Exodus 6

Verse-by-verse explanation

1. Exodus 6:1God answers Moses’s complaint from the end of the previous chapter by assuring him that the deliverance will happen, in such a forceful way that it will be Pharaoh himself who drives the people out.
2. Exodus 6:2God resumes the conversation with a new revelation about His own name, setting up the contrast explained in the next verse with the way He had presented Himself to the patriarchs.
3. Exodus 6:3This point puzzles scholars, because in Genesis the patriarchs already appear calling God “LORD” several times. One reading is that God means He is now going to reveal the full meaning and power behind that name through the rescue from Egypt, not that the name was entirely unknown before.
4. Exodus 6:4It reinforces that the promise of the land of Canaan had already been made generations earlier, to the patriarchs themselves, when they still lived there as passing strangers.
5. Exodus 6:5God repeats that He has already heard the people’s suffering, tying that hearing to the same ancient covenant mentioned in the previous verse, made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
6. Exodus 6:6A “stretched out arm” is an image of force in action, like a warrior raising his arm to strike, used several times in the Bible to describe the way God brings Israel out of Egypt. It is not a literal gesture, but a poetic way of saying that God’s power acts visibly and decisively.
7. Exodus 6:7The promise to “be to you a God” and to take the people as His own describes the kind of covenant relationship that will mark all of Israel’s history from then on.
8. Exodus 6:8It repeats, more solemnly, the promise of the land, using the image of God lifting up His hand, an ancient gesture equivalent to a formal oath.
9. Exodus 6:9Despite the entire promise, the people cannot bring themselves to listen to Moses — the suffering and anguish of slavery had worn out their hope at that point.
10. Exodus 6:10Even with the people’s discouraged response, God does not give up and gives Moses a new order, now directed at Pharaoh, no longer at the people.
11. Exodus 6:11The order is clear and direct: Moses must go back to Pharaoh and ask, once again, for the release of the children of Israel.
12. Exodus 6:12“Uncircumcised lips” is Moses’s way of saying he speaks poorly, in a halting way, applying the image of circumcision — removing something that gets in the way — to the mouth. He repeats, in other words, the same objection he had already made in chapter 4: he does not feel able to convince even his own people, let alone Pharaoh.
13. Exodus 6:13Despite Moses’s objection in the previous verse, God presses on and gives instructions to both him and Aaron together, reinforcing their shared mission.
14. Exodus 6:14Here begins a genealogy that interrupts the narrative to place Moses and Aaron within the tribes of Israel, starting with the descendants of Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn.
15. Exodus 6:15The list continues with the sons of Simeon, Jacob’s second son — one of them, Shaul, is identified as the son of a Canaanite woman, a rare detail in this kind of list.
16. Exodus 6:16Now the genealogy turns to the tribe of Levi, the one that matters most to the narrative, since Moses and Aaron descend from it; the long lifespan follows the pattern of other ancient figures.
17. Exodus 6:17It lists the sons of Gershon, one of Levi’s three sons, beginning the detailed account of each branch of the Levite tribe.
18. Exodus 6:18Amram, listed here among the sons of Kohath, is the father of Moses and Aaron, whose own family will be detailed right after.
19. Exodus 6:19It closes the list of Levi’s sons with the descendants of Merari, the third son, completing the tribe’s three main families.
20. Exodus 6:20Amram marries his own aunt Jochebed, something laws given by Moses would later expressly forbid — in this earlier period that kind of marriage within the family was not yet prohibited. The age recorded for Amram, one hundred and thirty-seven years, follows the pattern of the very long lifespans in the Bible’s earliest accounts, without the text explaining how to convert that into our own years.
21. Exodus 6:21It continues detailing Kohath’s line, listing the sons of Izhar, one of Amram’s brothers.
22. Exodus 6:22It continues with the sons of Uzziel, another of Amram’s brothers, rounding out the picture of Moses and Aaron’s closest cousins within the tribe of Levi.
23. Exodus 6:23It introduces Aaron’s wife, Elisheba, and the couple’s four sons, among them Eleazar and Ithamar, who later inherit important priestly duties.
24. Exodus 6:24It lists the sons of Korah, a cousin of Moses and Aaron — the same Korah who, later in Numbers, leads a rebellion against the two brothers’ leadership.
25. Exodus 6:25Eleazar, Aaron’s son, is also placed within the genealogy along with his own son, Phinehas, who appears later in important episodes involving the people in the wilderness.
26. Exodus 6:26After the whole genealogy, the text returns to affirm that it is precisely these two men, Aaron and Moses, whom God chose to bring the people out of Egypt.
27. Exodus 6:27It repeats the same identification from the previous verse, closing the genealogy and picking back up the thread of the narrative that was interrupted before the list of names.
28. Exodus 6:28After the genealogical parenthesis, the text picks back up at exactly the point in the conversation between God and Moses that had been interrupted.
29. Exodus 6:29God repeats the order for Moses to tell Pharaoh everything he is instructed, putting the dialogue back on track after the long list of names.
30. Exodus 6:30Moses repeats the same objection already made in 6:12, about not speaking well — the text is about to pick back up the account of the plagues, which begin in the next chapter.