Genesis 22:1

The Sacrifice of Isaac

22:1 Some time after these things God tested ¹  Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am!” Abraham ²  replied.

Exodus 3:4

3:4 When the Lord ³  saw that ⁴  he had turned aside to look, God called to him from within the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” ⁵  And Moses ⁶  said, “Here I am.”

Exodus 3:1

3:1 Now Moses ⁷  was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert ⁸  and came to the mountain of God, to Horeb. ⁹ 

Exodus 3:10

3:10 So now go, and I will send you ¹⁰  to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”

Acts 9:4

9:4 He ¹¹  fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, ¹²  why are you persecuting me?” ¹³ 

Acts 26:14

26:14 When we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ¹⁴  ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? You are hurting yourself ¹⁵  by kicking against the goads.’ ¹⁶ 

¹ sn The Hebrew verb used here means “to test; to try; to prove.” In this passage God tests Abraham to see if he would be obedient. See T. W. Mann, The Book of the Torah, 44-48. See also J. L. Crenshaw, A Whirlpool of Torment (OBT), 9-30; and J. I. Lawlor, “The Test of Abraham,” GTJ 1 (1980): 19-35.

² tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³ tn The preterite with the vav (ו) is subordinated as a temporal clause to the main point of the verse, that God called to him. The language is anthropomorphic, as if God’s actions were based on his observing what Moses did.

⁴ tn The particle כִּי (ki, “that”) introduces the noun clause that functions as the direct object of the verb “saw” (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 81, §490).

⁵ sn The repetition of the name in God’s call is emphatic, making the appeal direct and immediate (see also Gen 22:11; 46:2). The use of the personal name shows how specifically God directed the call and that he knew this person. The repetition may have stressed even more that it was indeed he whom the Lord wanted. It would have been an encouragement to Moses that this was in fact the Lord who was meeting him.

⁶ tn Heb “And he said”; the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁷ sn The vav (ו) disjunctive with the name “Moses” introduces a new and important starting point. The Lord’s dealing with Moses will fill the next two chapters.

⁸ tn Or “west of the desert,” taking אַחַר (’akhar, “behind”) as the opposite of עַל־פְּנֵי (’al-pÿne, “on the face of, east of”; cf. Gen 16:12; 25:18).

⁹ sn “Horeb” is another name for Mount Sinai. There is a good deal of foreshadowing in this verse, for later Moses would shepherd the people of Israel and lead them to Mount Sinai to receive the Law. See D. Skinner, “Some Major Themes of Exodus,” Mid-America Theological Journal 1 (1977): 31-42.

¹⁰ tn The verse has a sequence of volitives. The first form is the imperative לְכָה (lÿkha, “go”). Then comes the cohortative/imperfect form with the vav (ו), “and I will send you” or more likely “that I may send you” (וְאֶשְׁלָחֲךָ, vÿ’eshlakhakha), which is followed by the imperative with the vav, “and bring out” or “that you may bring out” (וְהוֹצֵא, vÿhotse’). The series of actions begins with Moses going. When he goes, it will be the Lord who sends him, and if the Lord sends him, it will be with the purpose of leading Israel out of Egypt.

¹¹ tn Grk “and he.” Because of the length of the Greek sentence, the conjunction καί (kai) has not been translated here. Instead a new English sentence is begun.

¹² tn The double vocative suggests emotion.

¹³ sn Persecuting me. To persecute the church is to persecute Jesus.

¹⁴ tn Grk “in the Hebrew language.” See Acts 22:7 and 9:4.

¹⁵ tn Grk “It is hard for you.”

¹⁶ tn “Goads” are pointed sticks used to direct a draft animal (an idiom for stubborn resistance). See BDAG 539-40 s.v. κέντρον 2.