Genesis 22:7

22:7 Isaac said to his father Abraham, ¹  “My father?” “What is it, ²  my son?” he replied. “Here is the fire and the wood,” Isaac said, ³  “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

Genesis 22:11

22:11 But the Lord’s angel ⁴  called to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am!” he answered.

Exodus 3:4

3:4 When the Lord ⁵  saw that ⁶  he had turned aside to look, God called to him from within the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” ⁷  And Moses ⁸  said, “Here I am.”

Isaiah 6:8

6:8 I heard the voice of the sovereign master say, “Whom will I send? Who will go on our behalf?” ⁹  I answered, “Here I am, send me!”

¹ tn The Hebrew text adds “and said.” This is redundant and has not been translated for stylistic reasons.

² tn Heb “Here I am” (cf. Gen 22:1).

³ tn Heb “and he said, ‘Here is the fire and the wood.’” The referent (Isaac) has been specified in the translation for clarity. Here and in the following verse the order of the introductory clauses and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁴ sn Heb “the messenger of the Lord” (also in v. 15). Some identify the angel of the Lord as the preincarnate Christ because in some texts the angel is identified with the Lord himself. However, see the note on the phrase “the Lord’s angel” in Gen 16:7.

⁵ 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.

⁶ 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).

⁷ 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.

⁸ tn Heb “And he said”; the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁹ tn Heb “for us.” The plural pronoun refers to the Lord, the seraphs, and the rest of the heavenly assembly.