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🔥 Biblical miracle 🌳 A red shrub 🌿 A vapor herb
burning bush

burning bush

5 8.0
A bush on fire that God used to speak to Moses in the Bible
  • noun
  • /ˈbɜrnɪŋ bʌʃ/
  • Literature
translation icon : zarza ardiente
  • Like the burning bush in the Ten Commandments.
  • Moses and the burning bush
  • God of the burning bush

As I mentioned, Moses felt that the burning Bush that was never consumed has a spiritual significance, right?

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Examples

  • God spoke to Moses in the form of a burning bush (Exodus 19:18).

    Academic text (1994)

  • My son, who is 7, came home from school Friday telling me that one of his teachers told the class all about Moses and the burning bush.

    Blog text (21)

  • Did it come out of a burning bush?

    Year of the Dragon (1985)

  • I said, "Is this the burning bush?

    Network (1976)

  • God in the burning bush.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • To Moses, he spoke from the burning bush.

    Leap of Faith (1992)

  • Out of a burning bush, God appeared to Moses and said, "I have good news for you and bad news for you."

    Academic text (1992)

  • Back in her yard now, it will make the azalea blaze like fire, like the burning bush of Moses, and the butterflies will go up like sparks into the sky.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • In the Bible's burning bush episode of Exodus 3, God explains the meaning of the divine name as "I am what I am," or "I will be what I will be," a kind of formula for YHWH (vuvh), associated with the Hebrew root "to be."

    Blog text (23)

  • In the story, God spoke to Moses from the burning bush that was on fire but not consumed.

Surface Forms

burning bush singular
burning bushes plural

Morphology

burning + bush

The compound literally combines 'burning' + 'bush', so a B1 learner who knows both words would likely infer it refers to a bush associated with burning or flammable properties, giving a clear partial clue to its meaning. However, the specific botanical sense (a particular Eurasian herb that emits flammable vapour) and cultural/biblical nuances are not fully predictable from the constituents alone, so the expression is not fully transparent.

Etymology

Burning bush comes from the Bible story where a bush was on fire but did not burn up, and God spoke to Moses from it. Because the burning bush held a fire without being used up, the image became a sign of a 'miracle' or God's presence.