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		Always Being Ready     Va'era   (Ex 6:2 - 9:35)

Shemot/Exodus 6:12   Behold, the Children of Israel would not listen to me, so how will Pharaoh listen to me?

View whole verse and interlinear translation ...

Let's have a brief recap to provide the context for Moshe's words to The Name ...

HaShem: literally, Hebrew for 'The Name' - an allusion used to avoid pronouncing the Tetragrammaton, the so-called 'ineffable' name of G–d
HaShem at this point. After HaShem has appeared to Moshe at Mt. Horeb and commissioned him to return to Egypt to be His leader to bring the Israelites out of bondage and slavery in Egypt, Moshe was joined by his brother Aharon and they met with the elders of the Israelites. Acting as Moshe's spokesman, Aharon told the elders all about HaShem's meeting with Moshe and the promise of release that He had given. For confirmation, just as Moshe had said would be needed and HaShem had agreed and provided, Aharon "performed the signs in the sight of the people, and the people were convinced" (Shemot 4:30-31, NJPS). Moshe and Aharon then went to Pharaoh with HaShem's demand - "Thus says the L-RD, the G-d of Israel: Let My people go that they may celebrate a festival for Me in the wilderness" (5:1, NJPS) - to be greeted with Pharaoh's famous words: "Who is the L-RD that I should heed Him and let Israel go? I do not know the L-RD, nor will I let Israel go" (v. 2, NJPS).

Pharaoh surmised that the people had too much time on their hands that they could consider this sort of nonsense, so he hardened their slave labour by making them get their own straw for brick-making, while not lowering the daily quota of bricks to be made: "Let heavier work be laid upon the men; let them keep at it and not pay attention to deceitful promises" (v. 9, NJPS). Not unreasonably, the Israelites - who had been expecting less work and hardship, not more, following HaShem's intervention - are upset with Moshe and Aharon, telling them, "May the L-RD look upon you and punish you for making us loathsome to Pharaoh and his courtiers -- putting a sword in their hands to slay us" (v. 21, NJPS). Somewhat taken aback, though very sympathetic, Moshe complains to HaShem - "Why did You send me? Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has dealt worse with this people" (vv. 22-23, NJPS).

HaShem replies with the magnificent set of seven promises of His immediate and long-term intentions for Israel that we recite and rehearse at Pesach every year, instructing him to tell the people: "I am the L-RD. I will free you from the labors of the Egyptians and deliver you from their bondage. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and through extraordinary chastisements. And I will take you to be My people, and I will be your G-d. And you shall know that I, the L-RD, am your G-d who freed you from the labors of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Avraham, Yitz'khak, and Ya'akov, and I will give it to you for a possession, I the L-RD" (6:6-8, NJPS). Much as we might have expected the people to rally and be encouraged by these promises, the people refuse outright to hear the words when Moshe speaks to them: "the Israelites would not listen to Moshe, their spirits crushed by cruel bondage" (v. 9, NJPS). Who Is ...

Nechama Leibowitz: (1905-1997 CE), born in Riga, graduate of the University of Berlin, made aliyah in 1931; professor at Tel Aviv University; taught Torah for over 50 years
Nechama Leibowitz reports that there was "no trace of faith and trust; not even misgiving or even argument and opposition. Simply: 'they would not listen'. They were so downtrodden and crushed by persecution that they were able to tune in even to the message of immediate relief and release from bondage." Brevard Childs suggests that "because of the present hardship they had no time for Moshe's words or for G-d's future."¹ In more modern terms, Peter Enns puts it this way: "[The Israelites] will not be fooled again. Once again the Israelites are grumbling in the face of G-d's mercy. Their present reality dictates what they think G-d can and cannot do."²

Undeterred of course, since He is HaShem, HaShem tells Moshe to go back to Pharaoh to repeat His demand to the Israelites go. At this point we reach our text: Moshe refuses to go. From a technical point of view, Nahum Sarna, explains, "Moshe employs a reasoned argument to justify resistance to the divine command. It is the type of logical inference known in later Hebrew as kal va-ḥomer."³ The Who Is ...

Ramban: Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman Girondi or Nachmanides (born in Gerona, 1194; died in Israel 1270), Spanish rabbi, author and physician; defended Judaism in the Christian debates in Barcelona before making aliyah
Ramban focuses on Moshe's first phrase, suggesting that Moshe is blaming HaShem: "The Israelites would not listen to me - because You did not make my words ones they could listen to." Who Is ...

Abraham Ibn Ezra: (1089-1167 CE), born in Tudela, Spain; died in the South of France after wandering all around the shores of the Mediterranean and England; a philosopher, astronomer, doctor, poet and linguist; wrote a Hebrew grammar and a commentary on the Bible
Ibn Ezra tries to explain Moshe's complaint in terms of who would be expected to hear HaShem: "The Israelites, who are Your people, would not listen to me; how then should Pharaoh, who is not one of Your people." To make sure that we understand what is going on, What Is ...

Targum Onkelos: An early (1^st-2^nd Century CE) translation/paraphrase of the Torah into Aramaic; attributed to a Roman convert to Judaism, Onkelos; used in Babylonian synagogues during the Talmudic era
Targum Onkelos changes both the Hebrew verbs שָׁמְעוּ and יִשְׁמָעֵנִי to Aramaic קַבִּילוּ and יְקַבַּל מִנִּ; from the root שׁמע, to hear or listen, to the root קבל, to receive, accept, or consent;⁴ this clarifies that this is not an acoustic issue but a cognitive one: "Behold the Israelites were not receptive. How then will Pharaoh receive it from me." Walter Brueggemann re-frames Moshe's objection on the quality of the news: "When the ones for whom the word is good news will not heed, surely Pharaoh, for whom the word is bad news, will not heed either."⁵

Although our text goes on to repeat Moshe's claim that he is a man of uncircumcised lips - parallel to "I am slow of speech and slow of tongue" (4:10, NJPS) - seeming to place the fault on himself, Umberto Cassuto is not convinced: "At first Moshe was afraid that his brethren, the children of Israel, would not listen to him; this doubt he had conquered, and it was shown in actual practice that, with the help of Aharon, it was possible for him to win the confidence of the people (4:31). But now a new situation had arisen: after their yoke of servitude had been made heavier, the people lost faith in him and would not harken to him any longer."⁶ After all, as Terence Fretheim points out, "Moshe's objection comes only after the commission to Pharaoh (6:12) and that in view of the negative response of the people (not Pharaoh's earlier response)."⁷ Who Is ...

Chizkuni: Rabbi Hezekiah ben Manoah (13^th century), French rabbi and exegete; his commentary on the Torah was written about 1240 in memory of his father, based principally on Rashi, but using about 20 other sources
Chizkuni deduces that "Moshe did not realise that they did not listen because their spirits had been crushed."

Our text appears to reveal that there are two threads running through the narrative at this point. One is the inability of the Israelites, because of the devastating effect of Moshe's first delivery of HaShem's words to Pharaoh and the dramatic worsening of their slavery, to hear anything more from either Moshe or HaShem. They are not ready to hear even the words and promises of freedom that HaShem has spoken. The other is Moshe's refusal - presumably on the grounds that he too doesn't want the slavery of the Israelites to deteriorate any further - to confront Pharaoh again. Perhaps he has a prescient understanding of Yeshua's words: "Do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces" (Matthew 7:6, NASB): he is not ready to speak. At a human level, he does seem to have a point: the people won't listen, so why should Pharaoh! Everyone has forgotten HaShem, or at least that He is HaShem. They need to hear the words that the prophet will later speak: "Do not recall what happened of old, or ponder what happened of yore! I am about to do something new; even now it shall come to pass, suddenly you shall perceive it: I will make a road through the wilderness and rivers in the desert" (Isaiah 43:18-19, NJPS).

As we who have read the story before know, HaShem has set His shoulder to the wheel and - although there are a few frogs, flies, gnats, boils and hailstorms to work through along the way - He really is about to free His people "from the land of Egypt with signs and marvels, with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and with great terror" (Jeremiah 32:21, NJPS). As Moshe will later tell the people just before they cross through the Reed Sea: "the Egyptians whom you see today you will never see again" (Shemot 14:13, NJPS). But, for Moshe and the people at the time, it was very difficult to hear the words, to imagine the alternative that HaShem is offering, to believe that it was all going to come out in the wash and to express real faith in release and emancipation; particularly when, to the contrary, the first mention of freedom - and that in the mildest terms, only to "Let My people go that they may celebrate a festival for Me in the wilderness ... Let us go, we pray, a distance of three days into the wilderness to sacrifice to the LORD our God" (5:1,3, NJPS) - met with such drastic reprisal.

So here's the question that we have to ask ourselves: do we have spiritual myopia, too busy with trying to cope with today's workload and get through our to-do list to hear Yeshua's call to freedom: "Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30, ESV). He speaks in the most generous terms, offering the rest - peace, shalom - that we all know that we so badly need in today's production-driven world. While it is certainly true that dinner needs to be cooked and guests must be shown hospitality, Martha was too locked down in the practical when Yeshua was teaching at her house so that He had to chide her: "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her" (Luke 10:41-42, ESV). We have always to be ready to hear the voice of the Spirit setting or re-setting our priorities, even if that does turn our day upside down. That is the way of peace - even in the midst of apparent turmoil - and the path of true rest as we pick up Yeshua's yoke and work with Him, rather than without or even, despite, Him.

1. - Brevard S. Childs, The Book of Exodus: A Critical, Theological Commentary, The Old Testament Library, (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004), page 116.

2. - Peter Enns, Exodus, The NIV Application Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2000), page 175.

3. - Kal va-ḥomer means "light and heavy" and is used in Scripture and the Jewish writings as a logical device with the same function as the Latin phrase a fortiori (from the stronger). The argument says, "If the lighter case behaves in this way, then how much so must the heavier."

4. - Michael Sokoloff, A Dictionary of Palestinian Aramaic, 2nd Ed., (Ramat-Gan, Israel: Bar Ilan University Press, 2002), page 472.

5. - Walter Brueggemann, "Exodus", in The New Interpreter's Bible Commentary Vol I, edited by Leander E. Keck, (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2015), page 325.

6. - Umberto Cassuto, A Commentary on the Book of Exodus, (Magnes Press, Jerusalem, 1983), page 83.

7. - Terence E. Fretheim, Exodus, Interpretation, (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), page 90.

Further Study: Psalm 16:5-9; Luke 12:22-25; 2 Corinthians 5:17-19

Application: Are you too short-sighted in the kingdom of G-d, with your glasses perched on the end of your nose, poring over the work that you have gathered in front of you, to hear Yeshua calling you to something else that He wants you to do, right now? Will you jump up and follow Him or will you try to put Him off until you have finished what you are doing on your own?

Comment - 12:16 16Jan26 FB: As human beings we abhor, even evade difficulty and suffering. We tend to be shortsighted and unable to perceive greater things in store. So much spiritual perception is needed for us to have the Mind of Messiah. Trust in Hashem is the issue. Even though we experience hardship our focus must be locked upon Him and not upon Self.

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© Jonathan Allen, 2026

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