a people (as a congregated unit) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
mouth
לְפֶ֔הle.Peh
H6310
the mouth (as the means of blowing) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
God
לֵֽאלֹהִֽיםLe.lo.Him
H430
gods in the ordinary sense · preposition + noun, common masculine plural absolute
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 7:1-2 And the LORD said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh: and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.
Psalms 82:6 I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.
John 10:34-35 Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?
Exodus 18:19 Hearken now unto my voice, I will give thee counsel, and God shall be with thee: Be thou for the people to God-ward, that thou mayest bring…
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…
He shall be thy spokesman - Literally, He shall speak for thee (or in thy stead) to the people.
He shall be to thee instead of a mouth - He shall convey every message to the people; and thou shalt be to him instead of God - thou shalt deliver to him what I communicate to thee.
John Gill on Exodus 4:16
And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people,.... And open to them Moses's commission from God, and the end of his mission into Egypt, and to them, and declare what signs had been, and would be done, in confirmation of it:
and he shall be, even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth; or an interpreter, as all the Targums explain it, and so Jarchi; as he was an orator and master of language, he should speak to the people for Moses, and explain his sense and meaning, and put it into plain, proper, easy language, to be understood by the people; and this may be done where a different language is not spoken, but the same in plainer words, in more pertinent expressions, and better pronounced, an…
The Church Fathers
One should notice that when Moses is sent to the people, God does not say to him, "Behold, I gave you as a god to the people, and your brother will be your prophet," but he says, "[Your brother] will speak to the people for you." For Scripture had said, "He will be your mouth, and you will be to him as God." It did not say, "You are god to him." But to Pharaoh Moses is said to be given as god, and according to analogy, Aaron is a prophet of Moses, but to Pharaoh. Here it is suggested to us that prophets of God say what they hear from him. A prophet of God is nothing but one who speaks the words of God to men—those who either cannot hear God or do not deserve to.
MOSES CALLED THE GOD OF PHARAOH, AND AARON THE PROPHET OF MOSES. — Noteworthy thing! God does not say to Moses, when he sends him to his people: Behold, I have made you the god of your people, and your brother shall be your prophet, but “your brother shall speak for you to the people (Ex. 4:16).” He said to him again, “He will be your mouth, and you will represent him in all that relates to God;” He does not say: You will be his God. But Moses is established the god of Pharaoh, and by analogy, Aaron, the prophet of Moses, however with respect to Pharaoh. It seems to us to follow from this that the prophets of God report the words which they hold of him, and that a prophet is nothing but the mouthpiece by which God addresses his words to men incapable or unworthy of hearing it. (Exodus 7:3)
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
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).
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 4:16
ודבר הוא לך means HE WILL SPEAK to the people ON THY ACCOUNT (לְךָ). This passage is proof, regarding every usage of לך and לי and לו and לכם and להם that follow after the verb דבר, that they all have the meaning of על “on account of”.
יהיה לך לפה HE SHALL BE TO THEE INSTEAD OF A MOUTH — he will be to thee as a spokesman because thou art slow of speech (Exodus Rabbah 3:17).
לאלהים means a superior and chief (cf. Onkelos).
