Exodus 4:10-13

4:10 Then Moses said to the Lord, ¹  “O ²  my Lord, ³  I am not an eloquent man, ⁴  neither in the past ⁵  nor since you have spoken to your servant, for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” ⁶ 

4:11 The Lord said to him, “Who gave ⁷  a mouth to man, or who makes a person mute or deaf or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? ⁸  4:12 So now go, and I will be with your mouth ⁹  and will teach you ¹⁰  what you must say.” ¹¹ 

4:13 But Moses said, ¹²  “O ¹³  my Lord, please send anyone else whom you wish to send!” ¹⁴ 

Exodus 4:1

The Source of Sufficiency

4:1 ¹⁵ Moses answered again, ¹⁶  “And if ¹⁷  they do not believe me or pay attention to me, ¹⁸  but say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you’?”

Exodus 22:20

22:20 “Whoever sacrifices to a god other than the Lord ¹⁹  alone must be utterly destroyed. ²⁰ 

Acts 22:21

22:21 Then ²¹  he said to me, ‘Go, because I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’”

Acts 26:16-17

26:16 But get up and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this reason, to designate you in advance ²²  as a servant and witness ²³  to the things ²⁴  you have seen ²⁵  and to the things in which I will appear to you. 26:17 I will rescue ²⁶  you from your own people ²⁷  and from the Gentiles, to whom ²⁸  I am sending you

[4:10]  ¹ sn Now Moses took up another line of argumentation, the issue of his inability to speak fluently (vv. 10-17). The point here is that God’s servants must yield themselves as instruments to God, the Creator. It makes no difference what character traits they have or what weaknesses they think they have (Moses manages to speak very well) if God is present. If the sovereign God has chosen them, then they have everything that God intended them to have.

[4:10]  ² tn The word בִּי (bi) is a particle of entreaty; it seeks permission to speak and is always followed by “my lord” or “my Lord.” Often rendered “please,” it is “employed in petitions, complaints and excuses” (W. H. C. Propp, Exodus 1–18 [AB], 213).

[4:10]  ³ tn The designation in Moses’ address is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay), a term of respect and deference such as “lord, master, sir” but pointed as it would be when it represents the tetragrammaton. B. Jacob says since this is the first time Moses spoke directly to Yahweh, he did so hesitatingly (Exodus, 87).

[4:10]  ⁴ tn When a noun clause is negated with לֹא (lo’), rather than אֵין (’en), there is a special emphasis, since the force of the negative falls on a specific word (GKC 479 §152.d). The expression “eloquent man” is אִישׁ דְּבָרִים (’ish dÿvarim, “a man of words”). The genitive may indicate a man characterized by words or a man who is able to command or control words. Moses apparently is resigned to the fact that he can do the signs, but he knows the signs have to be explained.

[4:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “also from yesterday also from three days ago” or “neither since yesterday nor since before that” is idiomatic for “previously” or “in the past.”

[4:10]  ⁶ tn The two expressions are כְבַד־פֶּה (khÿvad peh, “heavy of mouth”), and then כְבַד לָשׁוֹן (khÿvad lashon, “heavy of tongue”). Both use genitives of specification, the mouth and the tongue being what are heavy – slow. “Mouth” and “tongue” are metonymies of cause. Moses is saying that he has a problem speaking well. Perhaps he had been too long at the other side of the desert, or perhaps he was being a little dishonest. At any rate, he has still not captured the meaning of God’s presence. See among other works, J. H. Tigay, “‘Heavy of Mouth’ and ‘Heavy of Tongue’: On Moses’ Speech Difficulty,” BASOR 231 (1978): 57-67.

[4:11]  ⁷ tn The verb שִׂים (sim) means “to place, put, set”; the sentence here more precisely says, “Who put a mouth into a man?”

[4:11]  ⁸ sn The final question obviously demands a positive answer. But the clause is worded in such a way as to return to the theme of “I AM.” Isaiah 45:5-7 developed this same idea of God’s control over life. Moses protests that he is not an eloquent speaker, and the Lord replies with reminders about himself and promises, “I will be with your mouth,” an assertion that repeats the verb he used four times in 3:12 and 14 and in promises to Isaac and Jacob (Gen 26:3; 31:3).

[4:12]  ⁹ sn The promise of divine presence always indicates intervention (for blessing or cursing). Here it means that God would be working through the organs of speech to help Moses speak. See Deut 18:18; Jer 1:9.

[4:12]  ¹⁰ sn The verb is וְהוֹרֵיתִיךָ (vÿhoretikha), the Hiphil perfect with a vav (ו) consecutive. The form carries the instructional meaning because it follows the imperative “go.” In fact, there is a sequence at work here: “go…and/that I may teach you.” It is from יָרָה (yara), the same root behind תּוֹרָה (torah, “law”). This always referred to teaching either wisdom or revelation. Here Yahweh promises to teach Moses what to say.

[4:12]  ¹¹ tn The form is the imperfect tense. While it could be taken as a future (“what you will say”), an obligatory imperfect captures the significance better (“what you must say” or “what you are to say”). Not even the content of the message will be left up to Moses.

[4:13]  ¹² tn Heb “And he said”; the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:13]  ¹³ tn The word בִּי (bi) is a particle of entreaty; it seeks permission to speak and is always followed by “Lord” or “my Lord.”

[4:13]  ¹⁴ tn The text has simply שְׁלַח־נָא בְּיַד־תִּשְׁלָח (shÿlakh-na’ bÿyad tishlakh, “send by the hand you will send”). This is not Moses’ resignation to doing God’s will – it is his final attempt to avoid the call. It carries the force of asking God to send someone else. This is an example of an independent relative clause governed by the genitive: “by the hand of – whomever you will send” (see GKC 488-89 §155.n).

[4:1]  ¹⁵ sn In chap. 3, the first part of this extensive call, Yahweh promises to deliver his people. At the hesitancy of Moses, God guarantees his presence will be with him, and that assures the success of the mission. But with chap. 4, the second half of the call, the tone changes sharply. Now Moses protests his inadequacies in view of the nature of the task. In many ways, these verses address the question, “Who is sufficient for these things?” There are three basic movements in the passage. The first nine verses tell how God gave Moses signs in case Israel did not believe him (4:1-9). The second section records how God dealt with the speech problem of Moses (4:10-12). And finally, the last section records God’s provision of a helper, someone who could talk well (4:13-17). See also J. E. Hamlin, “The Liberator’s Ordeal: A Study of Exodus 4:1-9,” Rhetorical Criticism [PTMS], 33-42.

[4:1]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and Moses answered and said.”

[4:1]  ¹⁷ tn Or “What if.” The use of הֵן (hen) is unusual here, introducing a conditional idea in the question without a following consequence clause (see Exod 8:22 HT [8:26 ET]; Jer 2:10; 2 Chr 7:13). The Greek has “if not” but adds the clause “what shall I say to them?”

[4:1]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “listen to my voice,” so as to respond positively.

[22:20]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “not to Yahweh.”

[22:20]  ²⁰ tn The verb חָרַם (kharam) means “to be devoted” to God or “to be banned.” The idea is that it would be God’s to do with as he liked. What was put under the ban was for God alone, either for his service or for his judgment. But it was out of human control. Here the verb is saying that the person will be utterly destroyed.

[22:21]  ²¹ tn Grk “And.” Since this represents a response to Paul’s reply in v. 19, καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the logical sequence.

[26:16]  ²² tn L&N 30.89 has “‘to choose in advance, to select beforehand, to designate in advance.’”

[26:16]  ²³ sn As a servant and witness. The commission is similar to Acts 1:8 and Luke 1:2. Paul was now an “eyewitness” of the Lord.

[26:16]  ²⁴ tn BDAG 719 s.v. ὁράω A.1.b states, “W. attraction of the relative ὧν = τούτων ἅ Lk 9:36; Ac 22:15. The attraction may be due to colloq. breviloquence in μάρτυρα ὧν τε εἶδες με ὧν τε ὀφθήσομαί σοι a witness to the things in which you saw me and to those in which I shall appear to you Ac 26:16b.”

[26:16]  ²⁵ tc ‡ Some mss read “of the things in which you have seen me.” The accusative object με (me, “me”) is found after εἶδές (eide") in B C*^vid 614 945 1175 1505 1739 1891 2464 pc sy sa; it is lacking in Ì⁷⁴ א A C² E Ψ 096 Ï latt bo. The external evidence is relatively evenly divided, though there is a slight preference for the omission. NA²⁷ includes the word in brackets, indicating some doubt as to its authenticity.

[26:17]  ²⁶ tn Grk “rescuing.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, the participle ἐξαιρούμενος (exairoumeno") has been translated as a finite verb and a new sentence started in the translation at the beginning of v. 17.

[26:17]  ²⁷ tn That is, from the Jewish people. Grk “the people”; the words “your own” have been supplied to clarify the meaning.

[26:17]  ²⁸ tn The antecedent of the relative pronoun is probably both the Jews (“your own people”) and the Gentiles, indicating the comprehensive commission Paul received.