Exodus 5:22-23

The Assurance of Deliverance

5:22 ¹ Moses returned ²  to the Lord, and said, “Lord, ³  why have you caused trouble for this people? ⁴  Why did you ever ⁵  send me? 5:23 From the time I went to speak to Pharaoh in your name, he has caused trouble ⁶  for this people, and you have certainly not rescued ⁷  them!” ⁸ 

Numbers 14:3

14:3 Why has the Lord brought us into this land only to be killed by the sword, that our wives and our children should become plunder? Wouldn’t it be better for us to return to Egypt?”

Numbers 14:2

14:2 And all the Israelites murmured ⁹  against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died ¹⁰  in the land of Egypt, or if only we had perished ¹¹  in this wilderness!

Numbers 3:10

3:10 So you are to appoint Aaron and his sons, and they will be responsible for their priesthood; ¹²  but the unauthorized person ¹³  who comes near must be put to death.”

Psalms 116:11

116:11 I rashly declared, ¹⁴ 

“All men are liars.”

Jeremiah 12:1-2

12:1 Lord, you have always been fair

whenever I have complained to you. ¹⁵ 

However, I would like to speak with you about the disposition of justice. ¹⁶ 

Why are wicked people successful? ¹⁷ 

Why do all dishonest people have such easy lives?

12:2 You plant them like trees and they put down their roots. ¹⁸ 

They grow prosperous and are very fruitful. ¹⁹ 

They always talk about you,

but they really care nothing about you. ²⁰ 

Hebrews 12:5

12:5 And have you forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as sons?

“My son, do not scorn ²¹  the Lord’s discipline

or give up when he corrects ²²  you.

[5:22]  ¹ sn In view of the apparent failure of the mission, Moses seeks Yahweh for assurance. The answer from Yahweh not only assures him that all is well, but that there will be a great deliverance. The passage can be divided into three parts: the complaint of Moses (5:22-23), the promise of Yahweh (6:1-9), and the instructions for Moses (6:10-13). Moses complains because God has not delivered his people as he had said he would, and God answers that he will because he is the sovereign covenant God who keeps his word. Therefore, Moses must keep his commission to speak God’s word. See further, E. A. Martens, “Tackling Old Testament Theology,” JETS 20 (1977): 123-32. The message is very similar to that found in the NT, “Where is the promise of his coming?” (2 Pet 3:4). The complaint of Moses (5:22-23) can be worded with Peter’s “Where is the promise of his coming?” theme; the assurance from Yahweh (6:1-9) can be worded with Peter’s “The Lord is not slack in keeping his promises” (2 Pet 3:9); and the third part, the instructions for Moses (6:10-13) can be worded with Peter’s “Prepare for the day of God and speed its coming” (2 Pet 3:12). The people who speak for God must do so in the sure confidence of the coming deliverance – Moses with the deliverance from the bondage of Egypt, and Christians with the deliverance from this sinful world.

[5:22]  ² tn Heb “and Moses returned.”

[5:22]  ³ tn The designation in Moses’ address is “Lord” (אֲדֹנָי, ’adonay) – the term for “lord” or “master” but pointed as it would be when it represents the tetragrammaton.

[5:22]  ⁴ tn The verb is הֲרֵעֹתָה (hare’otah), the Hiphil perfect of רָעַע (ra’a’). The word itself means “to do evil,” and in this stem “to cause evil” – but evil in the sense of pain, calamity, trouble, or affliction, and not always in the sense of sin. Certainly not here. That God had allowed Pharaoh to oppose them had brought greater pain to the Israelites.

[5:22]  ⁵ tn The demonstrative pronoun serves for emphasis in the question (see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 24, §118). This second question continues Moses’ bold approach to God, more chiding than praying. He is implying that if this was the result of the call, then God had no purpose calling him (compare Jeremiah’s similar complaint in Jer 20).

[5:23]  ⁶ sn Now the verb (הֵרַע, hera’) has a different subject – Pharaoh. The ultimate cause of the trouble was God, but the immediate cause was Pharaoh and the way he increased the work. Meanwhile, the Israelite foremen have pinned most of the blame on Moses and Aaron. Moses knows all about the sovereignty of God, and as he speaks in God’s name, he sees the effect it has on pagans like Pharaoh. So the rhetorical questions are designed to prod God to act differently.

[5:23]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew construction is emphatic: וְהַצֵּל לֹא־הִצַּלְתָּ (vÿhatsel lo’-hitsalta). The verb נָצַל (natsal) means “to deliver, rescue” in the sense of plucking out, even plundering. The infinitive absolute strengthens both the idea of the verb and the negative. God had not delivered this people at all.

[5:23]  ⁸ tn Heb “your people.” The pronoun (“them”) has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons here, to avoid redundancy.

[14:2]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew verb “to murmur” is לוּן (lun). It is a strong word, signifying far more than complaining or grumbling, as some of the modern translations have it. The word is most often connected to the wilderness experience. It is paralleled in the literature with the word “to rebel.” The murmuring is like a parliamentary vote of no confidence, for they no longer trusted their leaders and wished to choose a new leader and return. This “return to Egypt” becomes a symbol of their lack of faith in the Lord.

[14:2]  ¹⁰ tn The optative is expressed by לוּ (lu) and then the verb, here the perfect tense מַתְנוּ (matnu) – “O that we had died….” Had they wanted to die in Egypt they should not have cried out to the Lord to deliver them from bondage. Here the people became consumed with the fear and worry of what lay ahead, and in their panic they revealed a lack of trust in God.

[14:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “died.”

[3:10]  ¹² tc The LXX includes the following words here: “and all things pertaining to the altar and within the veil.” Cf. Num 18:7.

[3:10]  ¹³ tn The word is זָר (zar), usually rendered “stranger, foreigner, pagan.” But in this context it simply refers to anyone who is not a Levite or a priest, an unauthorized person or intruder in the tabernacle. That person would be put to death.

[116:11]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “I said in my haste.”

[12:1]  ¹⁵ tn Or “Lord, you are fair when I present my case before you.”

[12:1]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “judgments” or “matters of justice.” For the nuance of “complain to,” “fair,” “disposition of justice” assumed here, see BDB 936 s.v. רִיב Qal.4 (cf. Judg 21:22); BDB 843 s.v. צַדִּיק 1.d (cf. Ps 7:12; 11:7); BDB 1049 s.v. מִשְׁפָּט 1.f (cf. Isa 26:8; Ps 10:5; Ezek 7:27).

[12:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Why does the way [= course of life] of the wicked prosper?”

[12:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “You planted them and they took root.”

[12:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “they grow and produce fruit.” For the nuance “grow” for the verb which normally means “go, walk,” see BDB 232 s.v. חָלַךְ Qal.I.3 and compare Hos 14:7.

[12:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “You are near in their mouths, but far from their kidneys.” The figure of substitution is being used here, “mouth” for “words” and “kidneys” for passions and affections. A contemporary equivalent might be, “your name is always on their lips, but their hearts are far from you.”

[12:5]  ²¹ tn Or “disregard,” “think little of.”

[12:5]  ²² tn Or “reproves,” “rebukes.” The Greek verb ἐλέγχω (elencw) implies exposing someone’s sin in order to bring correction.