FROM THE HEBREW · EXODUS 3:14
Ehyeh asher ehyeh: “I am that I am,” or “I will be”?
At the burning bush, Moses asks for God’s name. The answer, ehyeh asher ehyeh, is one of the most debated sentences in the Bible, and the Hebrew verb leans toward the future.
Key Hebrew words
The question behind the answer
In Exodus 3:13 Moses anticipates the people’s question: “What is His name?” God answers in verse 14 with three words, אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה, and then shortens them: tell them Ehyeh has sent me. In verse 15 comes the four-letter Name, יהוה, which most readers connect with the same verb, “to be.” The 1917 JPS translation follows the King James tradition: “I AM THAT I AM.” Some modern Jewish translations leave the phrase in Hebrew because no English rendering covers it.
Ehyeh: “I will be”
Biblical Hebrew has no present tense of “to be.” To say “I am Joseph,” Hebrew simply says “I Joseph.” Ehyeh is the imperfect form, which normally describes action that is ongoing or still to come. That is why many scholars translate “I will be what I will be.” The name is not only a statement about existence. It is a promise about presence.
What the classical commentators say
Rashi, following the Talmud (Berakhot 9b), reads it as a promise across time: אֶהְיֶה עִמָּם בְּצָרָה זוֹ אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה עִמָּם בְּשִׁעְבּוּד שְׁאָר מַלְכֻיּוֹת, “I will be with them in this trouble, as I will be with them in their subjugation under other kingdoms.” Moses objects: why mention future troubles? This one is enough. God agrees, and gives him the short form to say: Ehyeh has sent me.
Rashbam (Rashi’s grandson, 12th c.) reads it as a guarantee: “My name is Ehyeh forever, and I am able to fulfill what I promise you.”
Both readings take the verb as future and personal. The name answers not “what are You?” but “will You be there?”
Why it matters for translation
“I am that I am” has shaped centuries of philosophy about God as pure being. The Hebrew allows that reading, but its first context is a shepherd about to walk into Egypt and a people in slavery. Rashi’s reading fits that moment: the name is a commitment to be present in this trouble and the next.
Ehyeh elsewhere in the same story
The word ehyeh does not appear for the first time in verse 14. Two verses earlier, when Moses asks “Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh?”, God answers כִּי־אֶהְיֶה עִמָּךְ, “Certainly I will be with thee” (Exodus 3:12). The same verb, the same form. When the name comes two verses later, a reader of the Hebrew already hears its first meaning: I will be with you. That is exactly the sense Rashi and Rashbam draw out.
So what does it mean today?
In Hebrew, Exodus 3:14 is less a definition and more a promise without limits: I will be whatever I will be with you. It is open-ended on purpose. The text does not lock God into a description; it guarantees presence.
Frequently asked questions
What does ehyeh asher ehyeh mean in English?
Literally “I will be that/who I will be.” Traditional English Bibles, including the 1917 JPS, translate it “I AM THAT I AM.” Because ehyeh is imperfect, “I will be what I will be” is also accurate.
What does ehyeh mean in Hebrew?
Ehyeh (אֶהְיֶה) is the first-person imperfect of the verb היה, “to be”: “I will be” or “I am (continuing).”
Why did God say “I am that I am” to Moses?
Moses asked what name to give the Israelites. Rashi, citing the Talmud, explains the answer as a promise: I will be with them in this trouble and in future ones. Rashbam reads it as: I can fulfill what I promise.
How is ehyeh related to the Name יהוה?
In the next verse (Exodus 3:15) God gives the four-letter Name יהוה. Most readers connect both to the same verb, “to be,” ehyeh in first person.
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Sources: Hebrew text from the Masoretic text; English from The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text (Jewish Publication Society, 1917, public domain). Commentaries (Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Radak, Metzudat David, Metzudat Zion, Malbim and others) quoted from their Hebrew originals, in our own translation. Lexical notes from Brown-Driver-Briggs and Strong’s.