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Exodus 6
The Lord Reaffirms His Name, Covenant, and Promise of Redemption
When Israel is too crushed to listen and Moses feels too weak to speak, the Lord anchors redemption in His name, covenant, promise, and mighty power.
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Chapter Summary
When Israel is too crushed to listen and Moses feels too weak to speak, the Lord anchors redemption in His name, covenant, promise, and mighty power.
Overview
Exodus 6 argues that redemption rests entirely on who the Lord is and what He promises to do. Moses’ lament, Israel’s discouragement, and Pharaoh’s refusal do not weaken the covenant. The Lord answers by revealing His name, remembering His covenant, and declaring a series of sovereign promises. The chapter places Israel’s deliverance within God’s covenant with the patriarchs and His determination to make Israel His people.
Even when human listeners are too broken to hear and the human messenger feels unfit to speak, the Lord’s word remains decisive.
Context
Israel, the covenant people redeemed from Egypt and taught to interpret their deliverance through the Lord’s revealed name, covenant faithfulness, and mighty acts.
Egypt after Moses’ first confrontation with Pharaoh has resulted in harsher labor, Israel’s discouragement, and Moses’ anguished complaint to the Lord.
When Israel is too crushed to listen and Moses feels too weak to speak, the Lord anchors redemption in His name, covenant, promise, and mighty power.
Moses
Israel, the covenant people redeemed from Egypt and taught to interpret their deliverance through the Lord’s revealed name, covenant faithfulness, and mighty acts.
Egypt after Moses’ first confrontation with Pharaoh has resulted in harsher labor, Israel’s discouragement, and Moses’ anguished complaint to the Lord.
Social Pressure
- Israel is crushed under intensified slavery. Their discouragement is so severe that they cannot listen to Moses’ renewed message of deliverance. Moses himself struggles with confidence after Pharaoh’s refusal and Israel’s rejection.
Egyptian bondage has become heavier after Pharaoh removed supplied straw while maintaining brick quotas. The social system of slavery, royal authority, and forced labor stands against the Lord’s covenant claim over Israel.
Exodus 6 answers the crisis of Exodus 5 by grounding redemption in the Lord’s identity, covenant remembrance, and promised action. The chapter moves from divine reassurance to renewed commissioning, then pauses with genealogy to identify Moses and Aaron as covenant-line servants before the plague confrontation intensifies.
Chapter Movement
The Lord answers Moses’ lament by declaring His name and covenant promises, but Israel cannot listen because of anguish and harsh bondage; Moses again objects, and the chapter anchors his and Aaron’s mission in Israel’s genealogy before restating the commission to Pharaoh.
Discourse Insight
Theological exposition and fulfillment
Exodus 6 gives a major biblical pattern for understanding the gospel. The Lord sees His people in bondage, remembers His covenant, and acts to redeem them by His power. He does not merely improve their conditions; He brings them out, frees them, redeems them, takes them as His own, makes Himself known as their God, and brings them toward inheritance. In Christ, this pattern reaches its fulfillment: God redeems His people from slavery to sin, brings them into covenant relationship, gives them His Spirit, and secures their eternal inheritance through the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Structural Flow
The Lord answers Moses’ confusion by declaring that Pharaoh’s resistance will be overcome by divine compulsion.
The Lord grounds the coming redemption in His revealed name, His covenant with the patriarchs, and His hearing of Israel’s suffering.
The Lord gives Israel a structured promise of deliverance, redemption, adoption-like possession, divine relationship, and land inheritance.
Israel’s crushed spirit prevents them from receiving the promise, showing the emotional and spiritual devastation of slavery.
Moses objects again, but the Lord still charges Moses and Aaron with the mission to Pharaoh and Israel.
The genealogy identifies Moses and Aaron within Israel’s tribal structure and especially the line of Levi.
The chapter closes with Moses’ repeated concern over his speech, preparing for the Lord’s answer in the next chapter.
Chapter Outline
- 1: The Lord assures Moses that Pharaoh will release Israel because of divine power, not human persuasion.
- 2-5: The Lord reveals His covenant name and recalls His promises, His hearing of Israel’s groaning, and His covenant remembrance.
- 6-8: The Lord promises deliverance from bondage, redemption with an outstretched arm, covenant belonging, divine relationship, and inheritance in the land.
- Israel’s harsh slavery and broken spirit make them unable to receive the message of promise.
- 10-13: Moses doubts that Pharaoh will listen since even Israel did not, but the Lord still charges Moses and Aaron.
- 14-27: The genealogy grounds Moses and Aaron in Israel’s covenant family and highlights the Levitical line.
- 28-30: The Lord commands Moses to speak to Pharaoh, and Moses again points to his faltering lips.
Key Hebrew Terms
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יְהֹוָה is the personal name of the God of Israel — the name He chose for Himself and by which He chose to be known, remembered, and called upon. It is not a title, not a category, and not an office. Every other word for God in the Hebrew scriptures — Elohim, El Shaddai, Adonai — describes what God is or what He does. This name announces who He is. The difference matters enormously. Titles can be shared; names belong to persons.
The name comes into focus at the burning bush in Exodus 3, where God says to Moses: I am who I am. This is not evasion. It is the most concentrated statement of divine self-existence ever given. God's being depends on nothing outside Himself. He was before anything else was. He will be when everything else has ceased. He does not become; He simply is. This is the God who gives this name — and gives it not to a philosopher searching for first causes, but to a trembling fugitive shepherd standing before a fire that does not consume.
But יְהֹוָה is not simply the name for transcendent being. It is the name bound to covenant. From Exodus onward, this name marks the God who makes and keeps promises, who rescues enslaved people from Egypt, who walks with Israel through the wilderness, who gives the law and forgives the breaking of it, who speaks through the prophets, who calls a people back when they wander and disciplines them when they rebel. The name does not stand above the story of redemption — it is the name that drives the story forward.
The ancient Israelites read this name with such reverence that in public reading they substituted Adonai — Lord — in its place. This is the origin of the convention in most English translations of rendering יְהֹוָה as Lord in small capitals. That tradition preserves genuine reverence, but it can obscure for modern readers that what they are reading is not a title but a name. The people of God did not simply trust in a Lord. They trusted in this Lord — the one who told Abraham to leave Ur, who heard slaves crying in Egypt, who made Himself known at Sinai, who promised David a throne that would not end, who spoke through Isaiah and Jeremiah and Hosea. The name gathers all of that history into itself.
Pastorally, יְהֹוָה is the anchor for everything. The God who saves is not an unnamed force or a generic divine principle. He has a name. He has a history with His people. He has made promises. He keeps them. The gospel does not invent a new God; it reveals that this covenant God, the Lord, has sent His Son so that all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Sense YHWH, the covenant name of God
Definition The personal covenant name of Israel’s God.
References Exodus 6:2, 6, 7, 8, 29
Lexicon YHWH, the covenant name of God
Why it matters The repeated declaration 'I am the Lord' anchors the chapter’s promises in God’s revealed covenant identity.
Sense God Almighty
Definition A divine title associated with God’s power and patriarchal revelation.
References Exodus 6:3
Lexicon God Almighty
Why it matters The Lord recalls how He appeared to the patriarchs, connecting the Exodus to earlier covenant revelation.
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בְּרִית (berit) is the Hebrew Bible's primary word for covenant — the formal relational bond that establishes binding obligations between parties. The local Hebrew index currently counts about 284 occurrences, spanning human covenants (treaties, alliances) and the central theological reality of God's binding commitment to His people. The word's etymology is debated, but its usage is consistent: a berit is a sworn, binding relationship that reshapes the entire future of those who enter it.
The covenant structure of the OT is the spine of the entire biblical narrative. God's covenants with Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and the promise of a new covenant (Jeremiah 31) are not independent events but a single, developing story of God's commitment to restore creation through a particular people. Each covenant adds to and builds on what preceded it: the Noahic covenant is cosmic (with all creation); the Abrahamic is particular (with one family for the sake of all); the Sinaitic is constitutive (the covenant community's life and worship); the Davidic is royal (the king through whom the covenant's promises will be mediated); the new covenant is consummating (the inner transformation that all the others pointed toward).
Genesis 15 is the most dramatic covenant-making scene in Scripture: God passes through the divided animals as a smoking firepot and flaming torch, taking on Himself the covenant curse if the covenant is broken. In the ancient Near East, both parties to a treaty would pass through divided animals, invoking the curse on the breaker. God alone passes through — making the covenant unilaterally His own responsibility. This is the theological heart of biblical covenant: God binds Himself to His promises in a way that goes beyond mere promise to the assumption of the covenant's consequences.
Jeremiah 31:31-34 prophesies the new covenant that addresses the old covenant's failure: 'I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts... they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest... for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.' The new covenant resolves what the Sinai covenant exposed: that external law-giving cannot produce internal covenant loyalty. The new covenant writes what the old could only command.
For the preacher, בְּרִית is the word that names the non-negotiable relational commitment at the center of the biblical story — God's binding of Himself to His people, which reaches its fullest expression in the blood of Christ, 'the blood of the new covenant' (Mat 26:28).
Sense covenant, binding promise or relationship
Definition A solemn covenant bond established by God with His people.
References Exodus 6:4-5
Lexicon covenant, binding promise or relationship
Why it matters God remembers His covenant with the patriarchs and acts to fulfill it through redemption.
Sense groaning, cry of distress
Definition An anguished cry or groaning under suffering.
References Exodus 6:5
Lexicon groaning, cry of distress
Why it matters The Lord hears Israel’s groaning and responds according to covenant remembrance.
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זָכַר is the Old Testament's primary word for remembrance — but the English word barely reaches what the Hebrew is doing. In modern usage, to remember means to mentally retrieve a fact. In the world of Scripture, זָכַר carries active weight. When God remembers, something moves. When Israel is commanded to remember, a whole orientation of the self — not merely the mind — is being summoned.
The BDB root suggests the idea of marking something so it can be recognised, a kind of deliberate attentiveness that produces a response. This is why זָכַר does so much theological work in the Old Testament. When God remembered Noah, the waters began to recede (Gen 8:1). When God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he acted to deliver Israel from slavery (Exod 2:24). Remembrance in the divine life is not passive cognition — it is covenantal fidelity taking concrete form. God does not simply think about what he has promised; he moves toward it.
When Israel is commanded to remember, the summons is equally active. To remember the Sabbath is to order the whole week around it (Exod 20:8). To remember the Exodus is to let that defining moment of grace shape how you live, how you treat the stranger, how you relate to your God (Deut 8:2). Forgetting, in this framework, is not simply a lapse of memory — it is a failure of fidelity, a turning of the back on what God has done.
זָכַר can also mean to mention or invoke — to bring someone's name or situation before God in speech, or to declare God's deeds before others. The Psalms move in both directions: the psalmist brings his suffering before God in lament, and brings God's saving history before his own soul in praise. Remembrance is the spiritual practice that keeps the people of God oriented toward their covenant Lord.
Sense to remember, call to mind, act in covenant faithfulness
Definition To remember in a way that brings faithful covenant attention and action.
References Exodus 6:5
Lexicon to remember, call to mind, act in covenant faithfulness
Why it matters God’s remembrance means He is moving to fulfill His covenant promises, not recovering forgotten information.
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יָצָא (yatsa) is the Hebrew verb of going out — and in its most theologically charged form, it is the verb of the exodus. YHWH is the God who brought Israel out (hetseti, Hiphil of yatsa) of Egypt, out of the house of slavery (Exod 20:2). This formula, repeated often in the OT, makes yatsa one of the most theologically loaded departures in the Bible: many later going-out themes are measured against YHWH's great yatsa from Egypt. The local Hebrew index currently counts about 1,076 occurrences.
Exodus 20:2 gives yatsa its foundational covenantal use: 'I am YHWH your God, who brought you out (hetseti, Hiphil causative) of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.' The Ten Commandments begin not with a command but with a declaration of identity grounded in the divine yatsa. Before YHWH says 'you shall have no other gods before me' (v. 3), he says who he is: the one who did the yatsa. The covenant obligation rests on the prior act of redemption. The Hiphil form (hetseti, I caused you to go out, I brought you out) makes clear that Israel's departure from Egypt was not Israel's achievement — it was YHWH's. He is the subject of the yatsa; Israel is the object.
Isaiah 52:12 gives yatsa its new-exodus form: 'For you shall not go out (tetse'u) in haste, and you shall not go in flight, for YHWH will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.' The return from Babylon is a new yatsa — but greater than the first: the first exodus was hurried (Exod 12:33), the new exodus will not be. YHWH will again be the one who goes before and behind his people in their yatsa.
Isaiah 55:11 gives yatsa its word-of-YHWH use: 'so shall my word be that goes out (yatsa) from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.' The word of YHWH is itself a yatsa — a purposeful going out that never fails to arrive. This is the theology of divine speech as effective act: YHWH speaks and his word yatsa's, and the yatsa of his word is as certain as the yatsa from Egypt.
Genesis 4:16 gives yatsa its negative counterpart: 'Then Cain went out (vayetse) from the presence of YHWH and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.' Cain's yatsa from YHWH's presence is the opposite of the worshiper's coming in: it is exile, banishment, the loss of the face of YHWH. Every wanderer's yatsa echoes Cain's.
Zechariah 14:8 gives yatsa its eschatological use: 'On that day living waters shall go out (yetse'u) from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea.' The living waters' yatsa from Jerusalem is the eschatological reversal of Cain's yatsa from YHWH's presence — from the city of YHWH, life itself goes out to water the whole earth.
For the preacher, יָצָא (yatsa) gives the congregation the grammar of redemption: you were brought out. The covenant always begins with the divine yatsa before it issues any covenant demand.
Sense to bring out, go out
Definition To bring out or cause to depart.
References Exodus 6:6
Lexicon to bring out, go out
Why it matters The Lord promises to bring Israel out from under Egypt’s burdens as the first movement of redemption.
Sense burdens, forced labor
Definition Heavy labor or oppressive burdens.
References Exodus 6:6-7
Lexicon burdens, forced labor
Why it matters The Lord directly promises release from the burdens Pharaoh intensified in Exodus 5.
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נָצַל is the verb of urgent rescue — the act of snatching someone from a grip that holds them. Where גָּאַל (H1350) describes redemption through the obligation of kinship, נָצַל describes the physical force of the rescue act itself: to deliver, to pull free, to snatch away from danger. BDB's primary definition is 'to snatch away, deliver, rescue' — the image is of something pulled out of the hand of an enemy, stripped away from a power that had hold of it.
The verb appears more than 200 times in the OT and spans a remarkable range from the most immediate physical danger (the lion that tears the sheep, the enemy who captures the prisoner) to the broadest theological claim (God who delivers his people from every hand that holds them). The word's directness distinguishes it from the covenantal vocabulary of גָּאַל.
נָצַל is not the vocabulary of prior obligation or kinship right — it is the vocabulary of the decisive intervention itself, the moment when the delivering God moves between his people and what threatens them. The Psalms are saturated with נָצַל. 'Deliver me from my enemies, O my God' (Ps 59:1). 'He delivers the needy when he cries, the poor also, and him who has no helper' (Ps 72:12).
'You who love the Lord, hate evil. He preserves the souls of his saints. He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked' (Ps 97:10). The word carries an urgency the covenantal redemption terms do not: this is the person in the lion's mouth, the prisoner in the enemy's hand, the drowning man — and נָצַל is the word for the grip being broken. In the prophets, נָצַל describes both God's past deliverance of Israel from Egypt and his promised future deliverance from exile.
In the NT, σῴζω (to save) and ῥύομαι (to rescue/deliver) carry the weight of נָצַל in the salvation vocabulary — the urgent rescue of those who cannot rescue themselves.
Sense to deliver, rescue, free
Definition To rescue or snatch away from danger or oppression.
References Exodus 6:6
Lexicon to deliver, rescue, free
Why it matters The Lord promises to free Israel from slavery, answering Moses’ complaint that rescue had not yet happened.
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גָּאַל is one of the most theologically rich verbs in the OT. In Israelite law it named the action of the גֹּאֵל — the kinsman-redeemer — the nearest male relative obligated to buy back what a family member had lost: a field sold under economic pressure, a person sold into slavery, or the life of someone murdered (blood avenger). The institution encoded in this verb is relational before it is legal: redemption in this legal-family register is the act of someone bound by kinship obligation, stepping in to restore what you could not restore yourself.
Ruth introduces us to the institution through Boaz, the גֹּאֵל who redeems Naomi's field and marries Ruth to preserve the family line. Leviticus 25 grounds the institution in theology: the land belongs to God, Israel are his tenants, and the kinsman-redeemer mechanism exists because God does not want his people permanently dispossessed of the inheritance he gave them.
The theological transfer of this verb to God himself is the great conceptual move of the prophets. Isaiah uses גָּאַל more than any other OT writer, almost always for God's redemption of Israel from Egypt or from Babylon. 'Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel' (Isa 41:14). 'I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior... your Redeemer' (Isa 43:3, 14).
'As for our Redeemer — the Lord of hosts is his name' (Isa 47:4). The application of the kinsman-redeemer category to God draws on the legal institution's relational weight: God is not presented as an external rescuer who happens to intervene, but as the covenant Redeemer who binds himself to restore his people. The NT's fulfilment of גָּאַל is christological: Galatians 3:13 uses the Greek equivalent λυτρόω — 'Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law.'
But the deeper NT resonance of גָּאַל is in the Incarnation itself: the Son truly shares flesh and blood with those he redeems, so the redemption is not detached from real solidarity.
Sense to redeem, act as kinsman-redeemer, reclaim
Definition To redeem or reclaim through decisive action, often with covenant-family associations.
References Exodus 6:6
Lexicon to redeem, act as kinsman-redeemer, reclaim
Why it matters This term gives Exodus its redemption theology: the Lord Himself acts to reclaim His people from bondage.
Sense outstretched arm
Definition A figure of decisive power and active intervention.
References Exodus 6:6
Lexicon outstretched arm
Why it matters The Lord’s redemption will be accomplished by His own mighty power against Egypt.
Sense judgments, acts of judgment
Definition Judicial acts or punishments.
References Exodus 6:6
Lexicon judgments, acts of judgment
Why it matters The Exodus will involve not only rescue for Israel but judgment against Egypt’s oppressive rebellion.
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לָקַח is the Hebrew verb for taking — but what a range it covers. Nearly a thousand times in the Old Testament, this single verb does the work of seizing and receiving, fetching and accepting, marrying and purchasing, carrying away and drawing close. It is one of those load-bearing words in biblical Hebrew that refuses to settle into a single English meaning because it is not primarily a word about technique. It is a word about agency, intention, and the direction of reaching.
At its most ordinary, לָקַח is simply the motion of a hand that picks something up. Abram takes Lot with him when he leaves Haran. Rebekah takes the veil to cover her face. A priest takes the atonement blood and sprinkles it at the altar. The word belongs to the texture of everyday life — it governs the mechanics of trade, travel, offering, and household. In this register, לָקַח is unremarkable. It simply moves things from where they were to where they are needed.
But the verb does not stay ordinary. It is also the word for the taking that shapes a life, a nation, or a destiny. God takes Abraham out of Ur — calling, summoning, removing, redirecting. God takes Israel from the house of slaves, not because they earned extraction but because He reached into Egypt and drew them out. Moses takes the tablets. Samuel takes the horn of oil. Elijah is taken by the whirlwind. In these moments, לָקַח names the decisive divine action that changes everything: the claiming, the appointing, the lifting out.
The verb also governs danger and ruin. In the darkest register, לָקַח is the word for forbidden taking — Achan's seizure of devoted things, the hand that reaches toward what God has withheld, the foreign woman who takes the foolish young man in Proverbs 7 and leads him to his death. The same verb that names God's sovereign receiving of a life into covenant can name the grasping impulse that undoes what God built.
Pastorally, this breadth matters. לָקַח does not carry theological weight by itself — context, subject, object, and intent are everything. The pastor's task is to ask who is taking, what is being taken, and in what direction. When God is the subject, the taking is almost always covenantal, redemptive, or commissioning. When the human heart reaches out in unchecked desire, the same word marks the beginning of devastation. The word forces the congregation to reckon with the fact that reaching — toward God, toward what He gives, toward what He forbids — is the fundamental moral gesture of human life.
Sense to take, receive, take possession of
Definition To take or receive to oneself.
References Exodus 6:7
Lexicon to take, receive, take possession of
Why it matters The Lord promises to take Israel as His own people, moving redemption into covenant belonging.
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עַם names the gathered, bound-together people — not merely a crowd of individuals occupying the same space, but a community constituted by shared identity, shared story, and shared belonging. The BDB root-gloss points toward kinship — the word carries the weight of being knit together. When the Old Testament calls Israel עַם, it does not simply mean a demographic or a population count. It names a relational reality: people who belong to one another because they belong to the same God.
The word moves across a wide range of uses. It describes national Israel as a covenant people — gathered, shaped, addressed, and held by YHWH. It is the congregation assembled before God at Sinai, at the Tent of Meeting, before the ark. It describes troops and armies — those who move and act together under command. It names foreign peoples and nations — Gentile עַמִּים stand alongside and in contrast to Israel. And in its most concentrated theological sense, עַם is the people of God: the elect community whom God chose not because of their size or virtue, but because of His own love and His oath to the fathers.
Where עַם appears in the Old Testament it is rarely neutral. It is almost always relational and almost always directional. The people are going somewhere — following, rebelling, being gathered, being scattered, being redeemed. They are led by a shepherd-king or abandoned under bad shepherds. They stand before God or wander from him. The word therefore carries both the grace of belonging and the weight of accountability. To be עַם is not a passive status. It is a living position within a covenant relationship that demands response, fidelity, and return when the people stray.
Pastorally, עַם resists two opposite errors. Against individualism, it insists that God has always worked through a people — not merely a collection of personal spiritual journeys, but a bound community with a shared name, shared inheritance, and shared vocation. Against tribalism, the word across the canon ultimately opens outward: the nations are not excluded forever; the vision of Scripture moves toward a gathered people from every tribe and language and tongue.
Sense people, nation, community
Definition A people or community, here Israel as belonging to the LORD.
References Exodus 6:7
Lexicon people, nation, community
Why it matters The Lord promises covenant belonging: Israel will be His people.
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יָדַע (yādaʿ) is the Hebrew verb for knowing, but it encompasses far more than cognitive awareness. Hebrew yādaʿ is experiential, relational, and covenantal knowledge — the knowledge that comes from encounter, intimacy, and ongoing relationship, not merely from information received. The OT uses yādaʿ for the most intimate human relationship (Gen 4:1: 'Adam knew his wife Eve'), for the prophetic encounter with God ('before I formed you in the womb I knew you,' Jer 1:5), and for the covenantal recognition formula that drives the prophetic books.
The most theologically significant yādaʿ in the OT is the divine-human knowing: God knowing his people and his people knowing God. The formula 'you shall know (wĕyādaʿtem) that I am the Lord' recurs throughout Ezekiel, and the divine self-disclosure is pointed toward recognition. YHWH acts in history so that both Israel and the nations will yādaʿ his identity.
This recognition formula gives the prophetic movement a clear horizon: YHWH acts so Israel and the nations will recognize him. The prophetic promise of the new covenant is formulated in yādaʿ terms: Jeremiah 31:34 — 'they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest' — defines the new covenant by the universality and completeness of the yādaʿ that will characterize it.
This is why John 17:3 defines eternal life as knowing the Father and the Son: the covenant goal of yādaʿ, now available in Christ.
Sense to know, recognize, understand relationally
Definition To know personally, experientially, or covenantally.
References Exodus 6:7
Lexicon to know, recognize, understand relationally
Why it matters The Exodus will make Israel know that the Lord is their God who brought them out from Egypt’s burdens.
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נָתַן is one of the most common verbs in the Hebrew Bible, and its very ordinariness is part of its theological weight. At its center it means to give — to pass something from one hand to another, one person to another, one realm to another. But BDB's note that it is used with the greatest latitude of application is not a caveat to its meaning; it is an invitation to see how deeply a theology of giving runs through Israel's life with God.
The range is genuinely vast. נָתַן can mean to give, place, put, set, deliver, appoint, cause, hand over, allow, produce, assign, render, or make. A father gives his daughter in marriage. A king appoints an official. God gives rain to the land. A man delivers his enemy into another's hands. The word does not carry a single nuance but a governing posture: something is transferred, entrusted, released, or assigned. Agency moves. What was held is now extended toward another.
When the subject is God, נָתַן becomes one of the most expansive verbs of divine generosity in Scripture. God gives the land to Abraham's seed. He gives rest to Israel. He gives his law at Sinai. He gives kings, gives rain, gives commands, gives children to the barren, gives deliverance to the hunted, gives an everlasting covenant. The repetition is not incidental — it is the texture of covenant life. Israel exists because God gave: gave rescue, gave inheritance, gave name, gave presence, gave future.
But נָתַן also moves in darker directions. Israel is given over to enemies when she breaks the covenant. Cities are given into judgment. A person can give themselves over to folly or to faithfulness. The same verb that describes divine generosity can describe divine discipline, human betrayal, and the handing over of the innocent. Preachers need both registers. The word opens the full range of what it means to live inside a covenant with a God who acts, transfers, appoints, and — when mercy runs out — hands over.
Pastorally, נָתַן keeps pointing toward a God who is not hoarding. He gives and gives and gives again — land, law, life, covenant, and eventually, in the fullness of time, his Son. The verb's sheer frequency is itself a theological witness: Israel's entire story is held together by the one who keeps giving.
Sense to give
Definition To give, grant, or place.
References Exodus 6:8
Lexicon to give
Why it matters The land is not seized as autonomous achievement but given by the Lord as covenant inheritance.
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Sense shortness of spirit, discouragement, crushed spirit
Definition A condition of inner constriction, discouragement, or inability to endure.
References Exodus 6:9
Lexicon shortness of spirit, discouragement, crushed spirit
Why it matters Israel cannot listen because oppression has crushed their inner capacity to receive hope.
Sense hard service, harsh labor
Definition Severe or harsh labor under oppressive conditions.
References Exodus 6:9
Lexicon hard service, harsh labor
Why it matters The phrase names the brutal condition that makes Israel unable to listen to Moses.
Sense uncircumcised lips, impeded or inadequate speech
Definition A metaphorical expression for speech that Moses views as deficient or unfit.
References Exodus 6:12, 30
Lexicon uncircumcised lips, impeded or inadequate speech
Why it matters Moses’ self-described speech weakness becomes the repeated human inadequacy that the Lord will overcome through His commission and Aaron’s role.
Lexicon data: MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML (CC0) · Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (CC BY 4.0) · Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon (CC BY 4.0) · STEPBible Data (CC BY 4.0) · Full details
Hebrew Verb Morphology
| v.1 | H7200רָאָהQal · Imperfect · Indicative/jussiveH6213עָשָׂהQal · Imperfect · Indicative/cohortative |
| v.11 | H935בּוֹאQal · Imperative · ImperativeH1696דָבַרPiel · Imperative · Imperative |
| v.12 | H8085שָׁמַעQal · Perfect · Indicative |
| v.25 | H3947לָקַחQal · Perfect · Indicative |
| v.26 | H559אָמַרQal · Perfect · IndicativeH3318יָצָאHiphil · Imperative · Imperative |
| v.28 | H1696דָבַרPiel · Perfect · Indicative |
| v.29 | H1696דָבַרPiel · Imperative · ImperativeH1696דָבַרQal · Participle |
| v.3 | H3045יָדַעNiphal · Perfect · Indicative |
| v.30 | H8085שָׁמַעQal · Imperfect · Indicative/jussive |
| v.4 | H6965קוּםHiphil · Perfect · IndicativeH1481גּוּרQal · Perfect · Indicative |
| v.5 | H8085שָׁמַעQal · Perfect · IndicativeH5647עָבַדHiphil · Participle |
| v.6 | H559אָמַרQal · Imperative · ImperativeH5186נָטָהQal · Participle passive |
| v.8 | H5375נָשָׂאQal · Perfect · Indicative |
| v.9 | H8085שָׁמַעQal · Perfect · Indicative |
Aspect in Hebrew is grammatical form, not tense. Perfect = completed action; Imperfect = incomplete/ongoing. Stem modifies action type (Qal=simple, Niphal=passive, Piel=intensive).
Morphology: OSHB WLC (Open Scriptures, CC BY 4.0) · STEPBible TEHMC (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0)
Theological Argument
Exodus 6 argues that redemption rests entirely on who the Lord is and what He promises to do. Moses’ lament, Israel’s discouragement, and Pharaoh’s refusal do not weaken the covenant. The Lord answers by revealing His name, remembering His covenant, and declaring a series of sovereign promises. The chapter places Israel’s deliverance within God’s covenant with the patriarchs and His determination to make Israel His people.
Even when human listeners are too broken to hear and the human messenger feels unfit to speak, the Lord’s word remains decisive.
From Moses’ complaint, to the LORD’s covenant reassurance, to Israel’s inability to listen, to Moses’ renewed objection, to genealogical grounding, to the repeated commission.
- 1.Pharaoh’s resistance will be overcome by the LORD’s mighty hand.
- 2.The coming redemption is grounded in the LORD’s covenant name and His promises to the patriarchs.
- 3.The LORD Himself will accomplish every essential movement of redemption: deliverance, freedom, redemption, covenant belonging, divine relationship, and inheritance.
- 4.Deep suffering can make God’s people unable to receive hope even when God’s promise is true.
- 5.Moses’ inadequacy does not cancel God’s commission.
- 6.The deliverance mission is historically and covenantally grounded through the line of Israel, especially Levi.
Theological Focus
- The revealed name of the Lord
- Covenant remembrance
- Redemption by divine power
- God’s sovereign promises
- Israel as God’s people
- The Lord as Israel’s God
- Discouragement under bondage
- Human weakness in divine mission
- Genealogy and covenant continuity
- Land promise and inheritance
- The Lord’s name
- Redemption as divine initiative
- Outstretched arm and judgment
- Covenant relationship
- The pain of crushed hope
- Commission despite inadequacy
- Genealogy as theological grounding
- Doctrine of God
- Covenant Faithfulness
- Redemption
- Divine Sovereignty
- People of God
- Inheritance
- Human Weakness
- Pastoral Theology of Suffering
- Genealogy and Covenant Continuity
Theological Themes
The repeated declaration 'I am the Lord' frames the chapter. Redemption will reveal the Lord’s identity in covenant faithfulness and mighty action.
God remembers His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, meaning He now turns toward His promises with saving action.
The repeated 'I will' statements show that Israel’s salvation depends on the Lord’s action, not Israel’s strength or Moses’ eloquence.
The Lord will redeem Israel with an outstretched arm and mighty acts of judgment, showing that liberation from bondage requires divine power against oppressive evil.
The Lord promises, 'I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God,' making relationship central to redemption.
Israel’s inability to listen because of discouragement and harsh labor shows the deep spiritual and emotional toll of oppression.
Moses continues to point to his faltering lips, but God continues to command him to speak.
The genealogy is not an interruption but a covenant anchor identifying Moses and Aaron within Israel’s family and Levitical line.
Covenant Significance
Exodus 6 is one of the clearest covenant-redemption chapters in the book. The Lord explicitly connects the coming Exodus to the patriarchal covenant, the land promise, Israel’s adoption-like belonging as His people, and His own identity as their God. Redemption is not bare emancipation. It is covenant fulfillment: God brings His people out from bondage, takes them to Himself, and brings them toward the land sworn to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Old Testament Connections
- Covenant name - The Lord identifies Himself by His covenant name and places the mission under that revelation.
- Covenant memory - The Lord hears Israel’s groaning and remembers His covenant.
- Covenant redemption - The Lord promises to redeem Israel with an outstretched arm and acts of judgment.
- Covenant belonging - The Lord promises to take Israel as His own people and to be their God.
- Covenant inheritance - The Lord promises to bring Israel into the land He swore to give the patriarchs.
- Covenant servants - The genealogy identifies Moses and Aaron as members of Israel’s covenant line, especially through Levi.
- Genesis 12:1-3 - The Lord’s promise to Abraham begins the covenant context for Israel’s peoplehood and blessing.
- Genesis 15:13-16 - God foretold Israel’s oppression in a foreign land and their eventual deliverance with possessions.
- Genesis 17:7-8 - God promised to be God to Abraham’s offspring and to give them the land of Canaan.
- Genesis 26:3-5 - The covenant promise was reaffirmed to Isaac.
- Genesis 28:13-15 - The promise of land, offspring, and divine presence was reaffirmed to Jacob.
- Exodus 2:23-25 - God heard Israel’s groaning and remembered His covenant, which Exodus 6 now expands in explicit promise.
Canonical Connections
The revelation and repetition of the Lord’s name become foundational for Israel’s worship, obedience, and memory.
God’s promise to the patriarchs drives the Exodus deliverance and land hope.
The phrase becomes a central Old Testament memory of the Lord’s powerful deliverance from Egypt.
This covenant formula echoes throughout Scripture and finds climactic expression in the new creation.
The Exodus redemption pattern is fulfilled in Christ’s deliverance of His people from sin and death.
The promise of land inheritance points forward through the canon to the fuller inheritance secured in Christ.
Cross References
Clarifies how the passage points to the gospel of Christ.
Clarifies how the passage points to the gospel of Christ.
Clarifies how the passage points to the gospel of Christ.
Shows Old Testament grounding that frames or supports this passage.
The sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, and Hebron, and Uzziel. The children of Amram: Aaron, Moses, and Miriam. The sons of Aaron: Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.
Shows Old Testament grounding that frames or supports this passage.
Or has God tried to go and take a nation for himself from among another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that Yahweh your God did for you in...
Shows Old Testament grounding that frames or supports this passage.
Come now therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of...
Shows Old Testament grounding that frames or supports this passage.
Moses said to Yahweh, “O Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before now, nor since you have spoken to your servant; for I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.” Yahweh said to him, “Who made man’s mouth? Or who makes one mute, or deaf, or...
Shows Old Testament grounding that frames or supports this passage.
Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth, and teach you what you shall speak.”
Shows Old Testament grounding that frames or supports this passage.
Now Yahweh said to Abram, “Leave your country, and your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. You will be a blessing. I...
Shows Old Testament grounding that frames or supports this passage.
Now Yahweh said to Abram, “Leave your country, and your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. You will be a blessing. I...
Shows Old Testament grounding that frames or supports this passage.
He said to Abram, “Know for sure that your offspring will live as foreigners in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them. They will afflict them four hundred years. I will also judge that nation, whom they will serve. Afterward they...
Shows Old Testament grounding that frames or supports this passage.
He said to Abram, “Know for sure that your offspring will live as foreigners in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them. They will afflict them four hundred years. I will also judge that nation, whom they will serve. Afterward they...
Shows Old Testament grounding that frames or supports this passage.
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, Yahweh appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless. I will make my covenant between me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.” Abram fell on his face....
Shows Old Testament grounding that frames or supports this passage.
Yahweh appeared to him, and said, “Don’t go down into Egypt. Live in the land I will tell you about. Live in this land, and I will be with you, and will bless you. For I will give to you, and to your offspring, all these lands, and I will...
Shows Old Testament grounding that frames or supports this passage.
Behold, Yahweh stood above it, and said, “I am Yahweh, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac. I will give the land you lie on to you and to your offspring. Your offspring will be as the dust of the earth, and you will spread...
Shows Old Testament grounding that frames or supports this passage.
Yahweh saw that Leah was hated, and he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. Leah conceived, and bore a son, and she named him Reuben. For she said, “Because Yahweh has looked at my affliction; for now my husband will love me.” She...
Shows Old Testament grounding that frames or supports this passage.
He said, “I am God, the God of your father. Don’t be afraid to go down into Egypt, for there I will make of you a great nation. I will go down with you into Egypt. I will also surely bring you up again. Joseph’s hand will close your eyes.”
Shows Old Testament grounding that frames or supports this passage.
These are the names of the children of Israel, who came into Egypt, Jacob and his sons: Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn. The sons of Reuben: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi. The sons of Simeon: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul the...
Shows Old Testament grounding that frames or supports this passage.
“Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength; excelling in dignity, and excelling in power. Boiling over like water, you shall not excel; because you went up to your father’s bed, then defiled it. He went up to...
Shows Old Testament grounding that frames or supports this passage.
Joseph said to his brothers, “I am dying, but God will surely visit you, and bring you up out of this land to the land which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” Joseph took an oath from the children of Israel, saying, “God will...
Shows Old Testament grounding that frames or supports this passage.
Now this is the history of the generations of Aaron and Moses in the day that Yahweh spoke with Moses in Mount Sinai. These are the names of the sons of Aaron: Nadab the firstborn, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. These are the names of...
Develops the same theological theme in another location.
Develops the same theological theme in another location.
Develops the same theological theme in another location.
Canon-Wide Connections
Cross-reference data: OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Gospel Clarity
Exodus 6 gives a major biblical pattern for understanding the gospel. The Lord sees His people in bondage, remembers His covenant, and acts to redeem them by His power. He does not merely improve their conditions; He brings them out, frees them, redeems them, takes them as His own, makes Himself known as their God, and brings them toward inheritance. In Christ, this pattern reaches its fulfillment: God redeems His people from slavery to sin, brings them into covenant relationship, gives them His Spirit, and secures their eternal inheritance through the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Gospel Guardrails
- Redemption begins in God’s identity - The declaration 'I am the Lord' grounds salvation in God’s own character and faithfulness.
- God remembers covenant - The Lord’s saving action flows from His covenant commitment, not Israel’s strength.
- God redeems from slavery - Israel’s freedom from Egypt prepares the gospel category of deliverance from slavery to sin.
- God redeems by power and judgment - The outstretched arm and mighty judgments show that redemption defeats oppressive power.
- God takes a people for Himself - The aim of redemption is covenant belonging: 'I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God.'
- God gives inheritance - The promise of land anticipates the larger biblical hope of inheritance fulfilled in Christ.
- Christ fulfills the Exodus pattern - Jesus accomplishes the greater redemption, securing forgiveness, freedom, sonship, and inheritance for His people.
- Do not reduce redemption to escape from hardship.
- Do not detach the Exodus from covenant promise.
- Do not treat Israel’s discouragement as a simple failure of character · the text highlights the crushing effect of bondage.
- Do not make Moses’ weakness stronger than the Lord’s promise.
- Do not read the land promise in isolation from covenant relationship with God.
- Do not jump to Christ without tracing the chapter’s own redemption logic: name, covenant, bondage, redemption, peoplehood, divine relationship, and inheritance.
Gospel Cross References
Primary Emphasis
Exodus 6 deepens the Bible’s theology of redemption by presenting salvation as the Lord’s covenant action: He brings His people out, frees them from slavery, redeems them by power and judgment, takes them as His own, becomes their God, and gives them inheritance. These categories prepare for Christ, who accomplishes the greater redemption by His blood, frees His people from sin’s slavery, reconciles them to God, makes them God’s people, and secures their promised inheritance.
Chapter Contribution
Exodus 6 argues that redemption rests entirely on who the Lord is and what He promises to do. Moses’ lament, Israel’s discouragement, and Pharaoh’s refusal do not weaken the covenant. The Lord answers by revealing His name, remembering His covenant, and declaring a series of sovereign promises. The chapter places Israel’s deliverance within God’s covenant with the patriarchs and His determination to make Israel His people.
Even when human listeners are too broken to hear and the human messenger feels unfit to speak, the Lord’s word remains decisive.
Doctrines in This Chapter
The named clans remind readers that the Lord is acting in continuity with his promises to the patriarchs and his concern for Israel as a covenant people.
The Lord speaks and defines the mission by his own command, not by Moses’ assessment of what seems plausible.
God makes himself known not only by titles but by covenant action; the exodus will disclose the Lord's name through faithful redemption and judgment.
The Lord’s saving purpose governs the mission even when the people are discouraged, Pharaoh is resistant, and Moses feels inadequate.
Pharaoh's authority is real but subordinate; the Lord's mighty hand will force the oppressor to release what he refuses to surrender.
Moses and Aaron are not self-appointed liberators; they are commanded servants placed under God’s word and sent with God’s authority.
Biblical redemption is rooted in real persons, names, families, and events, not in timeless religious abstraction.
Moses’ objection about faltering lips highlights that the usefulness of God’s servants rests on divine commissioning, not natural adequacy.
The text recognizes that severe affliction can make even true words of promise difficult to hear, without making suffering stronger than God's covenant word.
The same divine action that frees Israel brings judgment upon Egypt, showing that redemption includes both rescue of God's people and confrontation of evil.
The passage continues the theme of God sending a representative to speak his word before Pharaoh, preparing for Moses’ prophet-like role in Exodus 7.
The command is not for Moses to invent a strategy but to speak all that the Lord says.
The Lord's purpose is not merely to remove Israel from pain but to take them as his own people and be known by them as their God.
The focus on Levi and Aaron’s sons anticipates later priestly structures while remaining within the immediate narrative of deliverance.
The genealogy shows that God’s saving work unfolds through ordered history, family lines, and covenant continuity rather than through random circumstance.
The Lord describes rescue from Egypt with redemptive language, presenting deliverance as liberation by divine power from enslaving bondage.
The passage is driven by divine speech. The Lord commands, sends, and defines the mission before Moses or Pharaoh determines the outcome.
Doctrinal Weight
The Lord reveals Himself as the covenant God whose name, faithfulness, power, and promises define the redemption of His people.
God remembers His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and acts according to His promises.
The Lord promises to bring Israel out, free them from slavery, and redeem them with an outstretched arm and mighty judgments.
The Lord will compel Pharaoh by His mighty hand and accomplish His purposes despite Pharaoh’s resistance.
The Lord promises to take Israel as His own people and to be their God.
The Lord promises to bring Israel into the land sworn to the patriarchs and give it to them as a possession.
Moses’ faltering lips and Israel’s crushed spirit show human frailty within God’s redemptive mission.
The chapter recognizes that harsh bondage and discouragement can make the promise of God difficult to hear.
The genealogy anchors Moses and Aaron in Israel’s historical covenant line, especially through Levi.
Reading Lenses
Theological exposition and fulfillment
- Exodus 6 gives a major biblical pattern for understanding the gospel. The Lord sees His people in bondage, remembers His covenant, and acts to redeem them by His power. He does not merely improve their conditions; He brings them out, frees them, redeems them, takes them as His own, makes Himself known as their God, and brings them toward inheritance. In Christ, this pattern reaches its fulfillment: God redeems His people from slavery to sin, brings them into covenant relationship, gives them His Spirit, and secures their eternal inheritance through the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Formation Focus
The Lord redeems because He is the Lord, remembers His covenant, hears His people, and acts with sovereign power to take them as His own.
God’s people must learn to trust the Lord’s revealed name and promise even when suffering crushes their ability to listen and when His servants feel too weak to speak.
Covenant confidence, patient endurance, compassionate shepherding, dependence in weakness, hope under oppression, and worshipful trust in God’s promises.
Practice Response
- Read Exodus 6:6-8 slowly and mark each 'I will' promise.
- Pray by naming God’s character before naming your circumstances.
- Be patient with those whose suffering makes hope hard to hear.
- Refuse to reduce salvation to relief from pressure · remember that redemption brings you to God.
- Bring feelings of inadequacy to the Lord without using them to avoid obedience.
- Trace God’s faithfulness across generations and give thanks for His covenant continuity.
- Wait for the Lord’s mighty hand when immediate deliverance is not yet visible.
Warnings and Misreadings
- The chapter warns against judging God’s promise by present pain, against letting discouragement make the word of God seem unbelievable, and against measuring divine calling by human adequacy. It also warns that oppressive powers will be answered by the Lord’s mighty judgment.
- Reading the Lord’s name revelation as a mere theological abstraction. - The Lord reveals His name in the context of covenant faithfulness, redemption, judgment, and relationship with His people.
- Assuming Israel’s inability to listen proves unbelief only. - The text specifically says they could not listen because of discouragement and harsh bondage. Their crushed condition is part of the pastoral and theological force of the chapter.
- Treating the genealogy as a random interruption. - The genealogy identifies Moses and Aaron within Israel’s covenant family, especially the Levitical line, and legitimizes their role before the confrontation resumes.
- Reducing redemption to freedom from bad circumstances. - The Lord’s promises include freedom from slavery, redemption, covenant belonging, knowing God, and inheritance.
- Thinking Moses’ faltering lips cancel his usefulness. - Moses’ weakness remains real, but the Lord’s command and provision remain decisive.
- Separating land promise from covenant relationship. - The land is given within the larger covenant relationship: 'I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God.'
Discipleship Questions
- When circumstances worsen, do I interpret God by my pain or my pain by God’s revealed name and promise?
- Which of the Lord’s 'I will' promises in this chapter most directly confronts my fear?
- How can I shepherd someone whose spirit is too crushed to hear hope easily?
- Do I think of salvation mainly as relief, or as belonging to God and knowing Him?
- Where am I using weakness, inadequacy, or past discouragement as a reason not to obey?
- How does covenant memory strengthen endurance when immediate change is not visible?
- Do I trust that God’s promised redemption includes judgment against evil and restoration of His people?
Pastoral Applications
- Preach God’s promises without ignoring people’s pain.
- Anchor assurance in the Lord’s identity.
- Help discouraged people receive hope slowly.
- Keep redemption bigger than relief.
- Teach calling under weakness.
- Use genealogy as pastoral theology.
- Prepare people for the long arc of deliverance.
Pastoral Trajectories
Moses’ complaint is answered by the Lord’s declaration that Pharaoh will be compelled by divine power.
The Lord does not first explain every painful detail; He reveals His name, covenant, and promises.
The Lord’s promise moves beyond release from Egypt to becoming Israel’s God and taking them as His people.
Israel cannot listen yet, but the Lord’s word remains true and continues moving forward.
Moses’ faltering lips remain part of the story, but they do not have final authority over the mission.
The genealogy grounds Moses and Aaron in Israel’s covenant line, showing continuity between promise and mission.
Commentary (Keil & Delitzsch)
C.F. Keil & F. Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–91) — public domain
The Biblical World
Chapter At A Glance
The Lord answers Moses’ lament by declaring His name and covenant promises, but Israel cannot listen because of anguish and harsh bondage; Moses again objects, and the chapter anchors his and Aaron’s mission in Israel’s genealogy before restating the commission to Pharaoh.
Exodus 6 is one of the clearest covenant-redemption chapters in the book. The Lord explicitly connects the coming Exodus to the patriarchal covenant, the land promise, Israel’s adoption-like belonging as His people, and His own identity as their God. Redemption is not bare emancipation. It is covenant fulfillment: God brings His people out from bondage, takes them to Himself, and brings them toward the land sworn to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Exodus 6 gives a major biblical pattern for understanding the gospel. The Lord sees His people in bondage, remembers His covenant, and acts to redeem them by His power. He does not merely improve their conditions; He brings them out, frees them, redeems them, takes them as His own, makes Himself known as their God, and brings them toward inheritance. In Christ, this pattern reaches its fulfillment: God redeems His people from slavery to sin, brings them into covenant relationship, gives them His Spirit, and secures their eternal inheritance through the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Covenant confidence, patient endurance, compassionate shepherding, dependence in weakness, hope under oppression, and worshipful trust in God’s promises.
Focus Points
- The revealed name of the Lord
- Covenant remembrance
- Redemption by divine power
- God’s sovereign promises
- Israel as God’s people
- The Lord as Israel’s God
- Discouragement under bondage
- Human weakness in divine mission
- Genealogy and covenant continuity
- Land promise and inheritance
- The Lord’s name
- Redemption as divine initiative
- Outstretched arm and judgment
- Covenant relationship
- The pain of crushed hope
- Commission despite inadequacy
- Genealogy as theological grounding
- Doctrine of God
- Covenant Faithfulness
- Redemption
- Divine Sovereignty
- People of God
- Inheritance
- Human Weakness
- Pastoral Theology of Suffering
Explore Further
Cross References
So Moses returned to the Lord and asked, “Lord, why have You brought trouble upon this people? Is this why You sent me? Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has brought trouble on this people, and You have not delivered Your people in any way.”
Immediate background
God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” God also told Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ This is My name forever, and this is how I am to be remembered in every generation.
Divine name background
Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will judge the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will depart with many possessions. You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a ripe old...
Covenant forecast
I will establish My covenant as an everlasting covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. And to you and your descendants I will give the land where you are residing—all the land of Canaan—as an eternal possession; and I will be their God.”
Covenant foundation
The Lord answered Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. You are to speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his land. But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I will multiply My signs and wonders in the land of Egypt,
Narrative continuation
But because the Lord loved you and kept the oath He swore to your fathers, He brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Later theological reflection
Then the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror, signs, and wonders.
Liturgical confession
“Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has visited and redeemed His people. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David, as He spoke through His holy prophets, those of ages past,
Gospel fulfillment
He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Christological redemption
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man, and He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God.
Covenant consummation
Passages
Chapter opening: Exodus 6:1-9
Exo 6:1-6 Equipment of Moses and Aaron as Messengers of Jehovah. - Exo 6:1. In reply to the complaining inquiry of Moses, Jehovah promised him the deliverance of Israel by a strong hand (cf. Exo 3:19), by which Pharaoh would be compelled to let Israel go, and even to drive them out of his land. Moses did not receive any direct answer to the question, “Why hast Thou so evil-entreated this people?
” He was to gather this first of all from his own experience as the leader of Israel. For the words were strictly applicable here: “What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter” (Joh 13:7). If, even after the miraculous deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt and their glorious march through the desert, in which they had received so many proofs of the omnipotence and mercy of their God, they repeatedly rebelled against the guidance of God, and were not content with the manna provided by the Lord, but lusted after the fishes, leeks, and onions of Egypt (Num 11); ); it is certain that in such a state of mind as this, they would never have been willing to leave Egypt and enter into a covenant with Jehovah, without a very great increase in the oppression they endured in Egypt.
- The brief but comprehensive promise was still further explained by the Lord (Exo 6:2-9), and Moses was instructed and authorized to carry out the divine purposes in concert with Aaron (Exo 6:10-13, Exo 6:28-30; Exo 7:1-6). The genealogy of the two messengers is then introduced into the midst of these instructions (Exo 6:14-27); and the age of Moses is given at the close (Exo 7:7).
This section does not contain a different account of the calling of Moses, taken from some other source than the previous one; it rather presupposes Exo 3-5, and completes the account commenced in Exo 3 of the equipment of Moses and Aaron as the executors of the divine will with regard to Pharaoh and Israel. For the fact that the first visit paid by Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh was simply intended to bring out the attitude of Pharaoh towards the purposes of Jehovah, and to show the necessity for the great judgments of God, is distinctly expressed in the words, “Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh.
” But before these judgments commenced, Jehovah announced to Moses (Exo 6:2), and through him to the people, that henceforth He would manifest Himself to them in a much more glorious manner than to the patriarchs, namely, as Jehovah; whereas to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He had only appeared as El Shaddai. The words, “By My name Jehovah was I now known to them,” do not mean, however, that the patriarchs were altogether ignorant of the name Jehovah.
This is obvious from the significant use of that name, which was not an unmeaning sound, but a real expression of the divine nature, and still more from the unmistakeable connection between the explanation given by God here and Gen 17:1. When the establishment of the covenant commenced, as described in Gen 15, with the institution of the covenant sign of circumcision and the promise of the birth of Isaac, Jehovah said to Abram, “I am El Shaddai, God Almighty,” and from that time forward manifested Himself to Abram and his wife as the Almighty, in the birth of Isaac, which took place apart altogether from the powers of nature, and also in the preservation, guidance, and multiplication of his seed.
It was in His attribute as El Shaddai that God had revealed His nature to the patriarchs; but now He was about to reveal Himself to Israel as Jehovah, as the absolute Being working with unbounded freedom in the performance of His promises. For not only had He established His covenant with the fathers (Exo 6:4), but He had also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, and remembered His covenant (Exo 6:5; וגם - וגם, not only - but also).
The divine promise not only commences in Exo 6:2, but concludes at Exo 6:8, with the emphatic expression, “ I Jehovah,” to show that the work of Israel’s redemption resided in the power of the name Jehovah. In Exo 6:4 the covenant promises of Gen 17:7-8; Gen 26:3; Gen 35:11-12, are all brought together; and in Exo 6:5 we have a repetition of Exo 2:24, with the emphatically repeated אני ( I ).
On the ground of the erection of His covenant on the one hand, and, what was irreconcilable with that covenant, the bondage of Israel on the other, Jehovah was not about to redeem Israel from its sufferings and make it His own nation. This assurance, which God would carry out by the manifestation of His nature as expressed in the name Jehovah , contained three distinct elements: ( a ) the deliverance of Israel from the bondage of Egypt, which, because so utterly different from all outward appearances, is described in three parallel clauses: bringing them out from under the burdens of the Egyptians; saving them from their bondage; and redeeming them with a stretched-out arm and with great judgments; - ( b ) the adoption of Israel as the nation of God; - ( c ) the guidance of Israel into the land promised to the fathers (Exo 6:6-8).
נטוּיה זרוע, a stretched-out arm, is most appropriately connected with גּדלים שׁפטים, great judgments; for God raises, stretches out His arm, when He proceeds in judgment to smite the rebellious. These expressions repeat with greater emphasis the “strong hand” of Exo 6:1, and are frequently connected with it in the rhetorical language of Deuteronomy (e. g. , Deu 4:34; Deu 5:15; Deu 7:19).
The “great judgments” were the plagues, the judgments of God, by which Pharaoh was to be compelled to let Israel go.
Exo 6:1-6 Equipment of Moses and Aaron as Messengers of Jehovah. - Exo 6:1. In reply to the complaining inquiry of Moses, Jehovah promised him the deliverance of Israel by a strong hand (cf. Exo 3:19), by which Pharaoh would be compelled to let Israel go, and even to drive them out of his land. Moses did not receive any direct answer to the question, “Why hast Thou so evil-entreated this people?
” He was to gather this first of all from his own experience as the leader of Israel. For the words were strictly applicable here: “What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter” (Joh 13:7). If, even after the miraculous deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt and their glorious march through the desert, in which they had received so many proofs of the omnipotence and mercy of their God, they repeatedly rebelled against the guidance of God, and were not content with the manna provided by the Lord, but lusted after the fishes, leeks, and onions of Egypt (Num 11); ); it is certain that in such a state of mind as this, they would never have been willing to leave Egypt and enter into a covenant with Jehovah, without a very great increase in the oppression they endured in Egypt.
- The brief but comprehensive promise was still further explained by the Lord (Exo 6:2-9), and Moses was instructed and authorized to carry out the divine purposes in concert with Aaron (Exo 6:10-13, Exo 6:28-30; Exo 7:1-6). The genealogy of the two messengers is then introduced into the midst of these instructions (Exo 6:14-27); and the age of Moses is given at the close (Exo 7:7).
This section does not contain a different account of the calling of Moses, taken from some other source than the previous one; it rather presupposes Exo 3-5, and completes the account commenced in Exo 3 of the equipment of Moses and Aaron as the executors of the divine will with regard to Pharaoh and Israel. For the fact that the first visit paid by Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh was simply intended to bring out the attitude of Pharaoh towards the purposes of Jehovah, and to show the necessity for the great judgments of God, is distinctly expressed in the words, “Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh.
” But before these judgments commenced, Jehovah announced to Moses (Exo 6:2), and through him to the people, that henceforth He would manifest Himself to them in a much more glorious manner than to the patriarchs, namely, as Jehovah; whereas to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He had only appeared as El Shaddai. The words, “By My name Jehovah was I now known to them,” do not mean, however, that the patriarchs were altogether ignorant of the name Jehovah.
This is obvious from the significant use of that name, which was not an unmeaning sound, but a real expression of the divine nature, and still more from the unmistakeable connection between the explanation given by God here and Gen 17:1. When the establishment of the covenant commenced, as described in Gen 15, with the institution of the covenant sign of circumcision and the promise of the birth of Isaac, Jehovah said to Abram, “I am El Shaddai, God Almighty,” and from that time forward manifested Himself to Abram and his wife as the Almighty, in the birth of Isaac, which took place apart altogether from the powers of nature, and also in the preservation, guidance, and multiplication of his seed.
It was in His attribute as El Shaddai that God had revealed His nature to the patriarchs; but now He was about to reveal Himself to Israel as Jehovah, as the absolute Being working with unbounded freedom in the performance of His promises. For not only had He established His covenant with the fathers (Exo 6:4), but He had also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, and remembered His covenant (Exo 6:5; וגם - וגם, not only - but also).
The divine promise not only commences in Exo 6:2, but concludes at Exo 6:8, with the emphatic expression, “ I Jehovah,” to show that the work of Israel’s redemption resided in the power of the name Jehovah. In Exo 6:4 the covenant promises of Gen 17:7-8; Gen 26:3; Gen 35:11-12, are all brought together; and in Exo 6:5 we have a repetition of Exo 2:24, with the emphatically repeated אני ( I ).
On the ground of the erection of His covenant on the one hand, and, what was irreconcilable with that covenant, the bondage of Israel on the other, Jehovah was not about to redeem Israel from its sufferings and make it His own nation. This assurance, which God would carry out by the manifestation of His nature as expressed in the name Jehovah , contained three distinct elements: ( a ) the deliverance of Israel from the bondage of Egypt, which, because so utterly different from all outward appearances, is described in three parallel clauses: bringing them out from under the burdens of the Egyptians; saving them from their bondage; and redeeming them with a stretched-out arm and with great judgments; - ( b ) the adoption of Israel as the nation of God; - ( c ) the guidance of Israel into the land promised to the fathers (Exo 6:6-8).
נטוּיה זרוע, a stretched-out arm, is most appropriately connected with גּדלים שׁפטים, great judgments; for God raises, stretches out His arm, when He proceeds in judgment to smite the rebellious. These expressions repeat with greater emphasis the “strong hand” of Exo 6:1, and are frequently connected with it in the rhetorical language of Deuteronomy (e. g. , Deu 4:34; Deu 5:15; Deu 7:19).
The “great judgments” were the plagues, the judgments of God, by which Pharaoh was to be compelled to let Israel go.
Exo 6:1-6 Equipment of Moses and Aaron as Messengers of Jehovah. - Exo 6:1. In reply to the complaining inquiry of Moses, Jehovah promised him the deliverance of Israel by a strong hand (cf. Exo 3:19), by which Pharaoh would be compelled to let Israel go, and even to drive them out of his land. Moses did not receive any direct answer to the question, “Why hast Thou so evil-entreated this people?
” He was to gather this first of all from his own experience as the leader of Israel. For the words were strictly applicable here: “What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter” (Joh 13:7). If, even after the miraculous deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt and their glorious march through the desert, in which they had received so many proofs of the omnipotence and mercy of their God, they repeatedly rebelled against the guidance of God, and were not content with the manna provided by the Lord, but lusted after the fishes, leeks, and onions of Egypt (Num 11); ); it is certain that in such a state of mind as this, they would never have been willing to leave Egypt and enter into a covenant with Jehovah, without a very great increase in the oppression they endured in Egypt.
- The brief but comprehensive promise was still further explained by the Lord (Exo 6:2-9), and Moses was instructed and authorized to carry out the divine purposes in concert with Aaron (Exo 6:10-13, Exo 6:28-30; Exo 7:1-6). The genealogy of the two messengers is then introduced into the midst of these instructions (Exo 6:14-27); and the age of Moses is given at the close (Exo 7:7).
This section does not contain a different account of the calling of Moses, taken from some other source than the previous one; it rather presupposes Exo 3-5, and completes the account commenced in Exo 3 of the equipment of Moses and Aaron as the executors of the divine will with regard to Pharaoh and Israel. For the fact that the first visit paid by Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh was simply intended to bring out the attitude of Pharaoh towards the purposes of Jehovah, and to show the necessity for the great judgments of God, is distinctly expressed in the words, “Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh.
” But before these judgments commenced, Jehovah announced to Moses (Exo 6:2), and through him to the people, that henceforth He would manifest Himself to them in a much more glorious manner than to the patriarchs, namely, as Jehovah; whereas to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He had only appeared as El Shaddai. The words, “By My name Jehovah was I now known to them,” do not mean, however, that the patriarchs were altogether ignorant of the name Jehovah.
This is obvious from the significant use of that name, which was not an unmeaning sound, but a real expression of the divine nature, and still more from the unmistakeable connection between the explanation given by God here and Gen 17:1. When the establishment of the covenant commenced, as described in Gen 15, with the institution of the covenant sign of circumcision and the promise of the birth of Isaac, Jehovah said to Abram, “I am El Shaddai, God Almighty,” and from that time forward manifested Himself to Abram and his wife as the Almighty, in the birth of Isaac, which took place apart altogether from the powers of nature, and also in the preservation, guidance, and multiplication of his seed.
It was in His attribute as El Shaddai that God had revealed His nature to the patriarchs; but now He was about to reveal Himself to Israel as Jehovah, as the absolute Being working with unbounded freedom in the performance of His promises. For not only had He established His covenant with the fathers (Exo 6:4), but He had also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, and remembered His covenant (Exo 6:5; וגם - וגם, not only - but also).
The divine promise not only commences in Exo 6:2, but concludes at Exo 6:8, with the emphatic expression, “ I Jehovah,” to show that the work of Israel’s redemption resided in the power of the name Jehovah. In Exo 6:4 the covenant promises of Gen 17:7-8; Gen 26:3; Gen 35:11-12, are all brought together; and in Exo 6:5 we have a repetition of Exo 2:24, with the emphatically repeated אני ( I ).
On the ground of the erection of His covenant on the one hand, and, what was irreconcilable with that covenant, the bondage of Israel on the other, Jehovah was not about to redeem Israel from its sufferings and make it His own nation. This assurance, which God would carry out by the manifestation of His nature as expressed in the name Jehovah , contained three distinct elements: ( a ) the deliverance of Israel from the bondage of Egypt, which, because so utterly different from all outward appearances, is described in three parallel clauses: bringing them out from under the burdens of the Egyptians; saving them from their bondage; and redeeming them with a stretched-out arm and with great judgments; - ( b ) the adoption of Israel as the nation of God; - ( c ) the guidance of Israel into the land promised to the fathers (Exo 6:6-8).
נטוּיה זרוע, a stretched-out arm, is most appropriately connected with גּדלים שׁפטים, great judgments; for God raises, stretches out His arm, when He proceeds in judgment to smite the rebellious. These expressions repeat with greater emphasis the “strong hand” of Exo 6:1, and are frequently connected with it in the rhetorical language of Deuteronomy (e. g. , Deu 4:34; Deu 5:15; Deu 7:19).
The “great judgments” were the plagues, the judgments of God, by which Pharaoh was to be compelled to let Israel go.
Exo 6:1-6 Equipment of Moses and Aaron as Messengers of Jehovah. - Exo 6:1. In reply to the complaining inquiry of Moses, Jehovah promised him the deliverance of Israel by a strong hand (cf. Exo 3:19), by which Pharaoh would be compelled to let Israel go, and even to drive them out of his land. Moses did not receive any direct answer to the question, “Why hast Thou so evil-entreated this people?
” He was to gather this first of all from his own experience as the leader of Israel. For the words were strictly applicable here: “What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter” (Joh 13:7). If, even after the miraculous deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt and their glorious march through the desert, in which they had received so many proofs of the omnipotence and mercy of their God, they repeatedly rebelled against the guidance of God, and were not content with the manna provided by the Lord, but lusted after the fishes, leeks, and onions of Egypt (Num 11); ); it is certain that in such a state of mind as this, they would never have been willing to leave Egypt and enter into a covenant with Jehovah, without a very great increase in the oppression they endured in Egypt.
- The brief but comprehensive promise was still further explained by the Lord (Exo 6:2-9), and Moses was instructed and authorized to carry out the divine purposes in concert with Aaron (Exo 6:10-13, Exo 6:28-30; Exo 7:1-6). The genealogy of the two messengers is then introduced into the midst of these instructions (Exo 6:14-27); and the age of Moses is given at the close (Exo 7:7).
This section does not contain a different account of the calling of Moses, taken from some other source than the previous one; it rather presupposes Exo 3-5, and completes the account commenced in Exo 3 of the equipment of Moses and Aaron as the executors of the divine will with regard to Pharaoh and Israel. For the fact that the first visit paid by Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh was simply intended to bring out the attitude of Pharaoh towards the purposes of Jehovah, and to show the necessity for the great judgments of God, is distinctly expressed in the words, “Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh.
” But before these judgments commenced, Jehovah announced to Moses (Exo 6:2), and through him to the people, that henceforth He would manifest Himself to them in a much more glorious manner than to the patriarchs, namely, as Jehovah; whereas to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He had only appeared as El Shaddai. The words, “By My name Jehovah was I now known to them,” do not mean, however, that the patriarchs were altogether ignorant of the name Jehovah.
This is obvious from the significant use of that name, which was not an unmeaning sound, but a real expression of the divine nature, and still more from the unmistakeable connection between the explanation given by God here and Gen 17:1. When the establishment of the covenant commenced, as described in Gen 15, with the institution of the covenant sign of circumcision and the promise of the birth of Isaac, Jehovah said to Abram, “I am El Shaddai, God Almighty,” and from that time forward manifested Himself to Abram and his wife as the Almighty, in the birth of Isaac, which took place apart altogether from the powers of nature, and also in the preservation, guidance, and multiplication of his seed.
It was in His attribute as El Shaddai that God had revealed His nature to the patriarchs; but now He was about to reveal Himself to Israel as Jehovah, as the absolute Being working with unbounded freedom in the performance of His promises. For not only had He established His covenant with the fathers (Exo 6:4), but He had also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, and remembered His covenant (Exo 6:5; וגם - וגם, not only - but also).
The divine promise not only commences in Exo 6:2, but concludes at Exo 6:8, with the emphatic expression, “ I Jehovah,” to show that the work of Israel’s redemption resided in the power of the name Jehovah. In Exo 6:4 the covenant promises of Gen 17:7-8; Gen 26:3; Gen 35:11-12, are all brought together; and in Exo 6:5 we have a repetition of Exo 2:24, with the emphatically repeated אני ( I ).
On the ground of the erection of His covenant on the one hand, and, what was irreconcilable with that covenant, the bondage of Israel on the other, Jehovah was not about to redeem Israel from its sufferings and make it His own nation. This assurance, which God would carry out by the manifestation of His nature as expressed in the name Jehovah , contained three distinct elements: ( a ) the deliverance of Israel from the bondage of Egypt, which, because so utterly different from all outward appearances, is described in three parallel clauses: bringing them out from under the burdens of the Egyptians; saving them from their bondage; and redeeming them with a stretched-out arm and with great judgments; - ( b ) the adoption of Israel as the nation of God; - ( c ) the guidance of Israel into the land promised to the fathers (Exo 6:6-8).
נטוּיה זרוע, a stretched-out arm, is most appropriately connected with גּדלים שׁפטים, great judgments; for God raises, stretches out His arm, when He proceeds in judgment to smite the rebellious. These expressions repeat with greater emphasis the “strong hand” of Exo 6:1, and are frequently connected with it in the rhetorical language of Deuteronomy (e. g. , Deu 4:34; Deu 5:15; Deu 7:19).
The “great judgments” were the plagues, the judgments of God, by which Pharaoh was to be compelled to let Israel go.
Exo 6:1-6 Equipment of Moses and Aaron as Messengers of Jehovah. - Exo 6:1. In reply to the complaining inquiry of Moses, Jehovah promised him the deliverance of Israel by a strong hand (cf. Exo 3:19), by which Pharaoh would be compelled to let Israel go, and even to drive them out of his land. Moses did not receive any direct answer to the question, “Why hast Thou so evil-entreated this people?
” He was to gather this first of all from his own experience as the leader of Israel. For the words were strictly applicable here: “What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter” (Joh 13:7). If, even after the miraculous deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt and their glorious march through the desert, in which they had received so many proofs of the omnipotence and mercy of their God, they repeatedly rebelled against the guidance of God, and were not content with the manna provided by the Lord, but lusted after the fishes, leeks, and onions of Egypt (Num 11); ); it is certain that in such a state of mind as this, they would never have been willing to leave Egypt and enter into a covenant with Jehovah, without a very great increase in the oppression they endured in Egypt.
- The brief but comprehensive promise was still further explained by the Lord (Exo 6:2-9), and Moses was instructed and authorized to carry out the divine purposes in concert with Aaron (Exo 6:10-13, Exo 6:28-30; Exo 7:1-6). The genealogy of the two messengers is then introduced into the midst of these instructions (Exo 6:14-27); and the age of Moses is given at the close (Exo 7:7).
This section does not contain a different account of the calling of Moses, taken from some other source than the previous one; it rather presupposes Exo 3-5, and completes the account commenced in Exo 3 of the equipment of Moses and Aaron as the executors of the divine will with regard to Pharaoh and Israel. For the fact that the first visit paid by Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh was simply intended to bring out the attitude of Pharaoh towards the purposes of Jehovah, and to show the necessity for the great judgments of God, is distinctly expressed in the words, “Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh.
” But before these judgments commenced, Jehovah announced to Moses (Exo 6:2), and through him to the people, that henceforth He would manifest Himself to them in a much more glorious manner than to the patriarchs, namely, as Jehovah; whereas to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He had only appeared as El Shaddai. The words, “By My name Jehovah was I now known to them,” do not mean, however, that the patriarchs were altogether ignorant of the name Jehovah.
This is obvious from the significant use of that name, which was not an unmeaning sound, but a real expression of the divine nature, and still more from the unmistakeable connection between the explanation given by God here and Gen 17:1. When the establishment of the covenant commenced, as described in Gen 15, with the institution of the covenant sign of circumcision and the promise of the birth of Isaac, Jehovah said to Abram, “I am El Shaddai, God Almighty,” and from that time forward manifested Himself to Abram and his wife as the Almighty, in the birth of Isaac, which took place apart altogether from the powers of nature, and also in the preservation, guidance, and multiplication of his seed.
It was in His attribute as El Shaddai that God had revealed His nature to the patriarchs; but now He was about to reveal Himself to Israel as Jehovah, as the absolute Being working with unbounded freedom in the performance of His promises. For not only had He established His covenant with the fathers (Exo 6:4), but He had also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, and remembered His covenant (Exo 6:5; וגם - וגם, not only - but also).
The divine promise not only commences in Exo 6:2, but concludes at Exo 6:8, with the emphatic expression, “ I Jehovah,” to show that the work of Israel’s redemption resided in the power of the name Jehovah. In Exo 6:4 the covenant promises of Gen 17:7-8; Gen 26:3; Gen 35:11-12, are all brought together; and in Exo 6:5 we have a repetition of Exo 2:24, with the emphatically repeated אני ( I ).
On the ground of the erection of His covenant on the one hand, and, what was irreconcilable with that covenant, the bondage of Israel on the other, Jehovah was not about to redeem Israel from its sufferings and make it His own nation. This assurance, which God would carry out by the manifestation of His nature as expressed in the name Jehovah , contained three distinct elements: ( a ) the deliverance of Israel from the bondage of Egypt, which, because so utterly different from all outward appearances, is described in three parallel clauses: bringing them out from under the burdens of the Egyptians; saving them from their bondage; and redeeming them with a stretched-out arm and with great judgments; - ( b ) the adoption of Israel as the nation of God; - ( c ) the guidance of Israel into the land promised to the fathers (Exo 6:6-8).
נטוּיה זרוע, a stretched-out arm, is most appropriately connected with גּדלים שׁפטים, great judgments; for God raises, stretches out His arm, when He proceeds in judgment to smite the rebellious. These expressions repeat with greater emphasis the “strong hand” of Exo 6:1, and are frequently connected with it in the rhetorical language of Deuteronomy (e. g. , Deu 4:34; Deu 5:15; Deu 7:19).
The “great judgments” were the plagues, the judgments of God, by which Pharaoh was to be compelled to let Israel go.
Exo 6:1-6 Equipment of Moses and Aaron as Messengers of Jehovah. - Exo 6:1. In reply to the complaining inquiry of Moses, Jehovah promised him the deliverance of Israel by a strong hand (cf. Exo 3:19), by which Pharaoh would be compelled to let Israel go, and even to drive them out of his land. Moses did not receive any direct answer to the question, “Why hast Thou so evil-entreated this people?
” He was to gather this first of all from his own experience as the leader of Israel. For the words were strictly applicable here: “What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter” (Joh 13:7). If, even after the miraculous deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt and their glorious march through the desert, in which they had received so many proofs of the omnipotence and mercy of their God, they repeatedly rebelled against the guidance of God, and were not content with the manna provided by the Lord, but lusted after the fishes, leeks, and onions of Egypt (Num 11); ); it is certain that in such a state of mind as this, they would never have been willing to leave Egypt and enter into a covenant with Jehovah, without a very great increase in the oppression they endured in Egypt.
- The brief but comprehensive promise was still further explained by the Lord (Exo 6:2-9), and Moses was instructed and authorized to carry out the divine purposes in concert with Aaron (Exo 6:10-13, Exo 6:28-30; Exo 7:1-6). The genealogy of the two messengers is then introduced into the midst of these instructions (Exo 6:14-27); and the age of Moses is given at the close (Exo 7:7).
This section does not contain a different account of the calling of Moses, taken from some other source than the previous one; it rather presupposes Exo 3-5, and completes the account commenced in Exo 3 of the equipment of Moses and Aaron as the executors of the divine will with regard to Pharaoh and Israel. For the fact that the first visit paid by Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh was simply intended to bring out the attitude of Pharaoh towards the purposes of Jehovah, and to show the necessity for the great judgments of God, is distinctly expressed in the words, “Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh.
” But before these judgments commenced, Jehovah announced to Moses (Exo 6:2), and through him to the people, that henceforth He would manifest Himself to them in a much more glorious manner than to the patriarchs, namely, as Jehovah; whereas to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He had only appeared as El Shaddai. The words, “By My name Jehovah was I now known to them,” do not mean, however, that the patriarchs were altogether ignorant of the name Jehovah.
This is obvious from the significant use of that name, which was not an unmeaning sound, but a real expression of the divine nature, and still more from the unmistakeable connection between the explanation given by God here and Gen 17:1. When the establishment of the covenant commenced, as described in Gen 15, with the institution of the covenant sign of circumcision and the promise of the birth of Isaac, Jehovah said to Abram, “I am El Shaddai, God Almighty,” and from that time forward manifested Himself to Abram and his wife as the Almighty, in the birth of Isaac, which took place apart altogether from the powers of nature, and also in the preservation, guidance, and multiplication of his seed.
It was in His attribute as El Shaddai that God had revealed His nature to the patriarchs; but now He was about to reveal Himself to Israel as Jehovah, as the absolute Being working with unbounded freedom in the performance of His promises. For not only had He established His covenant with the fathers (Exo 6:4), but He had also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, and remembered His covenant (Exo 6:5; וגם - וגם, not only - but also).
The divine promise not only commences in Exo 6:2, but concludes at Exo 6:8, with the emphatic expression, “ I Jehovah,” to show that the work of Israel’s redemption resided in the power of the name Jehovah. In Exo 6:4 the covenant promises of Gen 17:7-8; Gen 26:3; Gen 35:11-12, are all brought together; and in Exo 6:5 we have a repetition of Exo 2:24, with the emphatically repeated אני ( I ).
On the ground of the erection of His covenant on the one hand, and, what was irreconcilable with that covenant, the bondage of Israel on the other, Jehovah was not about to redeem Israel from its sufferings and make it His own nation. This assurance, which God would carry out by the manifestation of His nature as expressed in the name Jehovah , contained three distinct elements: ( a ) the deliverance of Israel from the bondage of Egypt, which, because so utterly different from all outward appearances, is described in three parallel clauses: bringing them out from under the burdens of the Egyptians; saving them from their bondage; and redeeming them with a stretched-out arm and with great judgments; - ( b ) the adoption of Israel as the nation of God; - ( c ) the guidance of Israel into the land promised to the fathers (Exo 6:6-8).
נטוּיה זרוע, a stretched-out arm, is most appropriately connected with גּדלים שׁפטים, great judgments; for God raises, stretches out His arm, when He proceeds in judgment to smite the rebellious. These expressions repeat with greater emphasis the “strong hand” of Exo 6:1, and are frequently connected with it in the rhetorical language of Deuteronomy (e. g. , Deu 4:34; Deu 5:15; Deu 7:19).
The “great judgments” were the plagues, the judgments of God, by which Pharaoh was to be compelled to let Israel go.
Exo 6:7-8 The adoption of Israel as the nation of God took place at Sinai (Exo 19:5). וגו נשׁאתי אשׁר, “ with regard to which I have lifted up My hand to give it ” (Exo 6:8). Lifting up the hand (sc., towards heaven) is the attitude of swearing (Deu 32:40 cf. Gen 14:22); and these words point back to Gen 22:16. and Gen 26:3 (cf. Gen 24:7 and Gen 50:24).
Exo 6:7-8 The adoption of Israel as the nation of God took place at Sinai (Exo 19:5). וגו נשׁאתי אשׁר, “ with regard to which I have lifted up My hand to give it ” (Exo 6:8). Lifting up the hand (sc., towards heaven) is the attitude of swearing (Deu 32:40 cf. Gen 14:22); and these words point back to Gen 22:16. and Gen 26:3 (cf. Gen 24:7 and Gen 50:24).
Exo 6:9-12 When Moses communicated this solemn assurance of God to the people, they did not listen to him רוּה מּקּצר, lit. , “ for shortness of breath; ” not “from impatience” (like קצר־רוּח, Pro 14:29, in contrast to אפּים ארך), but from anguish, inward pressure, which prevents a man from breathing properly. Thus the early belief of the Israelites was changed into the despondency of unbelief through the increase of their oppression.
This result also produced despondency in Moses’ mind, so that he once more declined the commission, which followed the promise, viz. , to go to Pharaoh and demand that he would let Israel go out of his land (Exo 6:11). If the children of Israel would not listen to him, how should Pharaoh hear him, especially as he was uncircumcised in the lips (Exo 6:12)? שׁפתים ערל is one whose lips are, as it were, covered with a foreskin, so that he cannot easily bring out his words; in meaning the same as “heavy of mouth” in Exo 4:10.
The reply of God to this objection is given in Exo 7:1-5. For, before the historian gives the decisive answer of Jehovah which removed all further hesitation on the part of Moses, and completed his mission and that of Aaron to Pharaoh, he considers it advisable to introduce the genealogy of the two men of God, for the purpose of showing clearly their genealogical relation to the people of Israel.
Exo 6:9-12 When Moses communicated this solemn assurance of God to the people, they did not listen to him רוּה מּקּצר, lit. , “ for shortness of breath; ” not “from impatience” (like קצר־רוּח, Pro 14:29, in contrast to אפּים ארך), but from anguish, inward pressure, which prevents a man from breathing properly. Thus the early belief of the Israelites was changed into the despondency of unbelief through the increase of their oppression.
This result also produced despondency in Moses’ mind, so that he once more declined the commission, which followed the promise, viz. , to go to Pharaoh and demand that he would let Israel go out of his land (Exo 6:11). If the children of Israel would not listen to him, how should Pharaoh hear him, especially as he was uncircumcised in the lips (Exo 6:12)? שׁפתים ערל is one whose lips are, as it were, covered with a foreskin, so that he cannot easily bring out his words; in meaning the same as “heavy of mouth” in Exo 4:10.
The reply of God to this objection is given in Exo 7:1-5. For, before the historian gives the decisive answer of Jehovah which removed all further hesitation on the part of Moses, and completed his mission and that of Aaron to Pharaoh, he considers it advisable to introduce the genealogy of the two men of God, for the purpose of showing clearly their genealogical relation to the people of Israel.
Exo 6:9-12 When Moses communicated this solemn assurance of God to the people, they did not listen to him רוּה מּקּצר, lit. , “ for shortness of breath; ” not “from impatience” (like קצר־רוּח, Pro 14:29, in contrast to אפּים ארך), but from anguish, inward pressure, which prevents a man from breathing properly. Thus the early belief of the Israelites was changed into the despondency of unbelief through the increase of their oppression.
This result also produced despondency in Moses’ mind, so that he once more declined the commission, which followed the promise, viz. , to go to Pharaoh and demand that he would let Israel go out of his land (Exo 6:11). If the children of Israel would not listen to him, how should Pharaoh hear him, especially as he was uncircumcised in the lips (Exo 6:12)? שׁפתים ערל is one whose lips are, as it were, covered with a foreskin, so that he cannot easily bring out his words; in meaning the same as “heavy of mouth” in Exo 4:10.
The reply of God to this objection is given in Exo 7:1-5. For, before the historian gives the decisive answer of Jehovah which removed all further hesitation on the part of Moses, and completed his mission and that of Aaron to Pharaoh, he considers it advisable to introduce the genealogy of the two men of God, for the purpose of showing clearly their genealogical relation to the people of Israel.
Exo 6:9-12 When Moses communicated this solemn assurance of God to the people, they did not listen to him רוּה מּקּצר, lit. , “ for shortness of breath; ” not “from impatience” (like קצר־רוּח, Pro 14:29, in contrast to אפּים ארך), but from anguish, inward pressure, which prevents a man from breathing properly. Thus the early belief of the Israelites was changed into the despondency of unbelief through the increase of their oppression.
This result also produced despondency in Moses’ mind, so that he once more declined the commission, which followed the promise, viz. , to go to Pharaoh and demand that he would let Israel go out of his land (Exo 6:11). If the children of Israel would not listen to him, how should Pharaoh hear him, especially as he was uncircumcised in the lips (Exo 6:12)? שׁפתים ערל is one whose lips are, as it were, covered with a foreskin, so that he cannot easily bring out his words; in meaning the same as “heavy of mouth” in Exo 4:10.
The reply of God to this objection is given in Exo 7:1-5. For, before the historian gives the decisive answer of Jehovah which removed all further hesitation on the part of Moses, and completed his mission and that of Aaron to Pharaoh, he considers it advisable to introduce the genealogy of the two men of God, for the purpose of showing clearly their genealogical relation to the people of Israel.
Exo 6:13 Exo 6:13 forms a concluding summary, and prepares the way for the genealogy that follows, the heading of which is given in Exo 6:14.
Exo 6:14-27 The Genealogy of Moses and Aaron. - “ These are their (Moses’ and Aaron’s) father's-houses . ” בּית־אבות father's-houses (not fathers’ house) is a composite noun, so formed that the two words not only denote one idea, but are treated grammatically as one word, like בּית־עצבּים idol-houses (1Sa 31:9), and בּית־בּמות high-place-houses (cf. Ges. §108, 3; Ewald , §270 c ).
Father’s house was a technical term applied to a collection of families, called by the name of a common ancestor. The father's-houses were the larger divisions into which the families ( mishpachoth ), the largest subdivisions of the tribes of Israel, were grouped. To show clearly the genealogical position of Levi, the tribe-father of Moses and Aaron, among the sons of Jacob, the genealogy commences with Reuben, the first-born of Jacob, and gives the names of such of his sons and those of Simeon as were the founders of families (Gen 46:9-10).
Then follows Levi; and not only are the names of his three sons given, but the length of his life is mentioned (Exo 6:16), also that of his son Kohath and his descendant Amram, because they were the tribe-fathers of Moses and Aaron. But the Amram mentioned in Exo 6:20 as the father of Moses, cannot be the same person as the Amram who was the son of Kohath (Exo 6:18), but must be a later descendant.
For, however the sameness of names may seem to favour the identity of the persons, if we simply look at the genealogy before us, a comparison of this passage with Num 3:27-28 will show the impossibility of such an assumption. “According to Num 3:27-28, the Kohathites were divided (in Moses’ time) into the four branches, Amramites, Izharites, Hebronites, and Uzzielites, who consisted together of 8600 men and boys (women and girls not being included).
Of these, about a fourth, or 2150 men, would belong to the Amramites. Now, according to Exo 18:3-4, Moses himself had only two sons. Consequently, if Amram the son of Kohath, and tribe-father of the Amramites, was the same person as Amram the father of Moses, Moses must have had 2147 brothers and brothers’ sons (the brothers’ daughters, the sisters, and their daughters, not being reckoned at all).
But as this is absolutely impossible, it must be granted that Amram the son of Kohath was not the father of Moses, and that an indefinitely long list of generations has been omitted between the former and his descendant of the same name” (Tiele, Chr. des A. T. p. 36). The enumeration of only four generations, viz. , Levi, Iohath, Amram, Moses, is unmistakeably related to Gen 15:16, where it is stated that the fourth generation would return to Canaan.
Amram’s wife Jochebed , who is merely spoken of in general terms as a daughter of Levi (a Levitess) in Exo 2:1 and Num 26:59, is called here the דּודה “ aunt ” (father’s sister) of Amram, a marriage which was prohibited in the Mosaic law (Lev 18:12), but was allowed before the giving of the law; so that there is no reason for following the lxx and Vulgate , and rendering the word, in direct opposition to the usage of the language, patruelis , the father’s brother’s daughter. Amram’s sons are placed according to their age: Aaron, then Moses, as Aaron was three years older than his brother.
Their sister Miriam was older still (vid. , Exo 2:4). In the lxx, Vulg . , and one Hebrew MS, she is mentioned here; but this is a later interpolation. In Exo 6:21. not only are the sons of Aaron mentioned (Exo 6:23), but those of two of Amram’s brothers, Izhar and Uzziel (Exo 6:21, Exo 6:22), and also Phinehas, the son of Aaron’s son Eleazar (Exo 6:25); as the genealogy was intended to trace the descent of the principal priestly families, among which again special prominence is given to Aaron and Eleazar by the introduction of their wives.
On the other hand, none of the sons of Moses are mentioned, because his dignity was limited to his own person, and his descendants fell behind those of Aaron, and were simply reckoned among the non-priestly families of Levi. The Korahites and Uzzielites are mentioned, but a superior rank was assigned to them in the subsequent history to that of other Levitical families (cf.
Num 16-17; Num 26:11, and Num 3:30 with Lev 10:4). Aaron’s wife Elisheba was of the princely tribe of Judah, and her brother Naashon was a tribe-prince of Judah (cf. Num 2:3). אבות ראשׁי (Exo 6:25), a frequent abbreviation for בית־אבות ראשׁי, heads of the father's-houses of the Levites. In Exo 6:26 and Exo 6:27, with which the genealogy closes, the object of introducing it is very clearly shown in the expression, “ These are that Aaron and Moses, ” at the beginning of Exo 6:26; and again, “ These are that Moses and Aaron, ” at the close of Exo 6:27.
The reversal of the order of the names is also to be noticed. In the genealogy itself Aaron stands first, as the elder of the two; in the conclusion, which leads over to the historical narrative that follows, Moses takes precedence of his elder brother, as being the divinely appointed redeemer of Israel. On the expression, “according to their armies,” see Exo 7:4.
Exo 6:14-27 The Genealogy of Moses and Aaron. - “ These are their (Moses’ and Aaron’s) father's-houses . ” בּית־אבות father's-houses (not fathers’ house) is a composite noun, so formed that the two words not only denote one idea, but are treated grammatically as one word, like בּית־עצבּים idol-houses (1Sa 31:9), and בּית־בּמות high-place-houses (cf. Ges. §108, 3; Ewald , §270 c ).
Father’s house was a technical term applied to a collection of families, called by the name of a common ancestor. The father's-houses were the larger divisions into which the families ( mishpachoth ), the largest subdivisions of the tribes of Israel, were grouped. To show clearly the genealogical position of Levi, the tribe-father of Moses and Aaron, among the sons of Jacob, the genealogy commences with Reuben, the first-born of Jacob, and gives the names of such of his sons and those of Simeon as were the founders of families (Gen 46:9-10).
Then follows Levi; and not only are the names of his three sons given, but the length of his life is mentioned (Exo 6:16), also that of his son Kohath and his descendant Amram, because they were the tribe-fathers of Moses and Aaron. But the Amram mentioned in Exo 6:20 as the father of Moses, cannot be the same person as the Amram who was the son of Kohath (Exo 6:18), but must be a later descendant.
For, however the sameness of names may seem to favour the identity of the persons, if we simply look at the genealogy before us, a comparison of this passage with Num 3:27-28 will show the impossibility of such an assumption. “According to Num 3:27-28, the Kohathites were divided (in Moses’ time) into the four branches, Amramites, Izharites, Hebronites, and Uzzielites, who consisted together of 8600 men and boys (women and girls not being included).
Of these, about a fourth, or 2150 men, would belong to the Amramites. Now, according to Exo 18:3-4, Moses himself had only two sons. Consequently, if Amram the son of Kohath, and tribe-father of the Amramites, was the same person as Amram the father of Moses, Moses must have had 2147 brothers and brothers’ sons (the brothers’ daughters, the sisters, and their daughters, not being reckoned at all).
But as this is absolutely impossible, it must be granted that Amram the son of Kohath was not the father of Moses, and that an indefinitely long list of generations has been omitted between the former and his descendant of the same name” (Tiele, Chr. des A. T. p. 36). The enumeration of only four generations, viz. , Levi, Iohath, Amram, Moses, is unmistakeably related to Gen 15:16, where it is stated that the fourth generation would return to Canaan.
Amram’s wife Jochebed , who is merely spoken of in general terms as a daughter of Levi (a Levitess) in Exo 2:1 and Num 26:59, is called here the דּודה “ aunt ” (father’s sister) of Amram, a marriage which was prohibited in the Mosaic law (Lev 18:12), but was allowed before the giving of the law; so that there is no reason for following the lxx and Vulgate , and rendering the word, in direct opposition to the usage of the language, patruelis , the father’s brother’s daughter. Amram’s sons are placed according to their age: Aaron, then Moses, as Aaron was three years older than his brother.
Their sister Miriam was older still (vid. , Exo 2:4). In the lxx, Vulg . , and one Hebrew MS, she is mentioned here; but this is a later interpolation. In Exo 6:21. not only are the sons of Aaron mentioned (Exo 6:23), but those of two of Amram’s brothers, Izhar and Uzziel (Exo 6:21, Exo 6:22), and also Phinehas, the son of Aaron’s son Eleazar (Exo 6:25); as the genealogy was intended to trace the descent of the principal priestly families, among which again special prominence is given to Aaron and Eleazar by the introduction of their wives.
On the other hand, none of the sons of Moses are mentioned, because his dignity was limited to his own person, and his descendants fell behind those of Aaron, and were simply reckoned among the non-priestly families of Levi. The Korahites and Uzzielites are mentioned, but a superior rank was assigned to them in the subsequent history to that of other Levitical families (cf.
Num 16-17; Num 26:11, and Num 3:30 with Lev 10:4). Aaron’s wife Elisheba was of the princely tribe of Judah, and her brother Naashon was a tribe-prince of Judah (cf. Num 2:3). אבות ראשׁי (Exo 6:25), a frequent abbreviation for בית־אבות ראשׁי, heads of the father's-houses of the Levites. In Exo 6:26 and Exo 6:27, with which the genealogy closes, the object of introducing it is very clearly shown in the expression, “ These are that Aaron and Moses, ” at the beginning of Exo 6:26; and again, “ These are that Moses and Aaron, ” at the close of Exo 6:27.
The reversal of the order of the names is also to be noticed. In the genealogy itself Aaron stands first, as the elder of the two; in the conclusion, which leads over to the historical narrative that follows, Moses takes precedence of his elder brother, as being the divinely appointed redeemer of Israel. On the expression, “according to their armies,” see Exo 7:4.
Exo 6:14-27 The Genealogy of Moses and Aaron. - “ These are their (Moses’ and Aaron’s) father's-houses . ” בּית־אבות father's-houses (not fathers’ house) is a composite noun, so formed that the two words not only denote one idea, but are treated grammatically as one word, like בּית־עצבּים idol-houses (1Sa 31:9), and בּית־בּמות high-place-houses (cf. Ges. §108, 3; Ewald , §270 c ).
Father’s house was a technical term applied to a collection of families, called by the name of a common ancestor. The father's-houses were the larger divisions into which the families ( mishpachoth ), the largest subdivisions of the tribes of Israel, were grouped. To show clearly the genealogical position of Levi, the tribe-father of Moses and Aaron, among the sons of Jacob, the genealogy commences with Reuben, the first-born of Jacob, and gives the names of such of his sons and those of Simeon as were the founders of families (Gen 46:9-10).
Then follows Levi; and not only are the names of his three sons given, but the length of his life is mentioned (Exo 6:16), also that of his son Kohath and his descendant Amram, because they were the tribe-fathers of Moses and Aaron. But the Amram mentioned in Exo 6:20 as the father of Moses, cannot be the same person as the Amram who was the son of Kohath (Exo 6:18), but must be a later descendant.
For, however the sameness of names may seem to favour the identity of the persons, if we simply look at the genealogy before us, a comparison of this passage with Num 3:27-28 will show the impossibility of such an assumption. “According to Num 3:27-28, the Kohathites were divided (in Moses’ time) into the four branches, Amramites, Izharites, Hebronites, and Uzzielites, who consisted together of 8600 men and boys (women and girls not being included).
Of these, about a fourth, or 2150 men, would belong to the Amramites. Now, according to Exo 18:3-4, Moses himself had only two sons. Consequently, if Amram the son of Kohath, and tribe-father of the Amramites, was the same person as Amram the father of Moses, Moses must have had 2147 brothers and brothers’ sons (the brothers’ daughters, the sisters, and their daughters, not being reckoned at all).
But as this is absolutely impossible, it must be granted that Amram the son of Kohath was not the father of Moses, and that an indefinitely long list of generations has been omitted between the former and his descendant of the same name” (Tiele, Chr. des A. T. p. 36). The enumeration of only four generations, viz. , Levi, Iohath, Amram, Moses, is unmistakeably related to Gen 15:16, where it is stated that the fourth generation would return to Canaan.
Amram’s wife Jochebed , who is merely spoken of in general terms as a daughter of Levi (a Levitess) in Exo 2:1 and Num 26:59, is called here the דּודה “ aunt ” (father’s sister) of Amram, a marriage which was prohibited in the Mosaic law (Lev 18:12), but was allowed before the giving of the law; so that there is no reason for following the lxx and Vulgate , and rendering the word, in direct opposition to the usage of the language, patruelis , the father’s brother’s daughter. Amram’s sons are placed according to their age: Aaron, then Moses, as Aaron was three years older than his brother.
Their sister Miriam was older still (vid. , Exo 2:4). In the lxx, Vulg . , and one Hebrew MS, she is mentioned here; but this is a later interpolation. In Exo 6:21. not only are the sons of Aaron mentioned (Exo 6:23), but those of two of Amram’s brothers, Izhar and Uzziel (Exo 6:21, Exo 6:22), and also Phinehas, the son of Aaron’s son Eleazar (Exo 6:25); as the genealogy was intended to trace the descent of the principal priestly families, among which again special prominence is given to Aaron and Eleazar by the introduction of their wives.
On the other hand, none of the sons of Moses are mentioned, because his dignity was limited to his own person, and his descendants fell behind those of Aaron, and were simply reckoned among the non-priestly families of Levi. The Korahites and Uzzielites are mentioned, but a superior rank was assigned to them in the subsequent history to that of other Levitical families (cf.
Num 16-17; Num 26:11, and Num 3:30 with Lev 10:4). Aaron’s wife Elisheba was of the princely tribe of Judah, and her brother Naashon was a tribe-prince of Judah (cf. Num 2:3). אבות ראשׁי (Exo 6:25), a frequent abbreviation for בית־אבות ראשׁי, heads of the father's-houses of the Levites. In Exo 6:26 and Exo 6:27, with which the genealogy closes, the object of introducing it is very clearly shown in the expression, “ These are that Aaron and Moses, ” at the beginning of Exo 6:26; and again, “ These are that Moses and Aaron, ” at the close of Exo 6:27.
The reversal of the order of the names is also to be noticed. In the genealogy itself Aaron stands first, as the elder of the two; in the conclusion, which leads over to the historical narrative that follows, Moses takes precedence of his elder brother, as being the divinely appointed redeemer of Israel. On the expression, “according to their armies,” see Exo 7:4.
Exo 6:14-27 The Genealogy of Moses and Aaron. - “ These are their (Moses’ and Aaron’s) father's-houses . ” בּית־אבות father's-houses (not fathers’ house) is a composite noun, so formed that the two words not only denote one idea, but are treated grammatically as one word, like בּית־עצבּים idol-houses (1Sa 31:9), and בּית־בּמות high-place-houses (cf. Ges. §108, 3; Ewald , §270 c ).
Father’s house was a technical term applied to a collection of families, called by the name of a common ancestor. The father's-houses were the larger divisions into which the families ( mishpachoth ), the largest subdivisions of the tribes of Israel, were grouped. To show clearly the genealogical position of Levi, the tribe-father of Moses and Aaron, among the sons of Jacob, the genealogy commences with Reuben, the first-born of Jacob, and gives the names of such of his sons and those of Simeon as were the founders of families (Gen 46:9-10).
Then follows Levi; and not only are the names of his three sons given, but the length of his life is mentioned (Exo 6:16), also that of his son Kohath and his descendant Amram, because they were the tribe-fathers of Moses and Aaron. But the Amram mentioned in Exo 6:20 as the father of Moses, cannot be the same person as the Amram who was the son of Kohath (Exo 6:18), but must be a later descendant.
For, however the sameness of names may seem to favour the identity of the persons, if we simply look at the genealogy before us, a comparison of this passage with Num 3:27-28 will show the impossibility of such an assumption. “According to Num 3:27-28, the Kohathites were divided (in Moses’ time) into the four branches, Amramites, Izharites, Hebronites, and Uzzielites, who consisted together of 8600 men and boys (women and girls not being included).
Of these, about a fourth, or 2150 men, would belong to the Amramites. Now, according to Exo 18:3-4, Moses himself had only two sons. Consequently, if Amram the son of Kohath, and tribe-father of the Amramites, was the same person as Amram the father of Moses, Moses must have had 2147 brothers and brothers’ sons (the brothers’ daughters, the sisters, and their daughters, not being reckoned at all).
But as this is absolutely impossible, it must be granted that Amram the son of Kohath was not the father of Moses, and that an indefinitely long list of generations has been omitted between the former and his descendant of the same name” (Tiele, Chr. des A. T. p. 36). The enumeration of only four generations, viz. , Levi, Iohath, Amram, Moses, is unmistakeably related to Gen 15:16, where it is stated that the fourth generation would return to Canaan.
Amram’s wife Jochebed , who is merely spoken of in general terms as a daughter of Levi (a Levitess) in Exo 2:1 and Num 26:59, is called here the דּודה “ aunt ” (father’s sister) of Amram, a marriage which was prohibited in the Mosaic law (Lev 18:12), but was allowed before the giving of the law; so that there is no reason for following the lxx and Vulgate , and rendering the word, in direct opposition to the usage of the language, patruelis , the father’s brother’s daughter. Amram’s sons are placed according to their age: Aaron, then Moses, as Aaron was three years older than his brother.
Their sister Miriam was older still (vid. , Exo 2:4). In the lxx, Vulg . , and one Hebrew MS, she is mentioned here; but this is a later interpolation. In Exo 6:21. not only are the sons of Aaron mentioned (Exo 6:23), but those of two of Amram’s brothers, Izhar and Uzziel (Exo 6:21, Exo 6:22), and also Phinehas, the son of Aaron’s son Eleazar (Exo 6:25); as the genealogy was intended to trace the descent of the principal priestly families, among which again special prominence is given to Aaron and Eleazar by the introduction of their wives.
On the other hand, none of the sons of Moses are mentioned, because his dignity was limited to his own person, and his descendants fell behind those of Aaron, and were simply reckoned among the non-priestly families of Levi. The Korahites and Uzzielites are mentioned, but a superior rank was assigned to them in the subsequent history to that of other Levitical families (cf.
Num 16-17; Num 26:11, and Num 3:30 with Lev 10:4). Aaron’s wife Elisheba was of the princely tribe of Judah, and her brother Naashon was a tribe-prince of Judah (cf. Num 2:3). אבות ראשׁי (Exo 6:25), a frequent abbreviation for בית־אבות ראשׁי, heads of the father's-houses of the Levites. In Exo 6:26 and Exo 6:27, with which the genealogy closes, the object of introducing it is very clearly shown in the expression, “ These are that Aaron and Moses, ” at the beginning of Exo 6:26; and again, “ These are that Moses and Aaron, ” at the close of Exo 6:27.
The reversal of the order of the names is also to be noticed. In the genealogy itself Aaron stands first, as the elder of the two; in the conclusion, which leads over to the historical narrative that follows, Moses takes precedence of his elder brother, as being the divinely appointed redeemer of Israel. On the expression, “according to their armies,” see Exo 7:4.
Exo 6:14-27 The Genealogy of Moses and Aaron. - “ These are their (Moses’ and Aaron’s) father's-houses . ” בּית־אבות father's-houses (not fathers’ house) is a composite noun, so formed that the two words not only denote one idea, but are treated grammatically as one word, like בּית־עצבּים idol-houses (1Sa 31:9), and בּית־בּמות high-place-houses (cf. Ges. §108, 3; Ewald , §270 c ).
Father’s house was a technical term applied to a collection of families, called by the name of a common ancestor. The father's-houses were the larger divisions into which the families ( mishpachoth ), the largest subdivisions of the tribes of Israel, were grouped. To show clearly the genealogical position of Levi, the tribe-father of Moses and Aaron, among the sons of Jacob, the genealogy commences with Reuben, the first-born of Jacob, and gives the names of such of his sons and those of Simeon as were the founders of families (Gen 46:9-10).
Then follows Levi; and not only are the names of his three sons given, but the length of his life is mentioned (Exo 6:16), also that of his son Kohath and his descendant Amram, because they were the tribe-fathers of Moses and Aaron. But the Amram mentioned in Exo 6:20 as the father of Moses, cannot be the same person as the Amram who was the son of Kohath (Exo 6:18), but must be a later descendant.
For, however the sameness of names may seem to favour the identity of the persons, if we simply look at the genealogy before us, a comparison of this passage with Num 3:27-28 will show the impossibility of such an assumption. “According to Num 3:27-28, the Kohathites were divided (in Moses’ time) into the four branches, Amramites, Izharites, Hebronites, and Uzzielites, who consisted together of 8600 men and boys (women and girls not being included).
Of these, about a fourth, or 2150 men, would belong to the Amramites. Now, according to Exo 18:3-4, Moses himself had only two sons. Consequently, if Amram the son of Kohath, and tribe-father of the Amramites, was the same person as Amram the father of Moses, Moses must have had 2147 brothers and brothers’ sons (the brothers’ daughters, the sisters, and their daughters, not being reckoned at all).
But as this is absolutely impossible, it must be granted that Amram the son of Kohath was not the father of Moses, and that an indefinitely long list of generations has been omitted between the former and his descendant of the same name” (Tiele, Chr. des A. T. p. 36). The enumeration of only four generations, viz. , Levi, Iohath, Amram, Moses, is unmistakeably related to Gen 15:16, where it is stated that the fourth generation would return to Canaan.
Amram’s wife Jochebed , who is merely spoken of in general terms as a daughter of Levi (a Levitess) in Exo 2:1 and Num 26:59, is called here the דּודה “ aunt ” (father’s sister) of Amram, a marriage which was prohibited in the Mosaic law (Lev 18:12), but was allowed before the giving of the law; so that there is no reason for following the lxx and Vulgate , and rendering the word, in direct opposition to the usage of the language, patruelis , the father’s brother’s daughter. Amram’s sons are placed according to their age: Aaron, then Moses, as Aaron was three years older than his brother.
Their sister Miriam was older still (vid. , Exo 2:4). In the lxx, Vulg . , and one Hebrew MS, she is mentioned here; but this is a later interpolation. In Exo 6:21. not only are the sons of Aaron mentioned (Exo 6:23), but those of two of Amram’s brothers, Izhar and Uzziel (Exo 6:21, Exo 6:22), and also Phinehas, the son of Aaron’s son Eleazar (Exo 6:25); as the genealogy was intended to trace the descent of the principal priestly families, among which again special prominence is given to Aaron and Eleazar by the introduction of their wives.
On the other hand, none of the sons of Moses are mentioned, because his dignity was limited to his own person, and his descendants fell behind those of Aaron, and were simply reckoned among the non-priestly families of Levi. The Korahites and Uzzielites are mentioned, but a superior rank was assigned to them in the subsequent history to that of other Levitical families (cf.
Num 16-17; Num 26:11, and Num 3:30 with Lev 10:4). Aaron’s wife Elisheba was of the princely tribe of Judah, and her brother Naashon was a tribe-prince of Judah (cf. Num 2:3). אבות ראשׁי (Exo 6:25), a frequent abbreviation for בית־אבות ראשׁי, heads of the father's-houses of the Levites. In Exo 6:26 and Exo 6:27, with which the genealogy closes, the object of introducing it is very clearly shown in the expression, “ These are that Aaron and Moses, ” at the beginning of Exo 6:26; and again, “ These are that Moses and Aaron, ” at the close of Exo 6:27.
The reversal of the order of the names is also to be noticed. In the genealogy itself Aaron stands first, as the elder of the two; in the conclusion, which leads over to the historical narrative that follows, Moses takes precedence of his elder brother, as being the divinely appointed redeemer of Israel. On the expression, “according to their armies,” see Exo 7:4.
Exo 6:14-27 The Genealogy of Moses and Aaron. - “ These are their (Moses’ and Aaron’s) father's-houses . ” בּית־אבות father's-houses (not fathers’ house) is a composite noun, so formed that the two words not only denote one idea, but are treated grammatically as one word, like בּית־עצבּים idol-houses (1Sa 31:9), and בּית־בּמות high-place-houses (cf. Ges. §108, 3; Ewald , §270 c ).
Father’s house was a technical term applied to a collection of families, called by the name of a common ancestor. The father's-houses were the larger divisions into which the families ( mishpachoth ), the largest subdivisions of the tribes of Israel, were grouped. To show clearly the genealogical position of Levi, the tribe-father of Moses and Aaron, among the sons of Jacob, the genealogy commences with Reuben, the first-born of Jacob, and gives the names of such of his sons and those of Simeon as were the founders of families (Gen 46:9-10).
Then follows Levi; and not only are the names of his three sons given, but the length of his life is mentioned (Exo 6:16), also that of his son Kohath and his descendant Amram, because they were the tribe-fathers of Moses and Aaron. But the Amram mentioned in Exo 6:20 as the father of Moses, cannot be the same person as the Amram who was the son of Kohath (Exo 6:18), but must be a later descendant.
For, however the sameness of names may seem to favour the identity of the persons, if we simply look at the genealogy before us, a comparison of this passage with Num 3:27-28 will show the impossibility of such an assumption. “According to Num 3:27-28, the Kohathites were divided (in Moses’ time) into the four branches, Amramites, Izharites, Hebronites, and Uzzielites, who consisted together of 8600 men and boys (women and girls not being included).
Of these, about a fourth, or 2150 men, would belong to the Amramites. Now, according to Exo 18:3-4, Moses himself had only two sons. Consequently, if Amram the son of Kohath, and tribe-father of the Amramites, was the same person as Amram the father of Moses, Moses must have had 2147 brothers and brothers’ sons (the brothers’ daughters, the sisters, and their daughters, not being reckoned at all).
But as this is absolutely impossible, it must be granted that Amram the son of Kohath was not the father of Moses, and that an indefinitely long list of generations has been omitted between the former and his descendant of the same name” (Tiele, Chr. des A. T. p. 36). The enumeration of only four generations, viz. , Levi, Iohath, Amram, Moses, is unmistakeably related to Gen 15:16, where it is stated that the fourth generation would return to Canaan.
Amram’s wife Jochebed , who is merely spoken of in general terms as a daughter of Levi (a Levitess) in Exo 2:1 and Num 26:59, is called here the דּודה “ aunt ” (father’s sister) of Amram, a marriage which was prohibited in the Mosaic law (Lev 18:12), but was allowed before the giving of the law; so that there is no reason for following the lxx and Vulgate , and rendering the word, in direct opposition to the usage of the language, patruelis , the father’s brother’s daughter. Amram’s sons are placed according to their age: Aaron, then Moses, as Aaron was three years older than his brother.
Their sister Miriam was older still (vid. , Exo 2:4). In the lxx, Vulg . , and one Hebrew MS, she is mentioned here; but this is a later interpolation. In Exo 6:21. not only are the sons of Aaron mentioned (Exo 6:23), but those of two of Amram’s brothers, Izhar and Uzziel (Exo 6:21, Exo 6:22), and also Phinehas, the son of Aaron’s son Eleazar (Exo 6:25); as the genealogy was intended to trace the descent of the principal priestly families, among which again special prominence is given to Aaron and Eleazar by the introduction of their wives.
On the other hand, none of the sons of Moses are mentioned, because his dignity was limited to his own person, and his descendants fell behind those of Aaron, and were simply reckoned among the non-priestly families of Levi. The Korahites and Uzzielites are mentioned, but a superior rank was assigned to them in the subsequent history to that of other Levitical families (cf.
Num 16-17; Num 26:11, and Num 3:30 with Lev 10:4). Aaron’s wife Elisheba was of the princely tribe of Judah, and her brother Naashon was a tribe-prince of Judah (cf. Num 2:3). אבות ראשׁי (Exo 6:25), a frequent abbreviation for בית־אבות ראשׁי, heads of the father's-houses of the Levites. In Exo 6:26 and Exo 6:27, with which the genealogy closes, the object of introducing it is very clearly shown in the expression, “ These are that Aaron and Moses, ” at the beginning of Exo 6:26; and again, “ These are that Moses and Aaron, ” at the close of Exo 6:27.
The reversal of the order of the names is also to be noticed. In the genealogy itself Aaron stands first, as the elder of the two; in the conclusion, which leads over to the historical narrative that follows, Moses takes precedence of his elder brother, as being the divinely appointed redeemer of Israel. On the expression, “according to their armies,” see Exo 7:4.
Exo 6:14-27 The Genealogy of Moses and Aaron. - “ These are their (Moses’ and Aaron’s) father's-houses . ” בּית־אבות father's-houses (not fathers’ house) is a composite noun, so formed that the two words not only denote one idea, but are treated grammatically as one word, like בּית־עצבּים idol-houses (1Sa 31:9), and בּית־בּמות high-place-houses (cf. Ges. §108, 3; Ewald , §270 c ).
Father’s house was a technical term applied to a collection of families, called by the name of a common ancestor. The father's-houses were the larger divisions into which the families ( mishpachoth ), the largest subdivisions of the tribes of Israel, were grouped. To show clearly the genealogical position of Levi, the tribe-father of Moses and Aaron, among the sons of Jacob, the genealogy commences with Reuben, the first-born of Jacob, and gives the names of such of his sons and those of Simeon as were the founders of families (Gen 46:9-10).
Then follows Levi; and not only are the names of his three sons given, but the length of his life is mentioned (Exo 6:16), also that of his son Kohath and his descendant Amram, because they were the tribe-fathers of Moses and Aaron. But the Amram mentioned in Exo 6:20 as the father of Moses, cannot be the same person as the Amram who was the son of Kohath (Exo 6:18), but must be a later descendant.
For, however the sameness of names may seem to favour the identity of the persons, if we simply look at the genealogy before us, a comparison of this passage with Num 3:27-28 will show the impossibility of such an assumption. “According to Num 3:27-28, the Kohathites were divided (in Moses’ time) into the four branches, Amramites, Izharites, Hebronites, and Uzzielites, who consisted together of 8600 men and boys (women and girls not being included).
Of these, about a fourth, or 2150 men, would belong to the Amramites. Now, according to Exo 18:3-4, Moses himself had only two sons. Consequently, if Amram the son of Kohath, and tribe-father of the Amramites, was the same person as Amram the father of Moses, Moses must have had 2147 brothers and brothers’ sons (the brothers’ daughters, the sisters, and their daughters, not being reckoned at all).
But as this is absolutely impossible, it must be granted that Amram the son of Kohath was not the father of Moses, and that an indefinitely long list of generations has been omitted between the former and his descendant of the same name” (Tiele, Chr. des A. T. p. 36). The enumeration of only four generations, viz. , Levi, Iohath, Amram, Moses, is unmistakeably related to Gen 15:16, where it is stated that the fourth generation would return to Canaan.
Amram’s wife Jochebed , who is merely spoken of in general terms as a daughter of Levi (a Levitess) in Exo 2:1 and Num 26:59, is called here the דּודה “ aunt ” (father’s sister) of Amram, a marriage which was prohibited in the Mosaic law (Lev 18:12), but was allowed before the giving of the law; so that there is no reason for following the lxx and Vulgate , and rendering the word, in direct opposition to the usage of the language, patruelis , the father’s brother’s daughter. Amram’s sons are placed according to their age: Aaron, then Moses, as Aaron was three years older than his brother.
Their sister Miriam was older still (vid. , Exo 2:4). In the lxx, Vulg . , and one Hebrew MS, she is mentioned here; but this is a later interpolation. In Exo 6:21. not only are the sons of Aaron mentioned (Exo 6:23), but those of two of Amram’s brothers, Izhar and Uzziel (Exo 6:21, Exo 6:22), and also Phinehas, the son of Aaron’s son Eleazar (Exo 6:25); as the genealogy was intended to trace the descent of the principal priestly families, among which again special prominence is given to Aaron and Eleazar by the introduction of their wives.
On the other hand, none of the sons of Moses are mentioned, because his dignity was limited to his own person, and his descendants fell behind those of Aaron, and were simply reckoned among the non-priestly families of Levi. The Korahites and Uzzielites are mentioned, but a superior rank was assigned to them in the subsequent history to that of other Levitical families (cf.
Num 16-17; Num 26:11, and Num 3:30 with Lev 10:4). Aaron’s wife Elisheba was of the princely tribe of Judah, and her brother Naashon was a tribe-prince of Judah (cf. Num 2:3). אבות ראשׁי (Exo 6:25), a frequent abbreviation for בית־אבות ראשׁי, heads of the father's-houses of the Levites. In Exo 6:26 and Exo 6:27, with which the genealogy closes, the object of introducing it is very clearly shown in the expression, “ These are that Aaron and Moses, ” at the beginning of Exo 6:26; and again, “ These are that Moses and Aaron, ” at the close of Exo 6:27.
The reversal of the order of the names is also to be noticed. In the genealogy itself Aaron stands first, as the elder of the two; in the conclusion, which leads over to the historical narrative that follows, Moses takes precedence of his elder brother, as being the divinely appointed redeemer of Israel. On the expression, “according to their armies,” see Exo 7:4.
Exo 6:14-27 The Genealogy of Moses and Aaron. - “ These are their (Moses’ and Aaron’s) father's-houses . ” בּית־אבות father's-houses (not fathers’ house) is a composite noun, so formed that the two words not only denote one idea, but are treated grammatically as one word, like בּית־עצבּים idol-houses (1Sa 31:9), and בּית־בּמות high-place-houses (cf. Ges. §108, 3; Ewald , §270 c ).
Father’s house was a technical term applied to a collection of families, called by the name of a common ancestor. The father's-houses were the larger divisions into which the families ( mishpachoth ), the largest subdivisions of the tribes of Israel, were grouped. To show clearly the genealogical position of Levi, the tribe-father of Moses and Aaron, among the sons of Jacob, the genealogy commences with Reuben, the first-born of Jacob, and gives the names of such of his sons and those of Simeon as were the founders of families (Gen 46:9-10).
Then follows Levi; and not only are the names of his three sons given, but the length of his life is mentioned (Exo 6:16), also that of his son Kohath and his descendant Amram, because they were the tribe-fathers of Moses and Aaron. But the Amram mentioned in Exo 6:20 as the father of Moses, cannot be the same person as the Amram who was the son of Kohath (Exo 6:18), but must be a later descendant.
For, however the sameness of names may seem to favour the identity of the persons, if we simply look at the genealogy before us, a comparison of this passage with Num 3:27-28 will show the impossibility of such an assumption. “According to Num 3:27-28, the Kohathites were divided (in Moses’ time) into the four branches, Amramites, Izharites, Hebronites, and Uzzielites, who consisted together of 8600 men and boys (women and girls not being included).
Of these, about a fourth, or 2150 men, would belong to the Amramites. Now, according to Exo 18:3-4, Moses himself had only two sons. Consequently, if Amram the son of Kohath, and tribe-father of the Amramites, was the same person as Amram the father of Moses, Moses must have had 2147 brothers and brothers’ sons (the brothers’ daughters, the sisters, and their daughters, not being reckoned at all).
But as this is absolutely impossible, it must be granted that Amram the son of Kohath was not the father of Moses, and that an indefinitely long list of generations has been omitted between the former and his descendant of the same name” (Tiele, Chr. des A. T. p. 36). The enumeration of only four generations, viz. , Levi, Iohath, Amram, Moses, is unmistakeably related to Gen 15:16, where it is stated that the fourth generation would return to Canaan.
Amram’s wife Jochebed , who is merely spoken of in general terms as a daughter of Levi (a Levitess) in Exo 2:1 and Num 26:59, is called here the דּודה “ aunt ” (father’s sister) of Amram, a marriage which was prohibited in the Mosaic law (Lev 18:12), but was allowed before the giving of the law; so that there is no reason for following the lxx and Vulgate , and rendering the word, in direct opposition to the usage of the language, patruelis , the father’s brother’s daughter. Amram’s sons are placed according to their age: Aaron, then Moses, as Aaron was three years older than his brother.
Their sister Miriam was older still (vid. , Exo 2:4). In the lxx, Vulg . , and one Hebrew MS, she is mentioned here; but this is a later interpolation. In Exo 6:21. not only are the sons of Aaron mentioned (Exo 6:23), but those of two of Amram’s brothers, Izhar and Uzziel (Exo 6:21, Exo 6:22), and also Phinehas, the son of Aaron’s son Eleazar (Exo 6:25); as the genealogy was intended to trace the descent of the principal priestly families, among which again special prominence is given to Aaron and Eleazar by the introduction of their wives.
On the other hand, none of the sons of Moses are mentioned, because his dignity was limited to his own person, and his descendants fell behind those of Aaron, and were simply reckoned among the non-priestly families of Levi. The Korahites and Uzzielites are mentioned, but a superior rank was assigned to them in the subsequent history to that of other Levitical families (cf.
Num 16-17; Num 26:11, and Num 3:30 with Lev 10:4). Aaron’s wife Elisheba was of the princely tribe of Judah, and her brother Naashon was a tribe-prince of Judah (cf. Num 2:3). אבות ראשׁי (Exo 6:25), a frequent abbreviation for בית־אבות ראשׁי, heads of the father's-houses of the Levites. In Exo 6:26 and Exo 6:27, with which the genealogy closes, the object of introducing it is very clearly shown in the expression, “ These are that Aaron and Moses, ” at the beginning of Exo 6:26; and again, “ These are that Moses and Aaron, ” at the close of Exo 6:27.
The reversal of the order of the names is also to be noticed. In the genealogy itself Aaron stands first, as the elder of the two; in the conclusion, which leads over to the historical narrative that follows, Moses takes precedence of his elder brother, as being the divinely appointed redeemer of Israel. On the expression, “according to their armies,” see Exo 7:4.
Exo 6:14-27 The Genealogy of Moses and Aaron. - “ These are their (Moses’ and Aaron’s) father's-houses . ” בּית־אבות father's-houses (not fathers’ house) is a composite noun, so formed that the two words not only denote one idea, but are treated grammatically as one word, like בּית־עצבּים idol-houses (1Sa 31:9), and בּית־בּמות high-place-houses (cf. Ges. §108, 3; Ewald , §270 c ).
Father’s house was a technical term applied to a collection of families, called by the name of a common ancestor. The father's-houses were the larger divisions into which the families ( mishpachoth ), the largest subdivisions of the tribes of Israel, were grouped. To show clearly the genealogical position of Levi, the tribe-father of Moses and Aaron, among the sons of Jacob, the genealogy commences with Reuben, the first-born of Jacob, and gives the names of such of his sons and those of Simeon as were the founders of families (Gen 46:9-10).
Then follows Levi; and not only are the names of his three sons given, but the length of his life is mentioned (Exo 6:16), also that of his son Kohath and his descendant Amram, because they were the tribe-fathers of Moses and Aaron. But the Amram mentioned in Exo 6:20 as the father of Moses, cannot be the same person as the Amram who was the son of Kohath (Exo 6:18), but must be a later descendant.
For, however the sameness of names may seem to favour the identity of the persons, if we simply look at the genealogy before us, a comparison of this passage with Num 3:27-28 will show the impossibility of such an assumption. “According to Num 3:27-28, the Kohathites were divided (in Moses’ time) into the four branches, Amramites, Izharites, Hebronites, and Uzzielites, who consisted together of 8600 men and boys (women and girls not being included).
Of these, about a fourth, or 2150 men, would belong to the Amramites. Now, according to Exo 18:3-4, Moses himself had only two sons. Consequently, if Amram the son of Kohath, and tribe-father of the Amramites, was the same person as Amram the father of Moses, Moses must have had 2147 brothers and brothers’ sons (the brothers’ daughters, the sisters, and their daughters, not being reckoned at all).
But as this is absolutely impossible, it must be granted that Amram the son of Kohath was not the father of Moses, and that an indefinitely long list of generations has been omitted between the former and his descendant of the same name” (Tiele, Chr. des A. T. p. 36). The enumeration of only four generations, viz. , Levi, Iohath, Amram, Moses, is unmistakeably related to Gen 15:16, where it is stated that the fourth generation would return to Canaan.
Amram’s wife Jochebed , who is merely spoken of in general terms as a daughter of Levi (a Levitess) in Exo 2:1 and Num 26:59, is called here the דּודה “ aunt ” (father’s sister) of Amram, a marriage which was prohibited in the Mosaic law (Lev 18:12), but was allowed before the giving of the law; so that there is no reason for following the lxx and Vulgate , and rendering the word, in direct opposition to the usage of the language, patruelis , the father’s brother’s daughter. Amram’s sons are placed according to their age: Aaron, then Moses, as Aaron was three years older than his brother.
Their sister Miriam was older still (vid. , Exo 2:4). In the lxx, Vulg . , and one Hebrew MS, she is mentioned here; but this is a later interpolation. In Exo 6:21. not only are the sons of Aaron mentioned (Exo 6:23), but those of two of Amram’s brothers, Izhar and Uzziel (Exo 6:21, Exo 6:22), and also Phinehas, the son of Aaron’s son Eleazar (Exo 6:25); as the genealogy was intended to trace the descent of the principal priestly families, among which again special prominence is given to Aaron and Eleazar by the introduction of their wives.
On the other hand, none of the sons of Moses are mentioned, because his dignity was limited to his own person, and his descendants fell behind those of Aaron, and were simply reckoned among the non-priestly families of Levi. The Korahites and Uzzielites are mentioned, but a superior rank was assigned to them in the subsequent history to that of other Levitical families (cf.
Num 16-17; Num 26:11, and Num 3:30 with Lev 10:4). Aaron’s wife Elisheba was of the princely tribe of Judah, and her brother Naashon was a tribe-prince of Judah (cf. Num 2:3). אבות ראשׁי (Exo 6:25), a frequent abbreviation for בית־אבות ראשׁי, heads of the father's-houses of the Levites. In Exo 6:26 and Exo 6:27, with which the genealogy closes, the object of introducing it is very clearly shown in the expression, “ These are that Aaron and Moses, ” at the beginning of Exo 6:26; and again, “ These are that Moses and Aaron, ” at the close of Exo 6:27.
The reversal of the order of the names is also to be noticed. In the genealogy itself Aaron stands first, as the elder of the two; in the conclusion, which leads over to the historical narrative that follows, Moses takes precedence of his elder brother, as being the divinely appointed redeemer of Israel. On the expression, “according to their armies,” see Exo 7:4.
Exo 6:14-27 The Genealogy of Moses and Aaron. - “ These are their (Moses’ and Aaron’s) father's-houses . ” בּית־אבות father's-houses (not fathers’ house) is a composite noun, so formed that the two words not only denote one idea, but are treated grammatically as one word, like בּית־עצבּים idol-houses (1Sa 31:9), and בּית־בּמות high-place-houses (cf. Ges. §108, 3; Ewald , §270 c ).
Father’s house was a technical term applied to a collection of families, called by the name of a common ancestor. The father's-houses were the larger divisions into which the families ( mishpachoth ), the largest subdivisions of the tribes of Israel, were grouped. To show clearly the genealogical position of Levi, the tribe-father of Moses and Aaron, among the sons of Jacob, the genealogy commences with Reuben, the first-born of Jacob, and gives the names of such of his sons and those of Simeon as were the founders of families (Gen 46:9-10).
Then follows Levi; and not only are the names of his three sons given, but the length of his life is mentioned (Exo 6:16), also that of his son Kohath and his descendant Amram, because they were the tribe-fathers of Moses and Aaron. But the Amram mentioned in Exo 6:20 as the father of Moses, cannot be the same person as the Amram who was the son of Kohath (Exo 6:18), but must be a later descendant.
For, however the sameness of names may seem to favour the identity of the persons, if we simply look at the genealogy before us, a comparison of this passage with Num 3:27-28 will show the impossibility of such an assumption. “According to Num 3:27-28, the Kohathites were divided (in Moses’ time) into the four branches, Amramites, Izharites, Hebronites, and Uzzielites, who consisted together of 8600 men and boys (women and girls not being included).
Of these, about a fourth, or 2150 men, would belong to the Amramites. Now, according to Exo 18:3-4, Moses himself had only two sons. Consequently, if Amram the son of Kohath, and tribe-father of the Amramites, was the same person as Amram the father of Moses, Moses must have had 2147 brothers and brothers’ sons (the brothers’ daughters, the sisters, and their daughters, not being reckoned at all).
But as this is absolutely impossible, it must be granted that Amram the son of Kohath was not the father of Moses, and that an indefinitely long list of generations has been omitted between the former and his descendant of the same name” (Tiele, Chr. des A. T. p. 36). The enumeration of only four generations, viz. , Levi, Iohath, Amram, Moses, is unmistakeably related to Gen 15:16, where it is stated that the fourth generation would return to Canaan.
Amram’s wife Jochebed , who is merely spoken of in general terms as a daughter of Levi (a Levitess) in Exo 2:1 and Num 26:59, is called here the דּודה “ aunt ” (father’s sister) of Amram, a marriage which was prohibited in the Mosaic law (Lev 18:12), but was allowed before the giving of the law; so that there is no reason for following the lxx and Vulgate , and rendering the word, in direct opposition to the usage of the language, patruelis , the father’s brother’s daughter. Amram’s sons are placed according to their age: Aaron, then Moses, as Aaron was three years older than his brother.
Their sister Miriam was older still (vid. , Exo 2:4). In the lxx, Vulg . , and one Hebrew MS, she is mentioned here; but this is a later interpolation. In Exo 6:21. not only are the sons of Aaron mentioned (Exo 6:23), but those of two of Amram’s brothers, Izhar and Uzziel (Exo 6:21, Exo 6:22), and also Phinehas, the son of Aaron’s son Eleazar (Exo 6:25); as the genealogy was intended to trace the descent of the principal priestly families, among which again special prominence is given to Aaron and Eleazar by the introduction of their wives.
On the other hand, none of the sons of Moses are mentioned, because his dignity was limited to his own person, and his descendants fell behind those of Aaron, and were simply reckoned among the non-priestly families of Levi. The Korahites and Uzzielites are mentioned, but a superior rank was assigned to them in the subsequent history to that of other Levitical families (cf.
Num 16-17; Num 26:11, and Num 3:30 with Lev 10:4). Aaron’s wife Elisheba was of the princely tribe of Judah, and her brother Naashon was a tribe-prince of Judah (cf. Num 2:3). אבות ראשׁי (Exo 6:25), a frequent abbreviation for בית־אבות ראשׁי, heads of the father's-houses of the Levites. In Exo 6:26 and Exo 6:27, with which the genealogy closes, the object of introducing it is very clearly shown in the expression, “ These are that Aaron and Moses, ” at the beginning of Exo 6:26; and again, “ These are that Moses and Aaron, ” at the close of Exo 6:27.
The reversal of the order of the names is also to be noticed. In the genealogy itself Aaron stands first, as the elder of the two; in the conclusion, which leads over to the historical narrative that follows, Moses takes precedence of his elder brother, as being the divinely appointed redeemer of Israel. On the expression, “according to their armies,” see Exo 7:4.
Exo 6:14-27 The Genealogy of Moses and Aaron. - “ These are their (Moses’ and Aaron’s) father's-houses . ” בּית־אבות father's-houses (not fathers’ house) is a composite noun, so formed that the two words not only denote one idea, but are treated grammatically as one word, like בּית־עצבּים idol-houses (1Sa 31:9), and בּית־בּמות high-place-houses (cf. Ges. §108, 3; Ewald , §270 c ).
Father’s house was a technical term applied to a collection of families, called by the name of a common ancestor. The father's-houses were the larger divisions into which the families ( mishpachoth ), the largest subdivisions of the tribes of Israel, were grouped. To show clearly the genealogical position of Levi, the tribe-father of Moses and Aaron, among the sons of Jacob, the genealogy commences with Reuben, the first-born of Jacob, and gives the names of such of his sons and those of Simeon as were the founders of families (Gen 46:9-10).
Then follows Levi; and not only are the names of his three sons given, but the length of his life is mentioned (Exo 6:16), also that of his son Kohath and his descendant Amram, because they were the tribe-fathers of Moses and Aaron. But the Amram mentioned in Exo 6:20 as the father of Moses, cannot be the same person as the Amram who was the son of Kohath (Exo 6:18), but must be a later descendant.
For, however the sameness of names may seem to favour the identity of the persons, if we simply look at the genealogy before us, a comparison of this passage with Num 3:27-28 will show the impossibility of such an assumption. “According to Num 3:27-28, the Kohathites were divided (in Moses’ time) into the four branches, Amramites, Izharites, Hebronites, and Uzzielites, who consisted together of 8600 men and boys (women and girls not being included).
Of these, about a fourth, or 2150 men, would belong to the Amramites. Now, according to Exo 18:3-4, Moses himself had only two sons. Consequently, if Amram the son of Kohath, and tribe-father of the Amramites, was the same person as Amram the father of Moses, Moses must have had 2147 brothers and brothers’ sons (the brothers’ daughters, the sisters, and their daughters, not being reckoned at all).
But as this is absolutely impossible, it must be granted that Amram the son of Kohath was not the father of Moses, and that an indefinitely long list of generations has been omitted between the former and his descendant of the same name” (Tiele, Chr. des A. T. p. 36). The enumeration of only four generations, viz. , Levi, Iohath, Amram, Moses, is unmistakeably related to Gen 15:16, where it is stated that the fourth generation would return to Canaan.
Amram’s wife Jochebed , who is merely spoken of in general terms as a daughter of Levi (a Levitess) in Exo 2:1 and Num 26:59, is called here the דּודה “ aunt ” (father’s sister) of Amram, a marriage which was prohibited in the Mosaic law (Lev 18:12), but was allowed before the giving of the law; so that there is no reason for following the lxx and Vulgate , and rendering the word, in direct opposition to the usage of the language, patruelis , the father’s brother’s daughter. Amram’s sons are placed according to their age: Aaron, then Moses, as Aaron was three years older than his brother.
Their sister Miriam was older still (vid. , Exo 2:4). In the lxx, Vulg . , and one Hebrew MS, she is mentioned here; but this is a later interpolation. In Exo 6:21. not only are the sons of Aaron mentioned (Exo 6:23), but those of two of Amram’s brothers, Izhar and Uzziel (Exo 6:21, Exo 6:22), and also Phinehas, the son of Aaron’s son Eleazar (Exo 6:25); as the genealogy was intended to trace the descent of the principal priestly families, among which again special prominence is given to Aaron and Eleazar by the introduction of their wives.
On the other hand, none of the sons of Moses are mentioned, because his dignity was limited to his own person, and his descendants fell behind those of Aaron, and were simply reckoned among the non-priestly families of Levi. The Korahites and Uzzielites are mentioned, but a superior rank was assigned to them in the subsequent history to that of other Levitical families (cf.
Num 16-17; Num 26:11, and Num 3:30 with Lev 10:4). Aaron’s wife Elisheba was of the princely tribe of Judah, and her brother Naashon was a tribe-prince of Judah (cf. Num 2:3). אבות ראשׁי (Exo 6:25), a frequent abbreviation for בית־אבות ראשׁי, heads of the father's-houses of the Levites. In Exo 6:26 and Exo 6:27, with which the genealogy closes, the object of introducing it is very clearly shown in the expression, “ These are that Aaron and Moses, ” at the beginning of Exo 6:26; and again, “ These are that Moses and Aaron, ” at the close of Exo 6:27.
The reversal of the order of the names is also to be noticed. In the genealogy itself Aaron stands first, as the elder of the two; in the conclusion, which leads over to the historical narrative that follows, Moses takes precedence of his elder brother, as being the divinely appointed redeemer of Israel. On the expression, “according to their armies,” see Exo 7:4.
Exo 6:14-27 The Genealogy of Moses and Aaron. - “ These are their (Moses’ and Aaron’s) father's-houses . ” בּית־אבות father's-houses (not fathers’ house) is a composite noun, so formed that the two words not only denote one idea, but are treated grammatically as one word, like בּית־עצבּים idol-houses (1Sa 31:9), and בּית־בּמות high-place-houses (cf. Ges. §108, 3; Ewald , §270 c ).
Father’s house was a technical term applied to a collection of families, called by the name of a common ancestor. The father's-houses were the larger divisions into which the families ( mishpachoth ), the largest subdivisions of the tribes of Israel, were grouped. To show clearly the genealogical position of Levi, the tribe-father of Moses and Aaron, among the sons of Jacob, the genealogy commences with Reuben, the first-born of Jacob, and gives the names of such of his sons and those of Simeon as were the founders of families (Gen 46:9-10).
Then follows Levi; and not only are the names of his three sons given, but the length of his life is mentioned (Exo 6:16), also that of his son Kohath and his descendant Amram, because they were the tribe-fathers of Moses and Aaron. But the Amram mentioned in Exo 6:20 as the father of Moses, cannot be the same person as the Amram who was the son of Kohath (Exo 6:18), but must be a later descendant.
For, however the sameness of names may seem to favour the identity of the persons, if we simply look at the genealogy before us, a comparison of this passage with Num 3:27-28 will show the impossibility of such an assumption. “According to Num 3:27-28, the Kohathites were divided (in Moses’ time) into the four branches, Amramites, Izharites, Hebronites, and Uzzielites, who consisted together of 8600 men and boys (women and girls not being included).
Of these, about a fourth, or 2150 men, would belong to the Amramites. Now, according to Exo 18:3-4, Moses himself had only two sons. Consequently, if Amram the son of Kohath, and tribe-father of the Amramites, was the same person as Amram the father of Moses, Moses must have had 2147 brothers and brothers’ sons (the brothers’ daughters, the sisters, and their daughters, not being reckoned at all).
But as this is absolutely impossible, it must be granted that Amram the son of Kohath was not the father of Moses, and that an indefinitely long list of generations has been omitted between the former and his descendant of the same name” (Tiele, Chr. des A. T. p. 36). The enumeration of only four generations, viz. , Levi, Iohath, Amram, Moses, is unmistakeably related to Gen 15:16, where it is stated that the fourth generation would return to Canaan.
Amram’s wife Jochebed , who is merely spoken of in general terms as a daughter of Levi (a Levitess) in Exo 2:1 and Num 26:59, is called here the דּודה “ aunt ” (father’s sister) of Amram, a marriage which was prohibited in the Mosaic law (Lev 18:12), but was allowed before the giving of the law; so that there is no reason for following the lxx and Vulgate , and rendering the word, in direct opposition to the usage of the language, patruelis , the father’s brother’s daughter. Amram’s sons are placed according to their age: Aaron, then Moses, as Aaron was three years older than his brother.
Their sister Miriam was older still (vid. , Exo 2:4). In the lxx, Vulg . , and one Hebrew MS, she is mentioned here; but this is a later interpolation. In Exo 6:21. not only are the sons of Aaron mentioned (Exo 6:23), but those of two of Amram’s brothers, Izhar and Uzziel (Exo 6:21, Exo 6:22), and also Phinehas, the son of Aaron’s son Eleazar (Exo 6:25); as the genealogy was intended to trace the descent of the principal priestly families, among which again special prominence is given to Aaron and Eleazar by the introduction of their wives.
On the other hand, none of the sons of Moses are mentioned, because his dignity was limited to his own person, and his descendants fell behind those of Aaron, and were simply reckoned among the non-priestly families of Levi. The Korahites and Uzzielites are mentioned, but a superior rank was assigned to them in the subsequent history to that of other Levitical families (cf.
Num 16-17; Num 26:11, and Num 3:30 with Lev 10:4). Aaron’s wife Elisheba was of the princely tribe of Judah, and her brother Naashon was a tribe-prince of Judah (cf. Num 2:3). אבות ראשׁי (Exo 6:25), a frequent abbreviation for בית־אבות ראשׁי, heads of the father's-houses of the Levites. In Exo 6:26 and Exo 6:27, with which the genealogy closes, the object of introducing it is very clearly shown in the expression, “ These are that Aaron and Moses, ” at the beginning of Exo 6:26; and again, “ These are that Moses and Aaron, ” at the close of Exo 6:27.
The reversal of the order of the names is also to be noticed. In the genealogy itself Aaron stands first, as the elder of the two; in the conclusion, which leads over to the historical narrative that follows, Moses takes precedence of his elder brother, as being the divinely appointed redeemer of Israel. On the expression, “according to their armies,” see Exo 7:4.
Exo 6:14-27 The Genealogy of Moses and Aaron. - “ These are their (Moses’ and Aaron’s) father's-houses . ” בּית־אבות father's-houses (not fathers’ house) is a composite noun, so formed that the two words not only denote one idea, but are treated grammatically as one word, like בּית־עצבּים idol-houses (1Sa 31:9), and בּית־בּמות high-place-houses (cf. Ges. §108, 3; Ewald , §270 c ).
Father’s house was a technical term applied to a collection of families, called by the name of a common ancestor. The father's-houses were the larger divisions into which the families ( mishpachoth ), the largest subdivisions of the tribes of Israel, were grouped. To show clearly the genealogical position of Levi, the tribe-father of Moses and Aaron, among the sons of Jacob, the genealogy commences with Reuben, the first-born of Jacob, and gives the names of such of his sons and those of Simeon as were the founders of families (Gen 46:9-10).
Then follows Levi; and not only are the names of his three sons given, but the length of his life is mentioned (Exo 6:16), also that of his son Kohath and his descendant Amram, because they were the tribe-fathers of Moses and Aaron. But the Amram mentioned in Exo 6:20 as the father of Moses, cannot be the same person as the Amram who was the son of Kohath (Exo 6:18), but must be a later descendant.
For, however the sameness of names may seem to favour the identity of the persons, if we simply look at the genealogy before us, a comparison of this passage with Num 3:27-28 will show the impossibility of such an assumption. “According to Num 3:27-28, the Kohathites were divided (in Moses’ time) into the four branches, Amramites, Izharites, Hebronites, and Uzzielites, who consisted together of 8600 men and boys (women and girls not being included).
Of these, about a fourth, or 2150 men, would belong to the Amramites. Now, according to Exo 18:3-4, Moses himself had only two sons. Consequently, if Amram the son of Kohath, and tribe-father of the Amramites, was the same person as Amram the father of Moses, Moses must have had 2147 brothers and brothers’ sons (the brothers’ daughters, the sisters, and their daughters, not being reckoned at all).
But as this is absolutely impossible, it must be granted that Amram the son of Kohath was not the father of Moses, and that an indefinitely long list of generations has been omitted between the former and his descendant of the same name” (Tiele, Chr. des A. T. p. 36). The enumeration of only four generations, viz. , Levi, Iohath, Amram, Moses, is unmistakeably related to Gen 15:16, where it is stated that the fourth generation would return to Canaan.
Amram’s wife Jochebed , who is merely spoken of in general terms as a daughter of Levi (a Levitess) in Exo 2:1 and Num 26:59, is called here the דּודה “ aunt ” (father’s sister) of Amram, a marriage which was prohibited in the Mosaic law (Lev 18:12), but was allowed before the giving of the law; so that there is no reason for following the lxx and Vulgate , and rendering the word, in direct opposition to the usage of the language, patruelis , the father’s brother’s daughter. Amram’s sons are placed according to their age: Aaron, then Moses, as Aaron was three years older than his brother.
Their sister Miriam was older still (vid. , Exo 2:4). In the lxx, Vulg . , and one Hebrew MS, she is mentioned here; but this is a later interpolation. In Exo 6:21. not only are the sons of Aaron mentioned (Exo 6:23), but those of two of Amram’s brothers, Izhar and Uzziel (Exo 6:21, Exo 6:22), and also Phinehas, the son of Aaron’s son Eleazar (Exo 6:25); as the genealogy was intended to trace the descent of the principal priestly families, among which again special prominence is given to Aaron and Eleazar by the introduction of their wives.
On the other hand, none of the sons of Moses are mentioned, because his dignity was limited to his own person, and his descendants fell behind those of Aaron, and were simply reckoned among the non-priestly families of Levi. The Korahites and Uzzielites are mentioned, but a superior rank was assigned to them in the subsequent history to that of other Levitical families (cf.
Num 16-17; Num 26:11, and Num 3:30 with Lev 10:4). Aaron’s wife Elisheba was of the princely tribe of Judah, and her brother Naashon was a tribe-prince of Judah (cf. Num 2:3). אבות ראשׁי (Exo 6:25), a frequent abbreviation for בית־אבות ראשׁי, heads of the father's-houses of the Levites. In Exo 6:26 and Exo 6:27, with which the genealogy closes, the object of introducing it is very clearly shown in the expression, “ These are that Aaron and Moses, ” at the beginning of Exo 6:26; and again, “ These are that Moses and Aaron, ” at the close of Exo 6:27.
The reversal of the order of the names is also to be noticed. In the genealogy itself Aaron stands first, as the elder of the two; in the conclusion, which leads over to the historical narrative that follows, Moses takes precedence of his elder brother, as being the divinely appointed redeemer of Israel. On the expression, “according to their armies,” see Exo 7:4.
Exo 6:14-27 The Genealogy of Moses and Aaron. - “ These are their (Moses’ and Aaron’s) father's-houses . ” בּית־אבות father's-houses (not fathers’ house) is a composite noun, so formed that the two words not only denote one idea, but are treated grammatically as one word, like בּית־עצבּים idol-houses (1Sa 31:9), and בּית־בּמות high-place-houses (cf. Ges. §108, 3; Ewald , §270 c ).
Father’s house was a technical term applied to a collection of families, called by the name of a common ancestor. The father's-houses were the larger divisions into which the families ( mishpachoth ), the largest subdivisions of the tribes of Israel, were grouped. To show clearly the genealogical position of Levi, the tribe-father of Moses and Aaron, among the sons of Jacob, the genealogy commences with Reuben, the first-born of Jacob, and gives the names of such of his sons and those of Simeon as were the founders of families (Gen 46:9-10).
Then follows Levi; and not only are the names of his three sons given, but the length of his life is mentioned (Exo 6:16), also that of his son Kohath and his descendant Amram, because they were the tribe-fathers of Moses and Aaron. But the Amram mentioned in Exo 6:20 as the father of Moses, cannot be the same person as the Amram who was the son of Kohath (Exo 6:18), but must be a later descendant.
For, however the sameness of names may seem to favour the identity of the persons, if we simply look at the genealogy before us, a comparison of this passage with Num 3:27-28 will show the impossibility of such an assumption. “According to Num 3:27-28, the Kohathites were divided (in Moses’ time) into the four branches, Amramites, Izharites, Hebronites, and Uzzielites, who consisted together of 8600 men and boys (women and girls not being included).
Of these, about a fourth, or 2150 men, would belong to the Amramites. Now, according to Exo 18:3-4, Moses himself had only two sons. Consequently, if Amram the son of Kohath, and tribe-father of the Amramites, was the same person as Amram the father of Moses, Moses must have had 2147 brothers and brothers’ sons (the brothers’ daughters, the sisters, and their daughters, not being reckoned at all).
But as this is absolutely impossible, it must be granted that Amram the son of Kohath was not the father of Moses, and that an indefinitely long list of generations has been omitted between the former and his descendant of the same name” (Tiele, Chr. des A. T. p. 36). The enumeration of only four generations, viz. , Levi, Iohath, Amram, Moses, is unmistakeably related to Gen 15:16, where it is stated that the fourth generation would return to Canaan.
Amram’s wife Jochebed , who is merely spoken of in general terms as a daughter of Levi (a Levitess) in Exo 2:1 and Num 26:59, is called here the דּודה “ aunt ” (father’s sister) of Amram, a marriage which was prohibited in the Mosaic law (Lev 18:12), but was allowed before the giving of the law; so that there is no reason for following the lxx and Vulgate , and rendering the word, in direct opposition to the usage of the language, patruelis , the father’s brother’s daughter. Amram’s sons are placed according to their age: Aaron, then Moses, as Aaron was three years older than his brother.
Their sister Miriam was older still (vid. , Exo 2:4). In the lxx, Vulg . , and one Hebrew MS, she is mentioned here; but this is a later interpolation. In Exo 6:21. not only are the sons of Aaron mentioned (Exo 6:23), but those of two of Amram’s brothers, Izhar and Uzziel (Exo 6:21, Exo 6:22), and also Phinehas, the son of Aaron’s son Eleazar (Exo 6:25); as the genealogy was intended to trace the descent of the principal priestly families, among which again special prominence is given to Aaron and Eleazar by the introduction of their wives.
On the other hand, none of the sons of Moses are mentioned, because his dignity was limited to his own person, and his descendants fell behind those of Aaron, and were simply reckoned among the non-priestly families of Levi. The Korahites and Uzzielites are mentioned, but a superior rank was assigned to them in the subsequent history to that of other Levitical families (cf.
Num 16-17; Num 26:11, and Num 3:30 with Lev 10:4). Aaron’s wife Elisheba was of the princely tribe of Judah, and her brother Naashon was a tribe-prince of Judah (cf. Num 2:3). אבות ראשׁי (Exo 6:25), a frequent abbreviation for בית־אבות ראשׁי, heads of the father's-houses of the Levites. In Exo 6:26 and Exo 6:27, with which the genealogy closes, the object of introducing it is very clearly shown in the expression, “ These are that Aaron and Moses, ” at the beginning of Exo 6:26; and again, “ These are that Moses and Aaron, ” at the close of Exo 6:27.
The reversal of the order of the names is also to be noticed. In the genealogy itself Aaron stands first, as the elder of the two; in the conclusion, which leads over to the historical narrative that follows, Moses takes precedence of his elder brother, as being the divinely appointed redeemer of Israel. On the expression, “according to their armies,” see Exo 7:4.
Exo 6:28-30 In Exo 6:28-30 the thread of the history, which was broken off at Exo 6:12, is again resumed. דּבּר בּיום, on the day, i.e., at the time, when God spake. יום is the construct state before an entire clause, which is governed by it without a relative particle, as in Lev 7:35; 1Sa 25:15 (vid., Ewald , §286 i ).
Exo 6:28-30 In Exo 6:28-30 the thread of the history, which was broken off at Exo 6:12, is again resumed. דּבּר בּיום, on the day, i.e., at the time, when God spake. יום is the construct state before an entire clause, which is governed by it without a relative particle, as in Lev 7:35; 1Sa 25:15 (vid., Ewald , §286 i ).