SDMB weekly Bible Study (SDMBWBS)-Week 39 Exodus 5 & 6

Cafe Society
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Welcome to the SDMB weekly Bible Study (SDMBWBS). This week we will be discussing Exodus 5 & 6. Since the discussion can turn into a very broad and hijackable thread, we would like the following rules to be adhered to:

  1. These SDMBWBS threads are to deal with the books and stories in the Bible as literature. What I’m hoping to achieve is an understanding of the stories, the time in which they were written, context, and possibly its cultural relevance.

  2. While it is up to the individual to choose to believe or disbelieve any portion, that is not to be the discussion of the thread. If you must, please choose to witness/anti-witness in Great Debates.

  3. The intention is to go through the Bible from front to back in order. While different books are needed to be referred to in order to understand context, please try and keep the focus on the thread’s selected chapter(s)/verse(s).

  4. Since different religions have chosen which books to include or omit, the threads will use the Catholic version of 46 Old Testament Books and 27 New Testament Books. It’s encouraged to discuss why a book was included/omitted during the applicable threads only. BibleHub, as far as I know, is a good resource that compiles many different versions of the verses into one page.(Also the SDMB Staff Reports on Who Wrote the Bible). Please feel free to use whatever source you want, including-and even more helpfully-the original language.

  5. Hopefully we can get through these threads with little to no moderation. A gentle reminder that if a poster comes in and ignores these rules, please use the “report post” function instead of responding.

Links to previous threads:
Genesis 49 & 50 (this includes links to all previous Genesis threads)
Exodus 1
Exodus 2
Exodus 3
Exodus 4

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[Exodus 5

New International Version (NIV)](Exodus 5 NIV - Bricks Without Straw - Afterward Moses - Bible Gateway)

Bricks Without Straw

5 Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness.’”

2 Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go.”

3 Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God, or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword.”

4 But the king of Egypt said, “Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work!” 5 Then Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working.”

6 That same day Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and overseers in charge of the people: 7 “You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. 8 But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don’t reduce the quota. They are lazy; that is why they are crying out, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ 9 Make the work harder for the people so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies.”

10 Then the slave drivers and the overseers went out and said to the people, “This is what Pharaoh says: ‘I will not give you any more straw. 11 Go and get your own straw wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced at all.’” 12 So the people scattered all over Egypt to gather stubble to use for straw. 13 The slave drivers kept pressing them, saying, “Complete the work required of you for each day, just as when you had straw.” 14 And Pharaoh’s slave drivers beat the Israelite overseers they had appointed, demanding, “Why haven’t you met your quota of bricks yesterday or today, as before?”

15 Then the Israelite overseers went and appealed to Pharaoh: “Why have you treated your servants this way? 16 Your servants are given no straw, yet we are told, ‘Make bricks!’ Your servants are being beaten, but the fault is with your own people.”

17 Pharaoh said, “Lazy, that’s what you are—lazy! That is why you keep saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.’ 18 Now get to work. You will not be given any straw, yet you must produce your full quota of bricks.”

19 The Israelite overseers realized they were in trouble when they were told, “You are not to reduce the number of bricks required of you for each day.” 20 When they left Pharaoh, they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them, 21 and they said, “May the Lord look on you and judge you! You have made us obnoxious to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”

God Promises Deliverance

22 Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Why, Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me? 23 Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble on this people, and you have not rescued your people at all.”
[Exodus 6

New International Version (NIV)](Exodus 6 NIV - Then the LORD said to Moses, “Now you - Bible Gateway)

6 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh: Because of my mighty hand he will let them go; because of my mighty hand he will drive them out of his country.”

2 God also said to Moses, “I am the Lord. 3 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself fully known to them. 4 I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, where they resided as foreigners. 5 Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant.

6 “Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. 7 I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. 8 And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the Lord.’”

9 Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and harsh labor.

10 Then the Lord said to Moses, 11 “Go, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the Israelites go out of his country.”

12 But Moses said to the Lord, “If the Israelites will not listen to me, why would Pharaoh listen to me, since I speak with faltering lips?”

Family Record of Moses and Aaron

13 Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron about the Israelites and Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he commanded them to bring the Israelites out of Egypt.

14 These were the heads of their families:

The sons of Reuben the firstborn son of Israel were Hanok and Pallu, Hezron and Karmi. These were the clans of Reuben.

15 The sons of Simeon were Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jakin, Zohar and Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman. These were the clans of Simeon.

16 These were the names of the sons of Levi according to their records: Gershon, Kohath and Merari. Levi lived 137 years.

17 The sons of Gershon, by clans, were Libni and Shimei.

18 The sons of Kohath were Amram, Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel. Kohath lived 133 years.

19 The sons of Merari were Mahli and Mushi.

These were the clans of Levi according to their records.

20 Amram married his father’s sister Jochebed, who bore him Aaron and Moses. Amram lived 137 years.

21 The sons of Izhar were Korah, Nepheg and Zikri.

22 The sons of Uzziel were Mishael, Elzaphan and Sithri.

23 Aaron married Elisheba, daughter of Amminadab and sister of Nahshon, and she bore him Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.

24 The sons of Korah were Assir, Elkanah and Abiasaph. These were the Korahite clans.

25 Eleazar son of Aaron married one of the daughters of Putiel, and she bore him Phinehas.

These were the heads of the Levite families, clan by clan.

26 It was this Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord said, “Bring the Israelites out of Egypt by their divisions.” 27 They were the ones who spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt about bringing the Israelites out of Egypt—this same Moses and Aaron.

Aaron to Speak for Moses

28 Now when the Lord spoke to Moses in Egypt, 29 he said to him, “I am the Lord. Tell Pharaoh king of Egypt everything I tell you.”

30 But Moses said to the Lord, “Since I speak with faltering lips, why would Pharaoh listen to me?”

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Notes on Exodus 6

Vs. 1 “what I will do to Pharaoh”: this phrase always refers to the plagues.

Vs. 3 The Tetragrammaton is variously usually translated in English versions as either “the Lord”or “Jehovah”.

Most scholars believe “Jehovah” to be a late (c. 1100 CE) hybrid form derived by combining the Latin letters JHVH with the vowels of Adonai, but there is some evidence that it may already have been in use in Late Antiquity (5th century).

The Contemporary English Version has: “But when I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, I came as God All-Powerful and did not use my name. “

The Complete Jewish Bible has: “I appeared to Avraham, Yitz’chak and Ya’akov as El Shaddai, although I did not make myself known to them by my name, Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh [ADONAI].”

The Amplified Bible, the Bible in Basic English, the HCSB, the New Jerusalem Bible, the New Living Translation and the World English Bible all give the name as “Yahweh”.

The oldest known inscription of the tetragrammaton dates to 840 BCE, on the Mesha Stele. It bears the earliest certain extra-biblical reference. The most recent discovery of a tetragrammaton inscription, dating to the 6th century BCE, was found written in Hebrew on two silver scrolls recovered from Jerusalem.

The Catholic Church never used the name Yahweh in liturgical texts or bibles before Vatican II, after which it began to see limited use in the Jerusalem Bible and certain contemporary hymns. In 2001, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments directed that the word “Lord” and its equivalent in other languages be used instead. In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI ordered the Pontifical Biblical Commission to investigate whether the use of the name Yahweh was offensive to Jewish groups, and in 2008 the Vatican recommended against the use of the word in new bibles and prohibited its continued use in vernacular worship

Vs. 12 Literally: “and [since] I am of uncircumcised lips.” The “lips” represent his speech (metonymy of cause). The term “uncircumcised” makes a comparison between his speech and that which Israel perceived as unacceptable, unprepared, foreign, and of no use to God. The heart is described this way when it is impervious to good impressions (Lev 26:41; Jer 9:26) and the ear when it hears imperfectly (Jer 6:10). Moses has here returned to his earlier claim – he does not speak well enough to be doing this. There is also a longstanding interpretation of this indicating Moses stuttered or stammered.

From Jewish Ideas Daily website:
“If, indeed, Moses was likely a stutterer, we must return to the question of origin: How did it start? The rabbis of the midrash were not unaware that stuttering usually begins after some childhood incident. As recounted in Bialik and Ravnitzky’s Book of Legends, the midrash says Moses was so handsome that “whoever saw him could not turn his eyes away from him.” Young Moses, for his part, “used to grab Pharaoh’s crown and put it on his own head.” Court magicians prophesied that Moses would usurp Pharaoh’s power, and some counseled killing him:
But Jethro [the priest of Midian and Moses’ future father-in-law], who sat among them, said, “This child has yet no understanding. Why not test him? Place before him a vessel with a gold piece and a burning coal in it. If he reaches for the gold, he has understanding, and you may slay him. But if he reaches for the coal, he has no understanding, and a sentence of death is not called for.”

The items were presented to Moses, who reached for the gold; but the angel Gabriel shoved the child’s hand aside, “so that Moses not only seized the coal but also put the hand with the coal into his mouth and burned his tongue. As a result, he became slow of speech and slow of tongue.”

In some religious traditions Moses actually asks to be cured of his stuttering. So in the Qur’an Moses says, “O my Lord! Expand my breast for me, / And make my affair easy to me, / And loose the knot from my tongue, / (That) they may understand my word.” And Allah cures him. But Moses makes no explicit request in Exodus to be cured, and he is not cured. (The Knox Translation of 1955 even emphasizes that the appearance of God, while not the cause of the stutter that Moses has already apparently had for years, is a factor that “exacerbates” it. Says Knox’s Moses at Exodus 4.10, “I am more faltering, more tongue-tied, than ever.”
.
Vss. 35+ This section shows Aaron and Moses to be in the lineage of Levi that came to the priesthood.

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CH 5

In their first encounter, Pharaoh tells Moses: “I do not know the LORD, and I will not let Israel go.” This is a critical appearance of the verb to know, which (as I’ve mentioned before) echoes throughout these chapters. Remember that [a prior] Pharaoh didn’t know Joseph (and his humility), the new Pharaoh doesn’t know God; but at the end of the Exodus story, the Egyptians will come to know that God is God. .

Moses first seems to be trying diplomacy (or even trickery), asking for a three-day holiday. Pharaoh rejects this peremptorily. “The people of the land” in verse 5 is likely an insult. Moses and Aaron are quiet, and the first audience ends in disaster

Note that the oft-cited “bricks without straw” is contrary to the text. Pharaoh does not order the slaves to make bricks without straw, he orders them to gather their own straw rather than have it provided. Sarna says, “Chopped straw or stubble was a crucial ingredient in the manufacture of bricks. It was added to the mud from the Nile, then shaped in a mold and left to dry in the sun. The straw acted as a binder, and the acid released by the decay of the vegetable matter greatly enhanced the plastic and cohesive properties of the brick, thus preventing shrinking, cracking, and loss of shape.”

Verse 10: “This is what Pharaoh says” reflects verse 1 (and 4:22), “This is what the LORD says.” So the literary subtext is that Pharaoh is “set on a collision course” [Sarna] with God.

Verses 20 – 21 seem to me to strike a very human note. I suspect every fight for freedom has started with the oppressed people reluctant, if not out-and-out opposed. The status quo – however horrible – is “comfortable,” so don’t get the overlords angry.

Verse 22: I like that Moses reproaches God, just as Abraham had over the destruction of Sodom. We’ll get that many times in the next chapters. The word “Israel” means “struggle with God”, and so the role of the leader is not to “justify the ways of God to man,” but to justify the ways of man to God. And although Moses is “slow of speech” when talking to people, he downright eloquent in talking to God.

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CH 6

At the end of Chapter 5, Moses is down-hearted from his first encounter (and failure) with Pharaoh, so God gives him a pep talk to start Chapter 6.

Verse 3: God says He was not known to Abraham etc by His Name (the Four-Lettered Name Y-H-W-H). But in Gen 12:8, Abraham calls on God by this name. How do we reconcile the statements? The word “know” is our clue. Remember that the verb “to know” implies experiential knowledge, intimacy. So Abraham can call upon the Name but doesn’t experience it. (I see that Prof P has beat me to the punch, so I’ll let his statements cover the Name.)

In the opening verses 2 – 8, God mentions five verbs for redemption from Egypt, bracketed (in verse 2, repeated in verse 6 and 8) by “I am the LORD.” They are:

  • I will bring you out from under the yoke
  • I will free you from being slaves,
  • I will redeem you with an outstretched arm
  • I will take you as my own people (the word “take” here implies marriage)
  • I will bring you to the land

Aside: The first four of those verbs, according to rabbinic sources, are the reason that Jews to this day drink four cups of wine at the Passover seder.

I like to read this as saying, “I am doing these moral acts because of who I am.” That is, we are to understand God by what He does, not by who He is. And note in verse 7, “you will know.

The Israelites do not listen to Moses, “because of their discouragement and harsh labor.” Literally, “from shortness of spirit.” I like the JPS translation, “their spirits were crushed by cruel bondage.” OK, but his failure to energize the people mustn’t demoralize Moses.

Repeating Prof P’s comment: Moses again (still) tries to weasel out of his task, the term “faltering lips” is literally “uncircumcised of lips” and presumably refers to the earlier “slow of speech and tongue” (Ex 4:10.) God pretty much ignores Moses’ complaint, and brings in Aaron to act as spokesperson.

The text then brings in a lengthy genealogy, which is both a breather between the first act of redemption and what is to come, and a link between the Exodus story and the patriarchal era.

Here we first have the name of Moses’ mother, Jochebed, who was previously only “a Levite woman.” In verse 20, the Septuagint, Syriac and Samaritan texts add “and their sister Miriam” after Aaron and Moses.

After the genealogy, we get a reminder of, “OK, now back to the story, these guys Moses and Aaron whose lineage we’ve just tracked, they’re the ones about to challenge Pharaoh.” This serves as a conclusion to the story so far, end of Act I or something like that in dramatic terms. These stories were originally told orally or read aloud (they are still read aloud in Jewish Sabbath morning services, every week.) I think it’s helpful in understanding to think of the dramatic structure, intended for a listening audience. Hence, a sudden break and slight recap before the coming major drama.

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Interesting. Many modern Jewish texts don’t translate or transliterate the Tetragrammaton (Four-Lettered Name), but use “Adonai” (Hebrew, literally “My Lord”.) Jews do not pronounce the Four-Lettered Name, but use “Adonai” as a substitute. Observant Jews don’t even pronounce “Adonai” outside of prayer, but often use a substitute for the substitute, such as “HaShem”[The Name].

The actual pronunciation of the Name was lost by Talmudic times (say, 100 BCE to 200 AD, give or take a few centuries.) The bible text, remember, doesn’t use vowels. So we know the letters: Y - H - V - H, and some say the V is a W-sound since there’s no W in ancient Hebrew. Thus, trying to fill in vowels is the reason for the different pronunciations mentioned by Prof P. (Forgive my circumlocution, I won’t type a pronunciation, even in English.)

My favorite explanation of the Name is that sounds are all aspirants (? have I got the term right?), using W as the third letter, so that the sound is that of a breath. If the name defines the thing, then this explanation says God is breath, life.

The concept of “knowing” God’s Name – remember that “to know” in the bible doesn’t mean just intellectual, but experiential knowledge – implies intimacy. Observant Jews therefore don’t use that Name lightly.

The actual pronunciation of the Name was lost by Talmudic times (say, 100 BCE to 200 AD, give or take a few centuries.) The bible text, remember, doesn’t use vowels. So we know the letters: Y - H - V - H, and some say the V is a W-sound since there’s no W in ancient Hebrew. Thus, trying to fill in vowels is the reason for the different pronunciations mentioned by Prof P. (Forgive my circumlocution, I won’t type a pronunciation, even in English.)

My favorite explanation of the Name is that sounds are all aspirants (? have I got the term right?), using W as the third letter, so that the sound is that of a breath. If the name defines the thing, then this explanation says God is breath, life.

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A couple questions:

  1. What was the festival to be held in the woods?*

  2. What sacrifices would be made?*

  3. What and where were they building? It seems that they were building across the whole country.

4)Which leads me to: About what year is this happening?

*Assuming Moses wasn’t lying to Pharaoh to trick an escape.

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The passage serves as a dire commentary on labor relations with relevance unto the present day. Absurd directives from the corporate bosses, relayed through middle management, making hell on the workers. I bet we can all relate. And moreover their attempts at organizing were suppressed by union-busting goons.

I’m reminded of a poem recited by a worker at a brick factory in the film Amarcord:

I MATTONI
Mio nonno fa’va i mattoni,
Mio babbo fa’va i mattoni,
Faccio i mattoni anche me.
Ma la casa mia—dov’è?

BRICKS
My grandfather made bricks,
My dad made bricks,
I make bricks too.
But where’s my house?

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We don’t know. The Hebrew khag is usually a sacrificial feast, and associated with a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem (done three times a year.) This could have meant the Passover sacrifice, but more likely it was a ruse. The plan is to leave Egypt, not just have a brief holiday. ANd it’s not “in the woods,” it’s “in the wilderness.” Woods in ancient Egypt were scarce, but the wilderness (desert) was all about in every direction as you move away from the Nile Delta. I don’t think “lying” is quite the word, I think it’s more trickery. Knowing that Pharaoh (at this point) won’t even give in to three days off, let alone freedom.

Again, we don’t know. Assuming this is all a ploy, in NIV 8:26 (Jewish numbering is slightly different) Moses will say that the sacrifices may be “detestable” in the eyes of the Egyptians. The Hebrews do not know yet what sacrifices may be required, and since the Egyptians worship many gods in animal (or half-animal) shapes, the Egyptians might consider the Hebrew sacrifices to be insulting to the Egyptian gods.

If you mean where were the slaves working on construction, it’s unclear other than the earlier ref to Pithom and Ramases (Ex 1:11).

No one knows for sure. Either the 400th or 430th year of captivity, and most scholars place it around 1250 BCE. Give or take.

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Well, yeah, that adds up to about 400 years, but surely all three didn’t have their sons in the year they died of old age. The narrator must have skipped several generations.

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Exodus 12:40 says 430 years, and Gen 15:13 predicts 400 years. (The reconciliation of those two is usually that the extra 30 years were the years that they lived in Egypt but weren’t enslaved.)

I did a quick search of a few sources, but I see nothing to reconcile the ages of the Levites with the time spent in Egypt. Moses is said to have been 70 years old at the time of the Exodus (since he died at 120, and spent 40 years in the wilderness) – contrary to the image of a young and virile Moses portrayed in every movie, painting, etc. So adding the ages 137 + 133 + 137 + 70 = 477, so that allows for some overlap. It still pretty much requires each person in that line to have fathered a child at around age 100. Sarah has a child at age 100 and thinks that’s a joke (or a miracle), but males can certainly sire children at old ages.

P’raps cmkeller has some other insights?

(Also please note that this Tuesday night through Thursday night is a major Jewish holiday, commemorating seven weeks after Passover and by tradition marking the giving of the Ten Commandments at Mt Sinai. Observant Jews will therefore be unable to post during that time.)

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No, the text is simply wrong if taken literally, because Gen 46 says that Levi’s 3 sons were already born when the Israelites migrated into Egypt. So even if Amram and Moses were conceived on the last day of their respective fathers’ lives, Moses would still have been born well under 300 years after the Israelites entered Egypt.

But that’s a ridiculous assumption. As you noted, it’s considered a miracle that Abraham sired a child at 100, so it seems like 70 or so should be a reasonable upper bound, then as now. IMO it’s very generous to regard 75 as the average for the two of them, yielding just 150 years from the migration to Moses’ birth, and 270 years to his death.

And of course, if not for the 400 year thing, we would have no reason to think they didn’t have their sons before age 30.

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Fair enough, Tony. For those who believe that the text has one Author and is correct in details, I’m sure there’s an explanation of this. We’ll have to wait till Friday to hear from cmkeller. (I’m not so observant.)

For those who believe in multiple authors, the numbers are usually significant in some literary way. F’rinstance: 40 is the number of generational change (40 days and nights in the Ark, 40 years in the wilderness, 40 days Moses spends on Mt Sinai, 40 days Jesus spends in the desert, etc etc.) Thus 400 years is 40 (generational change) x 10 (completeness) and has a nice literary/symbolic/mystic overtone.

The ages (Levi, Korath, Amram) form a clear bracketing pattern: 137, 133, 137. They’re expressed as sums of “significant” numbers: 100 (obviously), 30 = 3 x 10 and both 3 and 10 are numbers of completeness; and 7 is THE magic number of completeness.

By “numbers of completeness” I mean that something that happens 3, 7, or 10 times forms a complete sequence. This happens a LOT in the biblical texts. We’ll shortly get to the plagues, which are 10 in number, and the wording of the first nine show a clear pattern of three sets of three.

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What do commentators say about this request? Every statement from God leading up to this moment made it clear that he was going to free the Israelites permanently. So was this request just trickery? Was it Moses’ idea because he’s afraid of asking for total freedom?

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I’m always puzzled by the apparent need of God to demonstrate ability to physically destroy Israel’s foes.

One can easily dream up a dozen ways that the Israelites could have left Egypt without harming a hair of any Egyptian. All the Egyptians could have been induced to sleep for a week, and when they woke, the Hebrews were nowhere to be found. Patrols were prevented from pursuit by extreme weather.

But, no, God chose to put on a show. Why? I suppose it must by not for the benefit of the Egyptians, but for the Hebrews. Show them they have a friend in the wings, pulling the strings. Prepare them to obey His directive to go take over Canaan, etc.

Yet, later, the Hebrews seemed determined to deny that God had much to do with their escape, so much so that God decided to make them wander for 40 years before the old crowd was dead the the new wave was ready to go kill as many Canaanites as needed?

And, today, there are no demonstrations ever of God’s power. Hmmm. What does it all mean?

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We can discuss this next week, when we get around to the plagues. But within the context of the literary analysis, the main purpose of the “show” (and it definitely is a show) is to demonstrate to both the Egyptians AND the Hebrews what’s what. To help them understand/know God. Within the story, the Hebrews do NOT accept freedom, it takes 40 years (generational change) to overturn the slave mentality. “Yes, God seems to be powerful, but the Egyptians have an army and taskmasters with whips…”

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When did the Hebrews begin taking every seventh day as a rest day?

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Well God rested on the seventh day back in chapter 2 of Genesis. The command to observe the Sabbath will come later in Exodus after the slaves are freed.

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Just a philological sidenote: This Hebrew word חַג is the exact Semitic cognate of the Arabic حَجّ ḥajj, the Islamic pilgrimage to the Kaʻbah in Mecca (just once a year, though). I’m not sure, but Arabic might have even borrowed it as a loanword directly from Hebrew (or Aramaic?).

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Link to Exodus 7-10