Exodus 4:14 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Exodus 4:14
And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses, and he said, Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well. And also, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee: and when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart.
properly · noun, common masculine singular construct
LORD
יְהוָ֜הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
kindled
וַיִּֽחַרvai.yi.char-
H2734
to glow or grow warm · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Moses
בְּמֹשֶׁ֗הbe.mo.Sheh
H4872
Mosheh · preposition + proper noun, a man's name
said
וַיֹּ֙אמֶר֙vai.Yo.mer
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Aaron
אַהֲרֹ֤ן'a.ha.Ron
H175
Aharon · proper noun, a man's name
Levite
הַלֵּוִ֔יha.le.Vi
H3881
a Levite or descendant of Levi · definite article + noun, gentilic masculine singular absolute
brother
אָחִ֙יךָ֙'a.Chi.kha
H251
a brother (used in the widest sense of literal relation… · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
know
יָדַ֕עְתִּיya.Da'.ti
H3045
to know (properly · verb, qal perfect, 1st person common singular
perhaps properly · verb, piel imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
forth
יֹצֵ֣אyo.Tze'
H3318
to go (causatively · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
meet
קִרְאָהqirʼâh
H7125
an encountering
seeth
וְרָאֲךָ֖ve.ra.'a.Kha
H7200
to see · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
glad
וְשָׂמַ֥חve.sa.Mach
H8055
probably to brighten up · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
heart
בְּלִבּֽוֹbe.li.Bo
H3820
the heart · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Exodus 4:27 And the LORD said to Aaron, Go into the wilderness to meet Moses. And he went, and met him in the mount of God, and kissed him.
1 Chronicles 21:7 And God was displeased with this thing; therefore he smote Israel.
Mark 14:13-15 And he sendeth forth two of his disciples, and saith unto them, Go ye into the city, and there shall meet you a man bearing a pitcher of wat…
Exodus 4:17 And thou shalt take this rod in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs.
1 Samuel 10:1-7 Then Samuel took a vial of oil, and poured it upon his head, and kissed him, and said, Is it not because the LORD hath anointed thee to be c…
2 Samuel 6:7 And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzzah; and God smote him there for his error; and there he died by the ark of God.
1 Kings 11:9 And the LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the LORD God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice,
Luke 9:59-60 And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Exodus 4:10-17
Moses still continues backward to the service for which God had designed him, even to a fault; for now we can no longer impute it to his humility and modesty, but must own that here was too much of cowardice, slothfulness, and unbelief in it. Observe here,
I. How Moses endeavours to excuse himself from the work.
1. He pleads that he was no good spokesman: O my Lord! I am not eloquent, Exo 4:10. He was a great philosopher, statesman, and divine, and yet no orator; a man of a clear head, great thought, and solid judgment, but had not a voluble tongue, or ready utterance, and therefore he thought himself unfit to speak before great men about great affairs, and in danger of being run down by the…
the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses--The Divine Being is not subject to ebullitions of passion; but His displeasure was manifested by transferring the honor of the priesthood, which would otherwise have been bestowed on Moses, to Aaron, who was from this time destined to be the head of the house of Levi (Ch1 23:13). Marvellous had been His condescension and patience in dealing with Moses; and now every remaining scruple was removed by the unexpected and welcome intelligence that his brother Aaron was to be his colleague. God knew from the beginning what Moses would do, but He reserves this motive to the last as the strongest to rouse his languid heart, and Moses now fully and cor…
And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses - Surely this would not have been the case had he only in modesty, and from a deep sense of his own unfitness, desired that the Messiah should be preferred before him. But the whole connection shows that this interpretation is unfounded.
Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? - Houbigant endeavors to prove from this that Moses, in Exo 4:13, did pray for the immediate mission of the Messiah, and that God gives him here a reason why this could not be, because the Levitical priesthood was to precede the priesthood of our Lord. Is not Aaron the Levite, etc. Must not the ministry of Aaron be first established, before the other can take place? Why…
The Church Fathers
How can the anger of God be understood, since God is not gripped by any irrational disturbance, as man is? Where Scripture says something like this, we should have a consistent explanation to avoid repeating the same account too often. But one can rightly ask why God says here that he is angry with Moses about his brother Aaron, because he would speak to the people for Moses. For it means that God had not given Moses the fullest ability that he was going to give, because he was diffident. God wished the deed to be carried out by two men. He could also have done it through one, if that man had believed. But all these words, when they are considered more diligently, do not mean that the Lord in his anger had handed over Aaron for punishment. For he says this: "Behold, is your brother Aaron not a Levite? I know that when he speaks, he will speak eloquently." These words show that God rather reproached Moses, who feared to go because he was less suitable, since he had a brother through whom he could say to the people what he wanted, because Moses himself had a weak voice and a slow tongue. Still, he should have put all his hope in God. Then he says the same things that he had promised shortly before and afterward grown angry. For he had said, "I shall open your mouth and instruct you." But now he says, "I shall open your mouth and his mouth, and I shall teach you what to do." But since he added, "And he will speak for you to the people," the opening of the mouth seems to be provided, because Moses says he is slow of tongue. But the Lord did not will to supply [vocal strength] for the weakness of his voice but added the help of his brother Aaron. Moses could use Aaron's voice, which was sufficient to teach the people. So when he says, "and you will put my words in his mouth," he shows that he was going to provide him with words. For if he were only given things to hear for the people, God would have said, "into his ears." Then it says a little later, "and he will speak for you to the people," he shows clearly enough that the leading role was for Moses, the subordinate role for Aaron. What he says thereafter, "You will be to him as God," perhaps this great mystery is to be examined closely. The figure suggests that Moses was the mediator between God and Aaron, and Aaron the mediator between Moses and the people.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Aaron — The eldest son of Amram and Jochebed, a daughter of Levi (Ex. 6:20). Some explain the name as meaning mountaineer, others mountain of strength, illuminator. He was born in Egypt three years before…
Aaron · Meets, Moses in the wil — Meets, Moses in the wil
Call · .MOSES — .MOSES
Condescension Of God · Rea — Rea
Disobedience To God · In making excuses when commissioned to — In making excuses when commissioned to
Excuses · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses,.... For the objections, excuses, and delays he made with respect to his mission. In what way this anger was expressed is not easy to say, whether by not removing the impediment of his speech, or not giving him the priesthood, which Jarchi thinks he otherwise would have had, and Aaron been only a Levite, as he is called in the next clause; or whether it was by joining Aaron to him, and so lessening his honour in this embassy, though that seems to be done to encourage him; or by not suffering him to lead the children of Israel into the land of Canaan, which yet is ascribed to another cause. However, though the Lord was angry with Moses, yet…
Exodus 4:10-17
10. And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant; but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.
10. Tunc dixit Moses ad Jehovam, Obsecro Domine, ego non sum vir disertus, neque a die hesterno, neque nudius tertius, neque ex quo locutus es servo tuo: quoniam ore lento, et lingua lenta ego sum.
11. And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth? Or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the Lord?
11. Respondit autem illi Jehova, Quis posuit os in homine? aut quis statuit mutum, vel surdum, aut videntem, vel caecum? annon ego Jehova?
12. Now therefore go, and…
Moses raised another difficulty. "I am not a man of words," he said (i.e., I do not possess the gift of speech), "but am heavy in mouth and heavy in tongue" (i.e., I find a difficulty in the use of mouth and tongue, not exactly "stammering"); and that "both of yesterday and the day before" (i.e., from the very first, Gen 31:2), "and also since Thy speaking to Thy servant." Moses meant to say, "I neither possess the gift of speech by nature, nor have I received it since Thou hast spoken to me."
Exo 4:11-12
Jehovah both could and would provide for this defect. He had made man's mouth, and He made dumb or deaf, seeing or blind. He possessed unlimited power over all the senses, could give them o…
God would not let Moses evade responsibility, but he would accommodate Moses’ concern by allowing Moses’ brother Aaron to become Moses’ mouthpiece (14:16). As the narrative unfolds, the text records fewer and fewer occasions of Aaron serving in this capacity. Moses’ speaking problem was perhaps not as serious as he made it out to be, or the problem began to dissipate as his experience increased.
Rashi on Exodus 4:14
ויחר אף AND [THE LORD’S] WRATH GLOWED — Rabbi Joshua the son of Korcha said: wherever the term “and God’s wrath glowed” occurs in the Scriptures it leaves a definite impression (mention of punishment of some kind follows), but here no such result is mentioned, for we do not find that any punishment came upon Moses in consequence of that anger of God. Rabbi José said to him: As a matter of fact here, too, some definite result is mentioned, viz., הלא אהרן אחיך הלוי “Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother?” — which implies, that he was destined to be a Levite (an attendant on the priests) and not a priest, — and I intended that the priesthood should proceed from you. Now, however, this shall not b…