What Does Exodus 3:3 Mean?
And Moses said, Let me turn aside now and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.THE KEY
Moses turns aside to see: the Hebrew joins a change of direction with an opening of perception.
THE MEANING
A puzzling sight catches your attention, and your path changes as you turn toward it. The question “why?” leaves room for the mystery to be seen before it is explained.
THE ROOT
אָסֻרָה
ʾasurah
GROWS FROM
סור
s-w-r
Turn aside or depart; in a causative form, remove or take away.
“turn aside” in this verse is ʾasurah. The Hebrew verb carries both a change of direction and departure. Moses does not simply keep moving while noticing the bush; he steps away from his route to give the sight his attention.
ALSO GROWS
sur: Turn aside; depart.
סוּר
This is the root action in Moses’ decision to leave his current direction and look.
yaser: May remove or take away, as in Exodus 8:8.
יָסֵר
The same root can describe removing something; here it marks a deliberate break from the path Moses was on.
וְאֶרְאֶה
veʾerʾeh
GROWS FROM
ראה
r-ʾ-h
See, look, perceive.
“see / sight” in this verse is veʾerʾeh. The verse uses the same root for Moses’ act of seeing and for the sight itself. Hebrew binds attention to what is perceived: the bush is already before him, and turning toward it brings it into focus.
ALSO GROWS
roʾeh: One who sees; a seer.
רֹאֶה
The root can name a person by the act of seeing, showing that perception is more than a passing glance.
marʾeh: Sight; appearance.
מַרְאֶה
This is the word for the bush’s “sight” in the verse, formed from the same root as “see.”
מֹשֶׁה
Mosheh
GROWS FROM
משה
m-sh-h
Draw out, especially from water; Exodus 2:10 links the name Moses to this action.
Moses’ name carries the story of being drawn out of the water. Here that name stands beside another threshold: he turns aside toward a sign that burns without being consumed.
ALSO GROWS
māšâ: Draw out.
מָשָׁה
This is the root action behind the name’s connection to being drawn from the water.
meshîtihû: I drew him out, as in Exodus 2:10.
מְשִׁיתִהוּ
The name-story makes the act of drawing out part of Moses’ nature before this moment of turning toward the bush.
THE PATTERN
Perception becomes encounter when seeing moves beyond an object to a personal presence.
And she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, You are El Roi, the God who sees me. For she said, Have I also here looked after the one who sees me?I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.Nathanael said to him, From where do you know me? Jesus answered and said to him, Before Philip called you, while you were under the fig tree, I perceived you.THE THREAD
And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him from the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here I am.The next verse repeats the Hebrew root for seeing: the LORD sees that Moses has turned aside to see. As Moses’ attention turns toward the bush, he is seen in return and addressed.
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