Moses Confers with Jehovah

(Exodus 5:22 - 7:7)

Moses went back to confer with Jehovah and to vent his displeasure, "Master, why have you brought nothing but misery to this people?  Why did you send me anyway? --- Since I went to see the Pharaoh and spoke to him in your name, he has only done evil to this people and has certainly not freed them."

Jehovah replied to Moses, "You will see now the strong pressure I will put upon the Pharaoh: he will not only be willing to let the Israelites go, he will literally drive them out of the country."  He continued to speak to Moses, "I am Jehovah!  When I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, I called myself the All-Powerful God, but my true name, Jehovah, was not known to them.  I made an agreement with them that I would give them possession of the land of Canaan, where they had settled to dwell as foreigners.  I have heard the complaints and the cries for help of the Israelites whom the Egyptians hold in bondage, and I remember the contract I have with them."

"Tell the Israelites, 'I am Jehovah and I will deliver you from the oppressions of the Egyptians and free you from your bondage.  I will use my power to exact harsh punishments upon your persecutors, and I will rescue you from them.  I will embrace you as my own people and I will serve you as your god.   And you will know that I am your god when I free you from your bondage to the Egyptians and bring you to the land that I promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and make it your heritage.  I am Jehovah!’”

Moses told all this to the Israelites, but they scorned his words, depressed and dispirited as they were by the harshness of their servitude.

Jehovah spoke to Moses, "Go see the Pharaoh of Egypt and speak to him that he will allow the Israelites to leave his country."

Moses replied, "Look, even the Israelites won't listen to me, how will the Pharaoh heed my words, especially since I’m a poor speaker."

But Jehovah spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them instructions concerning the Israelites and the Egyptian Pharaoh.  (He commanded them to bring the Israelites out of Egypt.)

These are the family heads of the tribes of Israel:

The sons of Reuben, Israel's oldest son:
Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi.

The sons of Simeon and the heads of his tribe's families:
Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul (whose mother was a Canaanite).

The names of Levi's sons (by the genealogical records):
Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.
(Levi lived 137 years.)

The sons of Gershon: Libni and Shimi.
The sons of Kohath:  Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel.  (Kohath lived 133 years.)
The sons of Merari: Mahali and Mushi
These are the families of Levi (by the genealogical records).

Amram married his father's sister Jochebed and she gave birth to Aaron and Moses.  Amram lived 137 years.

The sons of Izhar: Korah, Nepheg, and Zichri.

The sons of Uzziel:  Mishael, Elzaphan, and Zithri

Aaron married Elisheba, the daughter of Amminadab, the sister of Naashon, and she gave birth to Nadab,  Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.

The sons of Korah:  Assir, Elkanah, Abiasaph.  These are the forefathers of the Korhite clans.

Aaron's son Eleazar married one of the daughters of Putiel and she bore him Phinehas.

Above are the forefathers of the various clans of the Levite tribe.

It was this very Moses and Aaron who were commanded by Jehovah to, “Bring the Israelites out of the land of Egypt in an orderly exodus. “ It was this very Moses and Aaron who beseeched the Pharaoh to let them leave Egypt. 

At the time when Jehovah appeared to Moses in the land of Egypt, he told him, "I am Jehovah, tell the Pharaoh everything I will say to you.”  But Moses responded, "Look, I’m a poor speaker.  How will the Pharaoh pay any attention to my words?"

Jehovah assured him, "I have made you like a god over the Pharaoh and your brother Aaron will be like your prophet.  You will tell Aaron everything I say to you.  He will tell the Pharaoh -- tell him to send the Israelites out of Egypt.  I will make the Pharaoh obstinate, but I will perform more and more miracles and feats of magic.  Yet the Pharaoh will not relent until I punish his country severely.   Then I will marshal my people, the Israelites, and bring them out of Egypt like a marching army.  When I exert my power over Egypt and liberate the Israelites, it will dawn upon the Egyptians that I am indeed a god."

Moses and Aaron did as Jehovah had commanded them.   (When they confronted the Pharaoh, Moses was 80 years old and Aaron was 83.) 

Notes
1.  Moses has thus far been a failure as a liberator and as a spokesman for his people.  He has not only made the Pharaoh more determined not to let the Israelites go, but has goaded him into more severely oppressing them.  Moreover, he has lost the confidence of his own people.  Moses, therefore, goes to Jehovah who has put him up to it and blames him.  Jehovah reassures him with, "You ain't seen nothin' yet."

2.  Jehovah makes the case to Moses that he is the same god who communed with his ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  He claims that he never told them his real name, “Jehovah,” (YHVH),  but that he only called himself, rather grandly, "the All-Powerful God."  This is a curious passage.  Jehovah's insistence that he is the Hebrew national god strikes, at least this reader, as a case of protesting too much.  One can't help getting the feeling, based on the tone of this Jehovah's remarks and the unusual way in which he contacted Moses, that this is a different person from the god of Abraham.  The repeated insistence that he is, only strengthen the doubt.

3.  Moses speaks several times to Jehovah, but we are not told how and where these contacts occurred.  Did Moses keep going back to the Holy Mountain and converse again and again with the burning bush?  Was there telepathic contact?  Did Jehovah appear in human or some other physical form?

4.  One gains the impression that Jehovah, in his quest to have the Pharaoh release his people, doesn't really know what he's doing.  Rather than using the most effective means at his disposal he seems to be winging it.  But he is determined to show Egypt his power and create phenomena they will regard as miraculous and divine, so that they will know for sure that he is a god.  It seems that Jehovah is constantly aspiring to be a god, receiving the worship due a god, making demands in exchange for unfulfilled promises.  And again it must be mentioned that Jehovah presents himself as the god of the Israelites, not the god of any other people, not the universal God.  He occasionally does claim to be the Creator, but this is inconsistent with what he is actually able to do. 

5.  At this point, the story is becoming repetitious, as if the author has temporarily lost the thread of the narrative.  Interrupting the story is a catalog of the family heads of the Israelites, including the descendants of Reuben, Simeon, and Levi (with no mention of Israel's other tribes).  The genealogy shows us that Moses is the great-grandson of Levi and that his mother Jochebed was also his great aunt.  (So far we find no hint of any prohibition of incest.)   It also gives one an idea of the actual number of Israelites in bondage, several hundred, a few thousand? -- at any rate a far, far lower number than is otherwise suggested by the text wherein the Egyptians are fearful the Israelites will outnumber them.   The text seems to want to inflate the number of the Israelite population (to enlarge their importance?), but normal propagation for the number of generations cited simply cannot support anything above the level of a small tribe.

6.  Again we have abnormal longevity for Hebrew patriarchs.  Jehovah's decision after the Flood to shorten the life span of men to what we now know as normal has apparently not been put into full effect.  One feels that the long life spans are included not only to enhance the stature of important figures, but also to expand the time between generations and make it seem as if a longer period of time has elapsed between certain events than is really the case.  Moses' age at the time when he appeared before the Pharaoh is here given as 80 years.  This seems preposterous, but is necessary for the story since a certain number of known years will pass from his return to Egypt to his death.  Decades of extra years can only be inserted during his Midian period.  (Moses must have a number of years in accordance with his importance.)  The 80 years, though, hardly seems credible since Moses left Egypt a young man and married Sephora almost as soon as he arrived to live among the Midianites.  Two children were born.  When Moses returned to Egypt, one of them was a young child of circumsizable age.  Did he and Sephora wait fifty or sixty years to have children?  Not likely.  And an exile of 60 years or so doesn't seem very reasonable, nor does Jehovah choosing such an aged man to represent him make much sense.