Keluaran 6:12-16

6:12 But Moses replied to ¹  the Lord, “If the Israelites did not listen to me, then ²  how will Pharaoh listen to me, since ³  I speak with difficulty?” ⁴ 

6:13 The Lord spoke ⁵  to Moses and Aaron and gave them a charge ⁶  for the Israelites and Pharaoh king of Egypt to bring the Israelites out of the land of Egypt.

The Ancestry of the Deliverer

6:14 ⁷ These are the heads of their fathers’ households: ⁸ 

The sons ⁹  of Reuben, the firstborn son of Israel, were Hanoch and Pallu, Hezron and Carmi. These were the clans ¹⁰  of Reuben.

6:15 The sons of Simeon were Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jakin, Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman. These were the clans of Simeon.

6:16 Now these are the names of the sons of Levi, according to their records: ¹¹  Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. (The length of Levi’s life was 137 years.)

Keluaran 6:20

6:20 Amram married ¹²  his father’s sister Jochebed, and she bore him Aaron and Moses. (The length of Amram’s life was 137 years.)

Keluaran 6:25

6:25 Now Eleazar son of Aaron married one of the daughters of Putiel and she bore him Phinehas.

These are the heads of the fathers’ households ¹³  of Levi according to their clans.

Keluaran 6:30

6:30 But Moses said before the Lord, “Since I speak with difficulty, ¹⁴  why should Pharaoh listen to me?”

Keluaran 35:18

35:18 tent pegs for the tabernacle and tent pegs for the courtyard and their ropes;

Keluaran 39:36

39:36 the table, all its utensils, and the Bread of the Presence;

[6:12]  ¹ tn Heb “And Moses spoke before.”

[6:12]  ² sn This analogy is an example of a qal wahomer comparison. It is an argument by inference from the light (qal) to the heavy (homer), from the simple to the more difficult. If the Israelites, who are Yahwists, would not listen to him, it is highly unlikely Pharaoh would.

[6:12]  ³ tn The final clause begins with a disjunctive vav (ו), a vav on a nonverb form – here a pronoun. It introduces a circumstantial causal clause.

[6:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “and [since] I am of uncircumcised lips.” The “lips” represent his speech (metonymy of cause). The term “uncircumcised” makes a comparison between his speech and that which Israel perceived as unacceptable, unprepared, foreign, and of no use to God. The heart is described this way when it is impervious to good impressions (Lev 26:41; Jer 9:26) and the ear when it hears imperfectly (Jer 6:10). Moses has here returned to his earlier claim – he does not speak well enough to be doing this.

[6:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “And Yahweh spoke.”

[6:13]  ⁶ tn The term וַיְצַוֵּם (vayÿtsavvem) is a Piel preterite with a pronominal suffix on it. The verb צָוָה (tsavah) means “to command” but can also have a much wider range of meanings. In this short summary statement, the idea of giving Moses and Aaron a commission to Israel and to Pharaoh indicates that come what may they have their duty to perform.

[6:14]  ⁷ sn This list of names shows that Moses and Aaron are in the line of Levi that came to the priesthood. It helps to identify them and authenticate them as spokesmen for God within the larger history of Israel. As N. M. Sarna observes, “Because a genealogy inherently symbolizes vigor and continuity, its presence here also injects a reassuring note into the otherwise despondent mood” (Exodus [JPSTC], 33).

[6:14]  ⁸ tn The expression is literally “the house of their fathers.” This expression means that the household or family descended from a single ancestor. It usually indicates a subdivision of a tribe, that is, a clan, or the subdivision of a clan, that is, a family. Here it refers to a clan (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 46).

[6:14]  ⁹ tn Or “descendants.”

[6:14]  ¹⁰ tn Or “families,” and so throughout the genealogy.

[6:16]  ¹¹ tn Or “generations.”

[6:20]  ¹² tn Heb “took for a wife” (also in vv. 23, 25).

[6:25]  ¹³ tn Heb “heads of the fathers” is taken as an abbreviation for the description of “households” in v. 14.

[6:30]  ¹⁴ tn See note on Exod 6:12.