So He said, “I will certainly be with you. And this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”
Parallel translations
- WEB He said, “Certainly I will be with you. This will be the token to you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”
- KJV And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain.
- BSB “I will surely be with you,” God said, “and this will be the sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, all of you will worship God on this mountain.”
- NASB And He said, “Assuredly I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain.”
- NLT God answered, “I will be with you. And this is your sign that I am the one who has sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God at this very mountain.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God answers, "I will be with you," and gives a sign: Israel will worship Him at this mountain. God's presence, not Moses' strength, guarantees success.
Overview
God does not answer "Who am I?" with reassurance about Moses but with the promise of His own presence. The sign of worship at Sinai points beyond the rescue to its true goal: a people freed to serve God. This pledge, "I will be with you," runs through Scripture and finds its fullness in Immanuel, God with us.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 28
- Josh 1:5No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not fail you nor forsake you.
- Rom 8:31What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
- Deut 31:23He commissioned Joshua the son of Nun, and said, “Be strong and courageous; for you shall bring the children of Israel into the land which I swore to them. I will be with you.”
- Isa 41:10Don’t you be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. Yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness.
- Exod 4:15You shall speak to him, and put the words in his mouth. I will be with your mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what you shall do.
- Exod 4:12Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth, and teach you what you shall speak.”
- Gen 31:3Yahweh said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers, and to your relatives, and I will be with you.”
- Matt 28:20teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
- Isa 43:2When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned, and flame will not scorch you.
- Acts 11:21The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord.
- Exod 4:1–9Moses answered, “But, behold, they will not believe me, nor listen to my voice; for they will say, ‘Yahweh has not appeared to you.’”
- Heb 13:5Be free from the love of money, content with such things as you have, for he has said, “I will in no way leave you, neither will I in any way forsake you.”
- Mark 16:20They went out, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word by the signs that followed. Amen.
- Judg 7:11You will hear what they say; and afterward your hands will be strengthened to go down into the camp.” Then went he down with Purah his servant to the outermost part of the armed men who were in the camp.
- Isa 37:30This shall be the sign to you. You will eat this year that which grows of itself, and in the second year that which springs from the same; and in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.
- Exod 19:1–25In the third month after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that same day they came into the wilderness of Sinai.
- Isa 7:14Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin will conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
- Ps 86:17Show me a sign of your goodness, that those who hate me may see it, and be shamed, because you, Yahweh, have helped me, and comforted me.
- Jer 43:9–10“Take great stones in your hand, and hide them in mortar in the brick work, which is at the entry of Pharaoh’s house in Tahpanhes, in the sight of the men of Judah;
- Gen 15:1After these things Yahweh’s word came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Don’t be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”
- Jer 51:63–64It shall be, when you have finished reading this book, that you shall bind a stone to it, and cast it into the middle of the Euphrates.
- Judg 6:17He said to him, “If now I have found favor in your sight, then show me a sign that it is you who talk with me.
- Judg 6:36–40Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have spoken,
- Judg 6:21Then Yahweh’s angel stretched out the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes; and fire went up out of the rock, and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. Then Yahweh’s angel departed out of his sight.
- Num 1:1–10Yahweh spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying,
- Lev 1:1–17Yahweh called to Moses, and spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting, saying,
- Judg 7:13–14When Gideon had come, behold, there was a man telling a dream to his fellow. He said, “Behold, I dreamed a dream; and behold, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian, and came to the tent, and struck it so that it fell, and turned it upside down, so that the tent lay flat.”
- Gen 15:8He said, “Lord Yahweh, how will I know that I will inherit it?”
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Christ at the center
The Passover lamb whose blood turns away death, the exodus through the sea, the manna, the rock, and the tabernacle where God dwells with his people all foreshadow Jesus — our Passover, our redemption, the bread from heaven, and God-with-us in the flesh.
How Exodus 3:12 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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