Verses 1-4 “1Then the LORD said unto Moses, Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh: for with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land.
2And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the LORD:
3And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.
4And I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers.”
The name of God is JEHOVAH, the LORD. It is the I AM name, indicating eternity, always in the present covenant keeping LORD of LORDS. The Jews wrote it as YAHWEH. God does not mean here that the Patriarchs before Moses had never heard the name JEHOVAH, rather He means that they did not address God by that name. See Gen. 4:26 and Gen. 12:8.