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0 Uncircumcised lips (Ex 5-7)

Episode 26: Uncircumcised lips

(Exodus 5-7)

Moses and Aaron talk to the Pharaoh

5 1 Moses and Aaron went to the Pharaoh and said to him,

God said, "Let my people go have a feast to me in the wilderness."

2 The Pharaoh said,

Why should I obey your god?

I don't know him and I won't let his people go.

3 Moses and Aaron said,

Please let us go into the desert to pray for three days, or else God will kill us with disease or a sword.

4 The Pharaoh said,

Why did you and Moses let the people stop working?

Tell them to get back to work.

6 The Pharoah's officers said to the people,

7 We won't give you any straw. Get it yourselves.

12 So the Israelites gathered straw, and were beaten for not making enough bricks.

15 They complained to Pharaoh, saying,

16 Your officers give us no straw and then beat us for not making enough bricks.

17 The Pharaoh said to them,

You're lazy.

All you want to do is sacrifice to your god.

18 Get to work.

You'll get no straw, but you must make bricks.

21 The people said to Moses and Aaron,

You're making things worse for us.

Now the Pharaoh will kill us with a sword.

22 Moses said to God,

Why are you being so evil to us? And why did you send me?

23 The Pharoah isn't listening to me. He's still doing evil to the people.

And you haven't helped us at all.

6 9 Moses spoke to the people but they didn't listen to him. Moses said to God,

The people won't listen to me.

I have uncircumcised lips.

13 God said to Moses,

Bring my people out of Egypt.

The genealogy of Moses and Aaron

(6:14-25)

20 Amram married his father's sister, and had two sons Aaron and Moses.

God prepares Moses and Aaron for their meeting with Pharaoh

7 1 God said to Moses

I have made you a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron will be your prophet.

2 You'll say whatever I tell you, and the Pharaoh will send the Israelites out of Egypt.

3 I will harden Pharaoh's heart. 4 The Pharaoh won't listen to you so that I can bring my armies and show the Egyptians that I'm God.

The rod to snake trick

8 God said to Moses and Aaron,

9 When Pharaoh asks for a miracle, throw your rod down and it will become a snake.

10 So Aaron threw his rod down and it became a serpent.

11 But the Egyptian magicians knew this trick, too. They threw down their rods and they also became snakes.

 

12 But Aaron's snake swallowed theirs.

13 And God hardened the Pharaoh's heart, so that he wouldn't let the Israelites go.

The first plague of Egypt: The river turns to blood

14 God said to Moses,

Take the rod that was turned into a serpent and go down to the water when Pharaoh is there. 16 And say to him,

The Hebrew God has sent me to you to tell you to let his people go into the wilderness.

17 This is the way you'll know that I am God: I'll smack the water with this rod and the river will turn to blood.

20 So Moses and Aaron did as God commanded.

Moses smote the waters in the river, while the Pharaoh watched. And the river turned to blood. 21 All the fish in the river died, the river stank, no one could drink from it, and there was blood everywhere in Egypt.

22 But Pharaoh's magicians knew this trick too. They smote the river with their rods and turned it into blood.

A few more words about this episode

The genealogy of Moses and Aaron (6:14-25)

I have left out a section in chapter 6 about Moses's genealogy.

Although it doesn't make for very exciting reading, it says a few things that are interesting. Here, for example is verse 6:20:

Amram took him Jochebed his father's sister to wife; and she bare him Aaron and Moses.

So Moses and Aaron (and presumably Miriam) were the products of an incestuous marriage that is condemned in 20:19.

And in verses 16-20 only four generations listed from Jacob to Moses (Jacob, Levi, Kohath, Amram, Moses).

Since Ex 12:40 says that the Israelites were enslaved for 430 years, it seems rather unlikely for there to have been only four generations in that time period.

Is incest forbidden?

How many generations from Abraham to Moses?

I will harden Pharaoh's heart. (7:3)

God will somehow mess with the Pharaoh's pscyche in such a way that it will cause him not to let the Israelites go. But if so, then why bother with all the magic tricks and plagues?

Who hardened the Pharaoh's heart?

 
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