Exodus 6

Ex 6:1-13.

RENEWAL OF THE

PROMISE.

1. the Lord said unto Moses--The Lord, who is long-suffering and

indulgent to the errors and infirmities of His people, made allowance

for the mortification of Moses as the result of this first interview

and cheered him with the assurance of a speedy and successful

termination to his embassy.

2. And God spake unto Moses--For his further encouragement,

there was made to him an emphatic repetition of the promise

(Ex 3:20).

3. I . . . God Almighty--All enemies must fall, all

difficulties must vanish before My omnipotent power, and the patriarchs

had abundant proofs of this.

but by my name, &c.--rather, interrogatively, by My name Jehovah

was I not known to them? Am not I, the Almighty God, who pledged My

honor for the fulfilment of the covenant, also the self-existent God

who lives to accomplish it? Rest assured, therefore, that I shall bring

it to pass. This passage has occasioned much discussion; and it has

been thought by many to intimate that as the name Jehovah was not known

to the patriarchs, at least in the full bearing or practical experience

of it, the honor of the disclosure was reserved to Moses, who was the

first sent with a message in the name of Jehovah, and enabled to attest

it by a series of public miracles.

9-11. Moses spake so unto the children of Israel--The increased

severities inflicted on the Israelites seem to have so entirely crushed

their spirits, as well as irritated them, that they refused to listen

to any more communications

(Ex 14:12).

Even the faith of Moses himself was faltering; and he would have

abandoned the enterprise in despair had he not received a positive

command from God to revisit the people without delay, and at the same

time renew their demand on the king in a more decisive and peremptory

tone.

12. how then shall . . . who am of uncircumcised

lips?--A metaphorical expression among the Hebrews, who, taught to

look on the circumcision of any part as denoting perfection, signified

its deficiency or unsuitableness by uncircumcision. The words here

express how painfully Moses felt his want of utterance or persuasive

oratory. He seems to have fallen into the same deep despondency as his

brethren, and to be shrinking with nervous timidity from a difficult,

if not desperate, cause. If he had succeeded so ill with the people,

whose dearest interests were all involved, what better hope could he

entertain of his making more impression on the heart of a king elated

with pride and strong in the possession of absolute power? How

strikingly was the indulgent forbearance of God displayed towards His

people amid all their backwardness to hail His announcement of

approaching deliverance! No perverse complaints or careless

indifference on their part retarded the development of His gracious

purposes. On the contrary, here, as generally, the course of His

providence is slow in the infliction of judgments, while it moves more

quickly, as it were, when misery is to be relieved or benefits

conferred.

Ex 6:14-30.

THE

GENEALOGY OF

MOSES.

14, 15. These be the heads of their fathers' houses--chiefs or

governors of their houses. The insertion of this genealogical table in

this part of the narrative was intended to authenticate the descent of

Moses and Aaron. Both of them were commissioned to act so important a

part in the events transacted in the court of Egypt and afterwards

elevated to so high offices in the government and Church of God, that

it was of the utmost importance that their lineage should be accurately

traced. Reuben and Simeon being the oldest of Jacob's sons, a passing

notice is taken of them, and then the historian advances to the

enumeration of the principal persons in the house of Levi

[Ex 6:16-19].

20. Amram took him Jochebed his father's sister to wife--The

Septuagint and Syriac versions render it "his

cousin."

23. Elisheba--that is, Elizabethan. These minute particulars

recorded of the family of Aaron, while he has passed over his own,

indicate the real modesty of Moses. An ambitious man or an impostor

would have acted in a different manner.