Bible Commentaries

D.—Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh. The seemingly mischievouas effect of their divine message, and the discouragment of the people and the messengers themselves. God reverses this effect nu solemnly promising deliverance, revealing his name Jehovah, summoning the heads of the tribes to unite with Moses and Aaron, raising Moses’ faith above Pharaoh’s defiance, and declaring the glorious object and issue of Pharaoh’s obduracy

Exodus 5:1 to Exodus 7:7

1And afterward Moses and Aaron went in [came] and told [said unto] Pharaoh, Thus saith Jehovah, God [the God] of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness 2 And Pharaoh said, Who is Jehovah, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not Jehovah, neither will I [and moreoverI will not] let Israel go 3 And they said, The God of the Hebrews hath met with [met] us: let us go, we pray thee, three days1 journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto Jehovah our God, lest he fall upon us with the pestilence, or with the sword 4 And the king of Egypt said unto them, Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let5[release] the people from their works? get you unto your burdens [tasks]. And Pharaoh said. Behold, the people of the land now are many, and ye make them rest from their burdens [tasks]. 6And Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters of the people, and their officers [overseers], saying, 7Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore; let them go and gather straw for themselves 8 And the tale of the bricks which they did make [have been making] heretofore, ye shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish aught thereof: for they be [are] idle; therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God 9 Let there more work be laid upon the men [let the work be heavy for2 the men], that they may labor therein [be busied with it];3 and let them not regard vain [lying] words10 And the taskmasters of the people went out, and their officers [overseers], and they spake unto the people, saying, Thus saith Pharaoh, I will not give you straw 11 Go ye, get you straw where ye can find it; yet [for] not aught 12 of your work shall be diminished. So [And] the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble instead of [for] straw 13 And the taskmasters hasted [urged] them, saying, Fulfil your works, your daily tasks, as when there was straw 14 And the officers [overseers] of the children of Israel, which [whom] Pharaoh had set over them, were beaten, and demanded [were asked], Wherefore have ye not fulfilled your task in making brick both yesterday 15 and to-day as heretofore? Then [And] the officers [overseers] of the children of Israel came and cried unto Pharaoh, saying, Wherefore dealest thou thus with thy servants? 16There is no straw given unto thy servants, and they say unto us, Make brick;4 and, behold, thy servants are beaten; but the fault is in thine own people17[thy people are in fault]. But he said, Ye are idle, ye are idle [Id’e are ye, idle]; therefore ye say, Let us go and do sacrifice [and sacrifice] to Jehovah 18 Go therefore now [And now go], and work; for [and] there shall no straw be given you; yet shall ye [and ye shall] deliver the tale of bricks 19 And the officers [overseers] of the children of Israel did see that they were in [saw themselves in] evil case [trouble], after it was said, Ye shall not minish [diminish] aught from your bricks of [bricks,] your daily task 20 And they met Moses and Aaron, who stood in the way [who were standing to meet them], as they came forth from Pharaoh: 21And they said unto them, Jehovah look upon you, and judge; because ye have made our savor to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to slay us 22 And Moses returned unto Jehovah, and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil entreated [thou done evil to] this people? why is it that thou hast [why hast thou] sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people; neither hast thou delivered thy people at all.

Chap. Exodus 6:1 Then [And] Jehovah said unto Moses, Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh; for with [through]5 a strong hand shall he let them go, and with2[through] a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land. And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am Jehovah 3 And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of [as]6 God Almighty, but by7 my name Jehovah was I not known to them 4 And I have also [I also] established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage5[sojourn], wherein they were strangers [sojourners]. And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant 6 Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am Jehovah, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid [deliver] you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm and with great judgments 7 And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah your God, which8[who] bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you in unto the land concerning the which [the land which] I did swear to give it [to give] to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage [a possession]: I am Jehovah 9 And Moses spake so unto the children of Israel: but they hearkened not unto Moses for anguish [vexation] of spirit and 10 for cruel bondage. And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, 11Go in, speak unto Pharaoh, king of Egypt, that he let the children of Israel go out of his land 12 And Moses spake before Jehovah, saying, Behold, the children of Israel have not hearkened unto me; how then [and how] shall Pharaoh hear me, who am of uncircumcised 13 lips [uncircumcised of lips]? And Jehovah spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, and gave them a charge unto the children of Israel and unto Pharaoh king 14 of Egypt, to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt. These be [are] the heads of their fathers’ houses (their ancestral houses): The sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel; Hanoch, and Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi; these be [are] the families of Reuben 15 And the sons of Simeon; Jemuel, and Jamin, and Thad, and Jachin, and Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a [the] Canaanitish woman; these are16the families of Simeon. And these are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations [genealogies]; Gershon, and Kohath, and Merari: and the years of the life of Levi were an [a] hundred thirty and seven years 17 The sons of Gershon: Libni, and Shimi, according to their families 18 And the sons of Kohath: Amram, and Izhar, and Hebron, and Uzziel; and the years of the life of Kohath were an [a] hundred thirty and three years 19 And the sons of Merari: Mahali, and Mushi: These are the families of Levi according to their generations [genealogies].20And Amram took him Jochebed his father’s sister to wife; and she bare him Aaron and Moses: and the years of the life of Amram were an [a] hundred and thirty and seven years 21 And the sons of Izhar: Korah, and Nephez, and Zichri 22 And the sons of Uzziel: Mishael, and Elzaphan, and Zithri [Sithri]. 23And Aaron took him Elisheba, daughter of Amminadab, sister of Naashon, to wife; and she bare him Nadab, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar 24 And the sons of Korah: Assir, and Elkanah, and Abiasaph: these are the families of the Korhites 25 And Eleazar, Aaron’s Song of Solomon, took him one of the daughters of Putiel to wife; and she bare him Phinehas: these are the heads of the fathers of the Levites 26 according to their families. These are that Aaron and Moses, to whom Jehovah said, Bring out the children of Israel from the land of Egypt according to their 27 armies [hosts]. These are they which [who] spake unto Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to bring out the children of Israel from Egypt: these are that Moses and Aaron 28 And it came to pass on the day when Jehovah spake unto Moses in the land of 29 Egypt, That Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, I am Jehovah: speak thou unto Pharaoh, king of Egypt, all that I say unto thee 30 And Moses said before Jehovah, Behold I am of uncircumcised lips [uncircumcised of lips], and how shall [will] Pharaoh hearken unto me?

Chap. Exodus 7:1 And Jehovah said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god [God] to Pharaoh; and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet 2 Thou shalt speak all that I command thee; and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh that he send the children of Israel out of his land 3 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and 4 multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt. But Pharaoh shall [will] not hearken unto you, that I may [and I will] lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring forth mine armies, and my people [my hosts, my people], the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments 5 And the Egyptians shall know that I am Jehovah, when I stretch forth mine [my] hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them 6 And Moses and Aaron did as7[did so; as] Jehovah commanded them, so did they. And Moses was fourscore years old, and Aaron fourscore and three years old, when they spake unto Pharaoh.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

[ Exodus 5:3. This expression is the same as the one in Exodus 3:18 (on which Bee the note), except that here we have נִקְרָא, instead of נִקְרָה. But the interchange of these forms is so frequent that it is most natural to understand the two words as equivalent in sense.—Tr.]

[ Exodus 5:9. Literally “upon,” the work being represented as a burden imposed upon the Israelites.—Tr.]

[ Exodus 5:9. Literally, “do in it,” i.e. have enough to do in the work given.—Tr.]

[ Exodus 5:16. If we retain the order of the words as they stand in the original, we get a much more forcible translation of the first part of this verse: “Straw, none is given to thy servants; and ‘Brick,’ they say to us, ‘make ye.’ ” This brings out forcibly the antithesis between “straw” and “brick.”—Tr.]

[Chap6. Exodus 6:1. I.e. by virtue, or in consequence, of Jehovah’s strong hand, not Pharaoh’s, as one might imagine.—Tr.]

[ Exodus 6:3. Literally, “I appeared … in God Almighty”—a case of ב essential, meaning “in the capacity of.” Vid Ewald, Ausf. Gr. § 299, b; Ges. Heb. Gr. § 154, 3 a (y).—Tr.]

[ Exodus 6:3. The original has no preposition. Literally: “My name Jehovah, I was not known.”—Tr.]

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Exodus 5:1. Afterward Moses and Aaron went.—Their message is quite in accordance with the philosophical notions of the ancients, and especially with the Israelitish faith. Having accepted the message from Horeb, Israel became Jehovah’s people, Jehovah Israel’s God; and as Israel’s God, He through His ambassadors meets Pharaoh, and demands that the people be released, in order to render Him service in a religious festival. The message accords with the situation. Jehovah, the God of Israel, may seem to Pharaoh chiefly the national deity of Israel; but there is an intimation in the words that He is also the Lord of Pharaoh, of Egypt, and of its worship. Under the petition for a furlough lurks the command to set free; under the recognition of the power of Pharaoh over the people, the declaration that Israel is Jehovah’s free people; under the duty of celebrating a feast of Jehovah in the wilderness, the thought of separating from Egypt and of celebrating the Exodus. The words seemed like a petition which had an echo like a thunder-tone. Perhaps the instinct of the tyrant detected something of this thunder-tone. But even if not, the modest petition was enough to enrage him.

Exodus 5:2.Who is Jehovah?—As the heathen had the notion that the gods governed territorially, the Jews seemed to fall under the dominion of the Egyptian gods. They had no land, had moreover in Pharaoh’s eyes no right to be called a nation; therefore, even if they had a deity, it must have been, in his opinion, an anonymous one. This seemed to him to be proved by the new name, Jehovah (which therefore could not have been of Egyptian origin). But even disregard of a known foreign deity was impiety; still more, disregard of the unknown God who, as such, was the very object towards which all his higher aspirations and conscientious compunctions pointed.⁸ Thus his obduracy began with an act of impiety, which was at the same time inhumanity, inasmuch as he denied to the people freedom of worship. He was the prototype of all religious tyrants.

Exodus 5:3. He is glorified by us.—[This is Lange’s translation of נִקְרָא עָלֵינוּ].⁹ The correction : “He hath met us” (קָרָה), weakens the force of a significant word. They appeal to the fact that Jehovah from of old has been their fathers’ God; and also in their calling themselves Hebrews is disclosed the recollection of ancient dignities and the love of freedom growing out of it.—Three days’ journey.—Keil says: “In Egypt offerings may be made to the gods of Egypt, but not to the God of the Hebrews.” But see Exodus 8:26. In the “three days’ journey” also is expressed the hope of freedom.—With the pestilence.—A reference to the power of Jehovah, as able to inflict pestilence and war, and to His jealousy, as able so severely to punish the neglect of the worship due Him. Not without truth, but also not without subtileness, did they say, “lest He fall upon us;” in the background was the thought: “lest He fall upon thee.” Clericus remarks that, according to the belief of the heathen, the gods punish the neglect of their worship.

Exodus 5:4. Wherefore, Moses and Aaron.—He thus declares their allegation about a message from Jehovah to be fictitious. He conceives himself to have to do only with two serfs.—Release the people.—And so introduce anarchy and barbarism. The same objection has been made against propositions to introduce freedom of evangelical religion.—Get you to your burdens.—To all the other traits of the tyrant this trait of ignorance must also be added. As he thinks that Moses and Aaron belong among the serfs, so he also thinks that servile labor is the proper employment of the people.

Exodus 5:5.The people of the land (peasants). The simple notion of countrymen can, according to the parallel passages, Jeremiah 52:25 and Ezekiel 7:27, denote neither bondmen nor Egyptian countrymen as a caste, although both ideas are alluded to in the expression, a people of peasants, who as such must be kept at work, especially as there are becoming too many of them. The perfect sense, “Ye have made them rest,” is to be ascribed to the fancy of the tyrant.

Exodus 5:6.The same day.—Restlessness of the persecuting spirit. The נֹגְשִׂים בָּעָם, or the “drivers over them,” are the Egyptian overseers who were appointed over them; the שֹׁטְרִים, or the scribes belonging to them, were taken from the Jewish people, officers subordinate to the others, in themselves leaders of the people.

Exodus 5:7. “The bricks in the old monuments of Egypt, also in many pyramids, are not burnt, but only dried in the sun, as Herodotus (II:136) mentions of a pyramid” (Keil). The bricks were made firm by means of the chopped straw, generally gathered from the stubble of the harvested fields, which was mixed with the clay. This too is confirmed by ancient monuments. Hengstenberg, Egypt, etc., p80 sq.—Heretofore.—Heb.: “yesterday and the day before yesterday.” The usual Hebrew method of designating past time.

Exodus 5:9. Regard lying words.—דִּבְרֵי שֶׁקֶר.—Thus he calls the words of Moses concerning Jehovah’s revelation.

Exodus 5:10. Even the Jewish scribes yield without opposition. They have become slavish tools of the foreign heathen despotism.

Exodus 5:16. Thy people is in fault (orsinneth).—According to Knobel, the phrase “thy people” refers to Israel; according to Keil, to the Egyptians. The latter view is preferable; it is an indirect complaint concerning the conduct of the king himself, against whom they do not dare to make direct reproaches. “חָטָאת is a rare feminine form for חָטְאָה (see on Genesis 33:11) and עַם is construed as feminine, as in Judges 18:7; Jeremiah 8:5” (Keil).¹⁰

Exodus 5:21. Ye have made our savor to be abhorred (Heb. to stink) in the eyes.—The strong figurativeness of the expression is seen in the incongruity between odor and eyes. The meaning is: ye have brought us into ill-repute.

Exodus 5:22. Augustine’s interpretation: Hæc non contumacyiæ verba sunt, vel indignationis sed inquisitionis et orationis, is not a sufficient explanation of the mood in which Moses speaks. It is the mark of the genuineness of the personal relation between the believers and Jehovah, that they may give expression even to their vexation in view of Jehovah’s unsearchable dealings. Expressions of this sort run through the book of Job, the Psalm, and the Prophets, and over into the New Testament, and prove that the ideal religion is not that in which souls stand related to God as selfless creatures to an absolute destiny.

Exodus 6:1-3. Knobel finds here a new account of the call of Moses, and that, by the Elohist. A correct understanding of the connection destroys this hypothesis. Moses is in need of new encouragement. Therefore Jehovah, first, repeats His promise, by vigorous measures to compel Pharaoh to release Israel, in a stronger form (comp. Exodus 3:19; Exodus 4:21); and then follows the declaration that this result is pledged in the name Jehovah, that the name Jehovah, in its significance as the source of promise, surpasses even the name God Almighty. If the fathers, in the experience of His miraculous help, have become acquainted with Him as God Almighty, they are now to get a true knowledge of Him as the God of helpful covenant faithfulness. This is the reason why he recurs to the name Jehohovah. Comp. Keil, p467.¹¹

Exodus 6:4. Vid. the promises, Genesis 17:7-8; Genesis 26:3; Genesis 35:11-12.

Exodus 6:6.I am Jehovah. With this name He begins and ends ( Exodus 6:8) His promise. With the name Jehovah, then, He pledges Himself to the threefold promise: (1) To deliver the people from bondage; (2) to adopt them as His people; (3) to lead them to Canaan, their future possession.—With a stretched-out arm. A stronger expression than יָד חֲזָקָה. Comp. Deuteronomy 4:34; Deuteronomy 5:15; Deuteronomy 7:19.

Exodus 6:9.For vexation of spirit. Gesenius: Impatience. Keil: Shortness of breath, i.e., anguish, distress.

Exodus 6:10-11. While Moses’ courage quite gives way, Jehovah intensifies the language descriptive of his mission.

Exodus 6:12. On the other hand, Moses intensifies the expression with which he made ( Exodus 4:10) his want of eloquence an excuse for declining the commission.—Of uncircumcised lips. Since circumcision was symbolic of renewal or regeneration, this expression involved a new phase of thought. If he was of uncircumcised or unclean lips ( Isaiah 6:5), then even Aaron’s eloquence could not help him, because in that case Moses could not transmit in its purity the pure word of God. In his strict conscientiousness he sincerely assumes that there must be a moral hinderance in his manner of speaking itself.

Exodus 6:13. This time Jehovah answers with an express command to Moses and Aaron together, and to the children of Israel and Pharaoh together. This comprehensive command alone can beat down Moses’ last feeling of hesitation.

Exodus 6:14-27. But as a sign that the mission of Moses is now determined, that Moses and Aaron, therefore, are constituted these prominent men of God, their genealogy is now inserted, the form of which shows that it is to be regarded as an extract from a genealogy of the twelve tribes, since the genealogy begins with Reuben, but does not go beyond Levi.

Exodus 6:14. בֵּית־אָבוֹת. “Father-houses, not father-house” [Keil]. The compound form has become a simple word. See Keil, p469. The father-houses are the ramifications of the tribes. The tribes branch off first into families, or clans, or heads of the father-houses; these again branch off into the father-houses themselves. The Amram of Exodus 6:20 is to be distinguished from the Amram of Exodus 6:18. See the proof of this in Tiele, Chronologie des A. T.; Keil, p469.¹² The text, to be sure, does not clearly indicate the distinction. “The enumeration of only four generations—Levi, Kohath, Amram, Moses—points unmistakably to Genesis 15:16” (Keil).

Exodus 6:20.His father’s sister—That was before the giving of the law in Leviticus 18:12. The LXX. and Vulg. understand the word דּוֹדָה of the daughter of the father’s brother. According to Exodus 7:7, Aaron was three years older than Moses; that Miriam was older than either is seen from the history.

Exodus 6:23. Aaron’s wife was from the tribe of Judah. Vid. Numbers 2:3.

Exodus 6:25.‏‏‏‏‏‏‏רָאשֵׁי אָבוֹת. Abbreviation of בֵית אָבוֹת רָאשֵׁי [“heads of the father-houses”].

Exodus 6:26.These are that Aaron and Moses.—Thus the reason is given for inserting this piece of genealogy in this place.

Exodus 6:28. Resumption of the narrative interrupted at Exodus 6:12. What is there said is here and afterward repeated more fully. In the land of Egypt.—This addition is not a sign of another account, but only gives emphasis to the fact that Jehovah represented Himself in the very midst of Egypt as the Lord of the country, and gave Moses, for the furtherance of his aim, a sort of divine dominion, namely, a theocratic dominion over Pharaoh.

Exodus 7:1. What Moses at first was to be for Aaron as the inspiring Spirit of God, that he is now to be for Aaron as representative of God in His almighty miraculous sway. So far Aaron’s position also is raised. It must not be overlooked that, with this word of divine Revelation, Moses’ growing feeling of lofty confidence and assurance of victory corresponds; it was developed in Egypt itself, and from out of his feeling of inability. “For Aaron Moses is God as the revealer, for Pharaoh as the executor, of the divine will” (Keil).

Exodus 7:2.That he send.—Keil’s translation, “and so he will let go,” does not accord with the following verse.

Exodus 7:4.My hosts.—Israel becomes a host of Jehovah. Vid. Exodus 13:18, and the book of Numbers. This is the first definite germ of the later name, God, or Jehovah, of hosts; although the name in that form chiefly refers to heavenly hosts; these under another name have been mentioned in Genesis 32:2.

Footnotes