Exodus 6:9

_AND MOSES SPAKE SO UNTO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL: BUT THEY HEARKENED NOT UNTO MOSES FOR ANGUISH OF SPIRIT, AND FOR CRUEL BONDAGE._ Moses spake. The increased severities inflicted on the Israelites seem to have so entirely crushed their spirits, as well as irritated them, that they refused to listen to any more communications from the two divinely-commissioned ambassadors (Exodus 14:12). Even the faith of Moses himself was faltering; and he would have abandoned the enterprise in despair, had he not received a positive command from God to revisit the people without delay, and at the same time renew their demand on the king in a more decisive and peremptory tone. Verse 12. HOW THEN SHALL PHARAOH HEAR ME, WHO AM OF UNCIRCUMCISED LIPS? A metaphorical expression among the Hebrews, who, taught to look on the circumcision of any part as denoting perfection, signified i

9._And Moses spake so. _From this verse it appears that Moses is referring to the second message which he was commanded to bear. For they had before heard with great joy and approbation, and had expressed their thankfulness to God, that the time of their deliverance was come. Now Moses relates that their hearts were shut against the announcement that he made to them of this grace. Thus do the afflicted often, by closing their ears, shut the gate against the promises of God, which is indeed a marvelous thing. For it is not to be wondered at, if they who are full and intoxicated with prosperity, reject the mercy of God; but it is contrary to nature that the sorrow which ought to awaken the longings of those who are overwhelmed with trouble, should be an obstacle to their receiving the comfort freely offered them of God. But it is too common for people the more they are respectively afflict...

1-9 We are most likely to prosper in attempts to glorify God, and to be useful to men, when we learn by experience that we can do nothing of ourselves; when our whole dependence is placed on him, and our only expectation is from him. Moses had been expecting what God would do; but now he shall see what he will do. God would now be known by his name Jehovah, that is, a God performing what he had promised, and finishing his own work. God intended their happiness: I will take you to me for a people, a peculiar people, and I will be to you a God. More than this we need not ask, we cannot have, to make us happy. He intended his own glory: Ye shall know that I am the Lord. These good words, and comfortable words, should have revived the drooping Israelites, and have made them forget their misery; but they were so taken up with their troubles, that they did not heed God's promises. By indulgin...

Verse Exodus 6:9. _BUT THEY HEARKENED NOT_] Their bondage was become so extremely oppressive that they had lost all hope of ever being redeemed from it. After this verse the Samaritan adds, _Let us_ _alone, that we may serve the Egyptians: for it is better for us to_ _serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness_. This appears to be borrowed from Exodus 14:12. _ANGUISH OF SPIRIT_] קצר רוח _kotzer ruach, shortness of_ _spirit or breath_. The words signify that their labour was so continual, and their bondage so cruel and oppressive, that they had scarcely time to breathe....

THEY HEARKENED NOT - The contrast between the reception of this communication and that recorded in Exodus 4:31 is accounted for by the change of circumstances. On the former occasion the people were comparatively at ease, accustomed to their lot, sufficiently afflicted to long for deliverance, and sufficiently free in spirit to hope for it. FOR ANGUISH - See the margin; out of breath, as it were, after their cruel disappointment, they were quite absorbed by their misery, unable and unwilling to attend to any fresh communication....

EXPOSITION EXODUS 6:9 Hope deferred maketh the heart sick. The Israelites, who had expected a speedy deliverance, and found themselves only the more down-trodden for Moses' interference, were too much dispirited to be cheered even by the gracious promises and assurances which Moses was commissioned to give. They had no longer any trust in one who they thought had deceived them. He was a dreamer, a visionary, if no worse. They did not intend hearkening to him any more. "Anguish of spirit" possessed their souls, and "cruel bondage" claimed their bodies, day after day. They had not even the time, had they had the will, to hearken. EXODUS 6:9 ANGUISH OF SPIRIT. Literally, "shortness." Compare...

AND MOSES SPAKE SO UNTO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL,.... After this manner, and in the above words, declaring all that the Lord made known to him, and promised to do for them; which one would have thought would have revived their spirits, and refreshed and comforted their hearts under their troubles, and encouraged a lively exercise of faith and hope of deliverance: BUT THEY HEARKENED NOT UNTO MOSES; being disappointed of deliverance by him, and their afflictions being increased, and lying heavy upon them, they were heartless and hopeless; FOR ANGUISH OF SPIRIT; trouble of mind and grief of heart, with which they were swallowed up; or "for shortness of breath" b, being so pressed that they could hardly breathe, and so were incapable of attending to what was spoken to them: AND FOR CRUEL BONDAGE; under which they laboured, and from which they had scarce any respite, and saw no way of delive...

CHAPTER 6:1-27 JEHOVAH'S ANSWERS AND THE GENEALOGY _ 1. Jehovah answers Moses (Exodus 6:1)_ 2. The Genealogy (Exodus 6:14) Moses' “wherefore” and “why,” his outburst of impatience, is graciously met by Jehovah. In His answer He speaks more fully of Himself as Jehovah, and what He will do in behalf of His afflicted and oppressed people. “I am Jehovah,” is His solemn declaration. Note the continued utterances of what He is and what He will do. “I appeared unto Abraham; I have heard; I have remembered; I will bring you out; I will rid you out of their bondage; I will redeem you; I will take you to be for Me a people; I will be to you a God; I will bring you into the land; I will give it to you for a heritage; I am Jehovah.” In Ezekiel, chapter 36, the reader will find Jehovah's “I will” conc

P'S SECOND ACCOUNT OF MOSES'S CALL. Till the method of Hebrew compilers was understood, it was natural to take this as the account of a second call. It is now seen to be the account of his call in the latest source, as written by priestly annalists after the Exile. Moreover, it was this passage which put in the hands of the French physician, Jean Astruc (p. 122), the clue to the criticism of the Mosaic books. For the writer who says that God was known to the patriarchs as God Almighty (El Shaddai, Genesis 17:1 *, Joel 1:15 *), but was not known to them by His name Yahweh, could not be the same who declared (Genesis 4:26) that man began to call upon the name of Yahweh in the days of Seth, and who used it freely in connexion with all t

SPIRIT. Hebrew. _ruach._ See App-9....