Exodus 3:13

What is his name?] The name of God is His revealed character: see Exodus 23:21; Exodus 34:5. Here God reveals Himself by the name Jehovah. As already explained (Genesis 2:4) the word 'Jehovah' is the result of a combination of the consonants of the original name (the consonants alone are written in ancient Hebrew) and the vowels of its substitute 'Adonai.' Most scholars believe that the original form of the name was 'Jahve' or 'Yahve.' Now this resembles in form the third person singular masculine imperfect of a Hebrew verb, and is here connected with the verb hawa or haya, 'to be.' God calls Himself 'Ehyeh,' i.e. I am. When He is named by others, He is 'Jahve,' i.e. He is. The name denotes the absolute self-existence of God. He alone truly exists: cp. Deuteronomy 4:35; Isaiah 45:6; Revelation 1:4. Some scholars, however, prefer to take the word as a future, 'I will be,' in which case the name expresses rather the faithfulness of God, the assurance that He will be with His people as their helper and deliverer. Others, again, take the word to be the causative form of the verb, in which case it will mean, 'He who causes to be,' 'the Creator': see RM and on Exodus 6:3.