Chapter Four

1–9. Moses is given power to perform miracles. 10. Moses’ stubbornness and his punishment by being appointed Aaron as helper (diminishment of power). 18–26. A theophany to Moses in the land of Midian and on the way to Egypt. 27–31. Arrival in Egypt.

Exodus 4:1. Moses answered and said: “What if they do not believe me and do not listen to my voice, and say: the Lord has not appeared to you?” [What shall I say to them?] The third reason for Moses’ refusal, a new one in the sequence, is the consideration that the Israelites will not acknowledge him as a divine messenger, but will take him for an ordinary impostor: “they will say: the Lord has not appeared to you.”

Exodus 4:2. The Lord said to him: “What is that in your hand?” He answered: “A staff. Exodus 4:3. The Lord said: “Throw it on the ground.” He threw it on the ground, and the staff became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. Exodus 4:4. The Lord said to Moses: “Stretch out your hand and seize it by the tail.” He stretched out his hand and seized it, and it became a staff in his hand. Exodus 4:5. “This is so that they may believe [you], that the Lord has appeared to you, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Exodus 4:6. Again the Lord said to him: “Put your hand to your bosom.” He put his hand to his bosom and drew it out, and behold, his hand was leprous, like snow. Exodus 4:7. [Again] He said [to him]: “Put your hand to your bosom again.” He put his hand to his bosom and drew it out from his bosom, and behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. Exodus 4:8. “If they do not believe you and do not listen to the voice of the first sign, they will believe the voice of the second sign. Exodus 4:9. “And if they do not believe even these two signs and do not listen to your voice, then take water from the river and pour it on the dry ground; and the water taken from the river will become blood on the dry ground. Being perfectly legitimate, this new reason for refusal cannot, however, serve as an insurmountable obstacle to fulfilling the task entrusted to Moses. He is endowed with the power of working miracles, which should convince the people that before them is not an ordinary man, much less an impostor, but a messenger of God (Exod 4:5).

Exodus 4:10. Moses said to the Lord: “O Lord! I am not eloquent, and such have I been even yesterday and the day before, and since you have spoken with your servant: I speak heavily and am slow of speech. Exodus 4:11. The Lord said [to Moses]: “Who has given a mouth to man? Who makes one mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I the Lord [God]? Exodus 4:12. “Therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak. Exodus 4:13. [Moses] said: “Lord! send, I pray, by the hand of him whom you will send. Exodus 4:14. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and He said: “Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak [instead of you], and behold, he will go out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. Exodus 4:15. “You shall speak to him and put words [of Mine] into his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you both what you shall do. Exodus 4:16. “And he shall speak for you to the people; he shall be your mouth, and you shall be to him as God. Exodus 4:17. “And take this staff [which was turned into a serpent] in your hand: with it you shall perform signs. The performance of the three miracles just completed may have suggested to Moses the thought that the Lord would similarly remove his natural defect—his slow speech. Having suffered from it “yesterday and the day before,” that is, for a more or less prolonged time (Dan 13:15, 1 Macc 9:44), Moses cannot take upon himself the duties of God’s messenger, since with his stammering speech (“I am not an eloquent man,” Exod 4:10) he is not able to make the proper impression on the people and Pharaoh (Exod 6:12, Jer 1:6).

Exodus 4:18. Moses went and returned to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said to him: “Let me go, and return to my brothers who are in Egypt, and see if they are still alive.” And Jethro said to Moses: “Go in peace.” [A long time later the king of Egypt died.] The reason why Moses does not reveal to Jethro the true purpose of his journey to Egypt lies either in his humility or, as some think, in not entirely close relations with his father-in-law.

Exodus 4:19. The Lord said to Moses in [the land of] Midian: “Go, return to Egypt, for all those who sought your life have died. The resolve ripened in Moses’ heart to go to Egypt could have been weakened by the thought of possible persecution for the murder of the Egyptian he had committed (Exod 2:12)—by fear for his own life. In light of this, strengthening him in his intention to set out on the journey, the Lord in a new appearance says that the fears that have arisen in his heart are groundless: “all those who sought your life have died.”

Exodus 4:20. Moses took his wife and his sons, placed them on a donkey, and departed for the land of Egypt. And the staff of God Moses took in his hand. Exodus 4:21. The Lord said to Moses: “When you go and return to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles which I have given you to do, and I will harden his heart, and he will not let the people go. Exodus 4:22. And say to Pharaoh: ‘Thus says the Lord [God of the Hebrews]: Israel is My son, My firstborn. Exodus 4:23. ‘I say to you: Let My son go, that he may serve Me; but if you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your son, your firstborn. During the journey to Egypt itself falls the third theophany to Moses, pointing out to him the means and methods for accomplishing the divine plan. His request to let the Hebrews go into the wilderness to offer a sacrifice to God (Exod 3:18) Moses must support by performing before Pharaoh all those miracles whose power to perform has been given to Moses (“which I have placed in your hand,” Exod 4:21). And although these miraculous deeds—not only the three previously described, but all subsequent ones, since verse 23 speaks of the final plague—will not make an impression on Pharaoh, the heart of which will be hardened by God’s will, Moses should not be troubled by such circumstances. The demand to let the Hebrews go will be fulfilled by Pharaoh after the final plague—the killing of his firstborn (Exod 12:29-33); it is retribution for the refusal to give freedom to Israel, God’s firstborn. Israel, by God’s love for him (Hos 11:1), is His firstborn, His beloved son, and therefore it is unworthy that he, destined to serve God (Exod 23:1), should serve a man. For not acknowledging such rights of Israel, Pharaoh will pay with the life of his eldest son: “I will harden the heart of Pharaoh” (Exod 4:21). The hardening of Pharaoh’s heart is attributed sometimes to God (Exod 7:3), sometimes to himself (Exod 7:13). Pharaoh himself is the cause of this condition insofar as, through his pride and self-interest, he does not wish to submit to the divine will recognized by himself and his surroundings (Exod 8:19): during a plague he is ready to let the Hebrews go, after it passes, he refuses to do so. But, on the other hand, the sinful inclination of Pharaoh would not have developed to such a degree if the divine command to let the Hebrews go had not been addressed to him. In this respect God is the cause of the hardening of his heart.

Exodus 4:24. On the way, at a night’s lodging, the Lord met him and sought to kill him. Exodus 4:25. Then Zipporah, taking a flint knife, cut off the foreskin of her son and, casting it at his feet, said: “You are a husband of blood to me. Exodus 4:26. And He withdrew from him. Then she said: “A husband of blood—because of the circumcision. The preceding theophany to Moses ended with a threat to punish Pharaoh for possible failure to fulfill the divine demand. That such a threat was not mere words is shown by what Moses himself experienced: “on the way, at a night’s lodging... the Lord... sought to kill him” (Exod 4:24). Since Moses has been the acting person up to now, by him who the Lord sought to kill, we must understand Moses himself, and not his son, as some think. What was the cause of such threatening behavior on God’s part is evident from the further course of events. If the threat of death is lifted after the circumcision of one of the prophet’s sons: “Zipporah, taking a flint knife, cut off the foreskin of her son... and He withdrew from him” (Exod 4:25-26), then it is plain that the cause was the uncircumcision of that son. Judging further by the fact that Zipporah performs the circumcision, we can confidently assume that she was the cause of the non-circumcision. Following the customs of her tribe, in which, according to the testimony of Josephus, the circumcision of boys was performed at thirteen years of age, she was postponing the performance of this rite until such time as her son would reach the legal age in her view. Moses, therefore, was not the cause of his son’s uncircumcision. And if nevertheless the danger of death threatened him (Gen 17:14), and not Zipporah, then certainly because he is the head of the family. Having performed the circumcision, Zipporah “cast the foreskin of her son at the feet of Moses and said: you are a husband of blood to me because of the circumcision” (Exod 4:25-26). Zipporah’s action testifies to her indignation, which is also heard in her words: marriage with Moses is for her the cause of unwanted bloodshed, of a departure from the customs of the ancestors. From the account in chapter 18 of Exodus about how Zipporah with the sons joins Moses after the Hebrews have gone out of Egypt (Exod 18:2-5), it clearly follows that after the event described in the preceding verses, she withdrew to her father, and Moses went to Egypt alone.

Exodus 4:27. The Lord said to Aaron: “Go, meet Moses in the wilderness.” And he went and met him at the mountain of God, and kissed him. Exodus 4:28. Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord which He had sent him, and all the signs which He had commanded. Exodus 4:29. Moses and Aaron went and gathered all the elders of the Israelites. Exodus 4:30. Aaron told them all the words which the Lord had spoken to Moses; and Moses performed the signs before the eyes of the people. Exodus 4:31. The people believed; they heard that the Lord had visited the Israelites and saw their affliction, and they bowed down and worshipped. The divine predictions are being fulfilled (Exod 4:27-28), and this sustains Moses’ spirit. The Slavonic reading of verse 31: “and the people believed and rejoiced” is more natural than the Russian: “the people believed; they heard.” Joy followed upon the firm belief, and under the influence of both arose the “bowing” before the Lord. * * * Slavonic: “and fell at his feet and said: blood of circumcision has stood for my son. And the angel departed from him, forasmuch as she said: blood of circumcision has stood for my son.” (Editor’s note)