can do the same in small, unremarkable places: speak truthfully about God's character when someone asks, refuse to use his name as a charm over a difficult situation, and keep praying when the answer is slow. Faithfulness is measured by obedience to the One who sent us, not by whether the road turned out easy. The name leads us back to his covenant faithfulness, and there we can rest.
Biblical fidelity check
Read slowly here, and the shape of the exchange matters. Moses asks who he is (3:11); God answers with presence (3:12); Moses asks who God is (3:13). The reply comes in two forms, first the open wording of I AM WHO I AM, then the name Yahweh fastened to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The risk is treating either form as a riddle to decode or a formula to wield. Notice that the name is given to a sent man for a people God has already promised to visit and bring up out of affliction.
Careful readers differ over whether I AM WHO I AM chiefly declares God's self-existence or echoes the promise of presence in 3:12, and over whether verse 15 explains verse 14 or completes it. Traditions also differ on speaking and writing the name, since the text settles no pronunciation. What stays central is that God names himself, binds the name to the fathers, and sends Moses with it to a people he will rescue. Nothing here makes the name a technique for securing outcomes.
Studies that take up Exodus 3:13-15 from another angle
The name God gives here opens onto the wider story of how Scripture speaks of God's identity and how his people are to use his name. Further study could trace Exodus from Egypt: What Passover Teaches Us About God the covenant with Abraham that stands behind this answer, Exodus 9:1-7: The Plague on Egypt's Livestock the deliverance from Egypt that follows, Exodus 3 Names of God: What Does I AM Mean the way later biblical writers call on the name Yahweh, and The Burning Bush: Exodus 3 and God's Holy Call what it means to know God by name rather than treat the name as a formula.
Frequently asked questions
What is God's name in the Bible?
In this passage God gives Moses his name: he tells Israel that "I AM has sent me to you" and that his name is Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, kept forever to all generations. The name answers Moses' fear that the people would ask who sent him. It ties God's identity to the fathers he covenanted with and to his promise to visit and rescue Israel from Egypt. The name is not a formula but a person who acts on his word.
Why does God answer Moses with both I AM WHO I AM and Yahweh?
God gives Moses two forms of the same self-revelation: a name that explains his unchanging, self-existent life, and the covenant name Yahweh tied to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The first answers Moses' fear that Israel will ask who sent him; the second ties that answer to the fathers and to God's promise to visit his people in Egypt. Together they show that the God speaking from the burning bush is both the living God and the faithful God of their ancestors. He gives his name freely, and that name remains his memorial to all generations.
If I know God's name, does that give me power over him?
No. In this passage God gives his name so Moses can identify who sent him, not so Moses can control him. When Moses asks what to tell the Israelites, God answers with his own self-revelation, "I AM WHO I AM" (Exodus 3:14), and then supplies the name Yahweh for all generations (Exodus 3:15). The name is a gift of assurance from the greater party to the lesser, an answer to a question about credentials, not a lever. Knowing the name means knowing who is acting on Israel's behalf; it places Moses under God's commission rather than God under Moses's command.
