I. Name
In Exod. 3.1–6 Yahweh appears in a burning bush (sĕneh). In Deut. 33.16 Yahweh is called šoknî sĕneh, ‘the Thornbush-dweller’. It has been suggested that the thornbush is used as a designation of Yahweh in Judg. 9.14–15 (ʾṭd) and Ps. 58.10 (ʾṭd). Outside the Bible the Egyptian national god Amun seems to be related to the nbs-tree, the Ziziphus spina Christi; a Ugaritic deity is called ‘the god of the Ziziphus’; in Mesopotamia some deities have the ‘thornbush’ as their symbol.
II. Identity
In Egypt the n…