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Historical

Read the books of the Bible as they were written historically, according to the estimated date of their writing.

Duration: 365 days

Exodus 4-6

Chapter 4

¹“But,” objected Moses, “suppose they do not believe me or listen to me? For they may say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’” ²The Lord said to him: What is in your hand? “A staff,” he answered. ³God said: Throw it on the ground. So he threw it on the ground and it became a snake,^(A) and Moses backed away from it. ⁴Then the Lord said to Moses: Now stretch out your hand and take hold of its tail. So he stretched out his hand and took hold of it, and it became a staff in his hand. ⁵That is so they will believe that the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, did appear to you.

⁶Again the Lord said to him: Put your hand into the fold of your garment. So he put his hand into the fold of his garment, and when he drew it out, there was his hand covered with scales, like snowflakes. ⁷Then God said: Put your hand back into the fold of your garment. So he put his hand back into the fold of his garment, and when he drew it out, there it was again like his own flesh. ⁸If they do not believe you or pay attention to the message of the first sign, they should believe the message of the second sign. ⁹And if they do not believe even these two signs and do not listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry land. The water you take from the Nile will become blood on the dry land.^(B)

Aaron’s Office as Assistant. ¹⁰Moses, however, said to the Lord, “If you please, my Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor now that you have spoken to your servant; but I am slow of speech and tongue.”^(C) ¹¹The Lord said to him: Who gives one person speech? Who makes another mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? ¹²Now go, I will assist you in speaking^[a] and teach you what you are to say. ¹³But he said, “If you please, my Lord, send someone else!”^[b] ¹⁴Then the Lord became angry with Moses and said: I know there is your brother, Aaron the Levite, who is a good speaker; even now he is on his way to meet you. When he sees you, he will truly be glad. ¹⁵You will speak to him and put the words in his mouth. I will assist both you and him in speaking and teach you both what you are to do. ¹⁶He will speak to the people for you: he will be your spokesman,^[c] and you will be as God to him.^(D) ¹⁷Take this staff^[d] in your hand; with it you are to perform the signs.

Moses’ Return to Egypt. ¹⁸After this Moses returned to Jethro^[e] his father-in-law and said to him, “Let me return to my kindred in Egypt, to see whether they are still living.” Jethro replied to Moses, “Go in peace.” ¹⁹Then the Lord said to Moses in Midian: Return to Egypt, for all those who sought your life are dead. ²⁰So Moses took his wife and his sons, mounted them on the donkey, and started back to the land of Egypt. Moses took the staff of God with him. ²¹The Lord said to Moses: On your return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have put in your power. But I will harden his heart^[f] and he will not let the people go. ²²^(E)So you will say to Pharaoh, Thus says the Lord: Israel is my son, my firstborn. ²³I said to you: Let my son go, that he may serve me. Since you refused to let him go, I will kill your son, your firstborn.^(F)

²⁴^[g]On the journey, at a place where they spent the night, the Lord came upon Moses and sought to put him to death. ²⁵^(G)But Zipporah took a piece of flint and cut off her son’s foreskin and, touching his feet,^[h] she said, “Surely you are a spouse of blood to me.” ²⁶So God let Moses alone. At that time she said, “A spouse of blood,” in regard to the circumcision.

²⁷The Lord said to Aaron: Go into the wilderness to meet Moses. So he went; when meeting him at the mountain of God, he kissed him. ²⁸Moses told Aaron everything the Lord had sent him to say, and all the signs he had commanded him to do. ²⁹Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered all the elders of the Israelites. ³⁰Aaron told them everything the Lord had said to Moses, and he performed the signs before the people. ³¹The people believed, and when they heard that the Lord had observed the Israelites and had seen their affliction,^[i] they knelt and bowed down.

Chapter 5

Pharaoh’s Hardness of Heart. ¹Afterwards, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Let my people go, that they may hold a feast^[j] for me in the wilderness.” ²Pharaoh answered, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord,^[k] and I will not let Israel go.” ³They replied, “The God of the Hebrews has come to meet us. Let us go a three days’ journey in the wilderness, that we may offer sacrifice to the Lord, our God,^(H) so that he does not strike us with the plague or the sword.” ⁴The king of Egypt answered them, “Why, Moses and Aaron, do you make the people neglect their work? Off to your labors!” ⁵Pharaoh continued, “Look how they are already more numerous^[l] than the people of the land, and yet you would give them rest from their labors!”

⁶That very day Pharaoh gave the taskmasters of the people and their foremen^[m] this order: ⁷“You shall no longer supply the people with straw for their brickmaking^[n] as before. Let them go and gather their own straw! ⁸Yet you shall levy upon them the same quota of bricks as they made previously. Do not reduce it. They are lazy; that is why they are crying, ‘Let us go to offer sacrifice to our God.’ ⁹Increase the work for the men, so that they attend to it and not to deceitful words.”

¹⁰So the taskmasters of the people and their foremen went out and told the people, “Thus says Pharaoh,^[o] ‘I will not provide you with straw. ¹¹Go and get your own straw from wherever you can find it. But there will not be the slightest reduction in your work.’” ¹²The people, then, scattered throughout the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw, ¹³while the taskmasters kept driving them on, saying, “Finish your work, the same daily amount as when the straw was supplied to you.” ¹⁴The Israelite foremen, whom the taskmasters of Pharaoh had placed over them, were beaten, and were asked, “Why have you not completed your prescribed amount of bricks yesterday and today, as before?”

Complaint of the Foremen. ¹⁵Then the Israelite foremen came and cried out to Pharaoh:^[p] “Why do you treat your servants in this manner? ¹⁶No straw is supplied to your servants, and still we are told, ‘Make bricks!’ Look how your servants are beaten! It is you who are at fault.” ¹⁷He answered, “Lazy! You are lazy! That is why you keep saying, ‘Let us go and offer sacrifice to the Lord.’ ¹⁸Now off to work! No straw will be supplied to you, but you must supply your quota of bricks.”

¹⁹The Israelite foremen realized they were in trouble, having been told, “Do not reduce your daily amount of bricks!” ²⁰So when they left Pharaoh they assailed Moses and Aaron, who were waiting to meet them, ²¹and said to them, “The Lord look upon you and judge! You have made us offensive to Pharaoh and his servants, putting a sword into their hands to kill us.”

Renewal of God’s Promise. ²²Then Moses again had recourse to the Lord and said, “Lord, why have you treated this people badly? And why did you send me? ²³From the time I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has treated this people badly, and you have done nothing to rescue your people.”

Chapter 6

¹The Lord answered Moses: Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh. For by a strong hand, he will let them go; by a strong hand,^[q] he will drive them from his land.

Confirmation of the Promise to the Ancestors. ²^[r]Then God spoke to Moses, and said to him: I am the Lord. ³As God the Almighty^[s] I appeared^(I) to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but by my name, Lord, I did not make myself known to them. ⁴I also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they were residing as aliens.^(J) ⁵Now that I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians have reduced to slavery, I am mindful of my covenant.^(K) ⁶Therefore, say to the Israelites: I am the Lord. I will free you from the burdens of the Egyptians and will deliver you from their slavery. I will redeem you by my outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. ⁷I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God;^(L) and you will know that I, the Lord, am your God who has freed you from the burdens of the Egyptians ⁸and I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I will give it to you as your own possession—I, the Lord! ⁹But when Moses told this to the Israelites, they would not listen to him because of their dejection and hard slavery.

¹⁰Then the Lord spoke to Moses: ¹¹Go, tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to let the Israelites leave his land. ¹²However, Moses protested to the Lord, “If the Israelites did not listen to me, how is it possible that Pharaoh will listen to me, poor speaker^[t]^(M) that I am!” ¹³But the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron regarding the Israelites and Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and charged them to bring the Israelites out of the land of Egypt.

Genealogy of Moses and Aaron. ¹⁴These are the heads of their ancestral houses.^[u] The sons of Reuben,^(N) the firstborn of Israel: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron and Carmi; these are the clans of Reuben. ¹⁵The sons of Simeon:^(O) Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar and Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman; these are the clans of Simeon. ¹⁶These are the names of the sons of Levi,^(P) in their genealogical order: Gershon, Kohath and Merari. Levi lived one hundred and thirty-seven years.

¹⁷The sons of Gershon,^(Q) by their clans: Libni and Shimei. ¹⁸The sons of Kohath:^(R) Amram, Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel. Kohath lived one hundred and thirty-three years. ¹⁹The sons of Merari:^(S) Mahli and Mushi. These are the clans of Levi in their genealogical order.

²⁰Amram married his aunt^[v] Jochebed,^(T) who bore him Aaron, Moses, and Miriam. Amram lived one hundred and thirty-seven years. ²¹The sons of Izhar: Korah, Nepheg and Zichri. ²²The sons of Uzziel: Mishael, Elzaphan and Sithri. ²³Aaron married Elisheba, Amminadab’s^(U) daughter, the sister of Nahshon; she bore him Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. ²⁴The sons of Korah: Assir, Elkanah and Abiasaph. These are the clans of the Korahites. ²⁵Eleazar, Aaron’s son, married one of Putiel’s daughters, who bore him Phinehas.^[w] These are the heads of the ancestral houses of the Levites by their clans. ²⁶These are the Aaron and the Moses to whom the Lord said, “Bring the Israelites out from the land of Egypt, company by company.” ²⁷They are the ones who spoke to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to bring the Israelites out of Egypt—the same Moses and Aaron.

²⁸When the Lord spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt ²⁹the Lord said to Moses: I am the Lord. Say to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, all that I tell you. ³⁰But Moses protested to the Lord, “Since I am a poor speaker, how is it possible that Pharaoh will listen to me?”

Footnotes

4:12 Assist you in speaking: lit., “be with your mouth”; cf. v. 15, lit., “be with your mouth and with his mouth.”
4:13 Send someone else: lit., “send by means of him whom you will send,” that is, “send whom you will.”
4:16 Spokesman: lit., “mouth”; Aaron was to serve as a mouthpiece for Moses, as a prophet does for God; hence the relation between Moses and Aaron is compared to that between God and his prophet: Moses “will be as God to,” i.e., lit., “will become God for him.” Cf. 7:1.
4:17 This staff: probably the same as that of vv. 2–4; but some understand that a new staff is now given by God to Moses.
4:18 Jethro: the Hebrew text has “Jether,” apparently a variant form of “Jethro” found in the same verse. To see whether they are still living: Moses did not tell his father-in-law his main reason for returning to Egypt.
4:21 Harden his heart: in the biblical view, the heart, whose actual function in the circulation of blood was unknown, typically performs functions associated today more with the brain than with the emotions. Therefore, while it may be used in connection with various emotional states ranging from joy to sadness, it very commonly designates the seat of intellectual and volitional activities. For God to harden Pharaoh’s heart is to harden his resolve against the Israelites’ desire to leave. In the ancient world, actions which are out of character are routinely attributed not to the person but to some “outside” superhuman power acting upon the person (Jgs 14:16; 1 Sm 16:10). Uncharacteristically negative actions or states are explained in the same way (1 Sm 16:14). In this instance, the opposition of Pharaoh, in the face of God’s displays of power, would be unintelligible to the ancient Israelites unless he is seen as under some divine constraint. But this does not diminish Pharaoh’s own responsibility. In the anthropology of the ancient Israelites there is no opposition between individual responsibility and God’s sovereignty over all of creation. Cf. Rom 9:17–18.
4:24–26 This story continues to perplex commentators and may have circulated in various forms before finding its place here in Exodus. Particularly troublesome is the unique phrase “spouse of blood.” Nevertheless, v. 26, which apparently comes from the hand of a later commentator on the original story, is intended to offer some clarification. It asserts that when Zipporah used the problematic expression (addressing it either to Moses or her son), she did so with reference to the circumcision performed on her son—the only place in the Bible where this rite is performed by a woman. Whatever the precise meaning of the phrase “spouse of blood,” circumcision is the key to understanding it as well as the entire incident. One may conclude, therefore, that God was angry with Moses for having failed to keep the divine command given to Abraham in Gn 17:10–12 and circumcise his son. Moses’ life is spared when his wife circumcises their son.
4:25 Touching his feet: a euphemism most probably for the male sexual organ (see 2 Kgs 18:27; Is 7:20); whether the genitals of the child (after Zipporah circumcised him) or of Moses (after the circumcision of his son) is not clear.
4:31 Observed…their affliction: the same phrases used in God’s dialogue with Moses in 3:16–17.
5:1 Hold a feast: the Hebrew verb used here, hagag (“to celebrate a feast or a festival”; see 12:14; 23:14), refers to a community celebration marked above all by a procession to the sanctuary. It is used especially of three major feasts: Unleavened Bread, Pentecost (in 23:16, “the Feast of Harvest,” but customarily “the Feast of Weeks” [Shavuot]), and Succoth/Sukkoth (in 34:16, “the Feast of Ingathering,” but more frequently “of Booths, or Tabernacles,” as in Dt 16:13, 16; 31:10; Lv 23:34; Zec 14:16; passim) and—along with the related noun hag—the Passover in 12:14. See 23:14–18; 34:18–25.
5:2 I do not know the Lord: whether or not he had heard of the Lord, the God of Israel, Pharaoh here refuses to acknowledge the Lord’s authority. See note on 1:8.
5:5 They are already more numerous: a recollection of Pharaoh’s earlier words to his subjects in 1:9.
5:6 The taskmasters of the people and their foremen: the former were higher officials and probably Egyptians; the latter were lower officials (perhaps recordkeepers or clerks), chosen from the Israelites themselves. Cf. v. 14.
5:7 Straw was mixed with clay to give sun-dried bricks greater cohesion and durability.
5:10 Thus says Pharaoh: the standard formula for prophetic oracles, but with Pharaoh rather than the Lord as the subject. This heightens the sense of personal conflict between Pharaoh, who acts as if he were God, and the Lord, whose claims are spurned by Pharaoh.
5:15 Cried out to Pharaoh: the Hebrew verb translated “cry out” and its related noun are normally used of appeals to God by Moses (8:8; 14:15; 15:25; 17:4), the people (3:7, 9; 14:10), or an oppressed individual (22:22, 26). Here, by implication, these minor Israelite officials appeal to Pharaoh as if he were their God. See v. 10.
6:1 By a strong hand: by God’s hand or Pharaoh’s hand? The Hebrew is ambiguous; although it may be an allusion to God’s hand of 3:19–20, both interpretations are possible.
6:2–7:7 According to the standard source criticism of the Pentateuch, 6:2–7:7 represents a Priestly version of the JE call narrative in 3:1–4:17. But in context the present account does more than simply repeat the earlier passage. See note below.
6:3 God the Almighty: in Hebrew, El Shaddai. This traditional translation does not have a firm philological basis. But by my name…I did not make myself known to them: although the text implies that the name Lord was unknown previously, in context the emphasis in the passage falls on the understanding of God that comes with knowledge of the name. In this way God responds to the worsening plight of the Israelites and Moses’ complaint in 5:23 that God has done nothing at all to rescue them.
6:12 Poor speaker: lit., “uncircumcised of lips”: a metaphor expressing the hindrance of good communication expressed as “slow of speech and tongue” (4:10). Also used as a metaphor for impeded “heart” (Lv 26:41; Dt 10:16).
6:14 The purpose of the genealogy here is to give the line from which Moses and Aaron sprang, with special emphasis placed on the line of Aaron. Reuben and Simeon are mentioned first because, as older brothers of Levi, their names occur before his in the genealogy.
6:20 His aunt: more exactly, “his father’s sister.” Later on such a marriage was forbidden. Cf. Lv 18:12. Hence, the Greek and Latin versions render here, “his cousin.”
6:25 Phinehas: according to Nm 25:13, Phinehas was given by God “the covenant of an everlasting priesthood” because of his zeal for God when the Israelites committed apostasy by worshiping the Baal of Peor in the plains of Moab (see Nm 25:1–18).

New American Bible (Revised Edition) (NABRE)

Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.