Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Exodus 6:9 - 6:9
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
When Moses communicated this solemn assurance of God to the people, they did not listen to him רוּהַ מִּקֹּצֻר, lit., “for shortness of breath;” not “from impatience” (like קְצַר־רוּחַ, Pro 14:29, in contrast to אַפַּיִם אֶרֶךְ), but from anguish, inward pressure, which prevents a man from breathing properly. Thus the early belief of the Israelites was changed into the despondency of unbelief through the increase of their oppression. This result also produced despondency in Moses' mind, so that he once more declined the commission, which followed the promise, viz., to go to Pharaoh and demand that he would let Israel go out of his land (Exo 6:11). If the children of Israel would not listen to him, how should Pharaoh hear him, especially as he was uncircumcised in the lips (Exo 6:12)? שְׁפָתַיִם עֲרַל is one whose lips are, as it were, covered with a foreskin, so that he cannot easily bring out his words; in meaning the same as “heavy of mouth” in Exo 4:10. The reply of God to this objection is given in Exo 7:1-5. For, before the historian gives the decisive answer of Jehovah which removed all further hesitation on the part of Moses, and completed his mission and that of Aaron to Pharaoh, he considers it advisable to introduce the genealogy of the two men of God, for the purpose of showing clearly their genealogical relation to the people of Israel.