Exodus 6

Tree of Life Version

How Will Pharaoh Listen?

6 Adonai said to Moses, “Now you will see what I am going to do to Pharaoh. By way of a strong hand he will let them go, and drive them out of his land.”

Parashat Va’eira

² God spoke further to Moses and said to him, “I am Adonai. ³ I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, as El Shaddai. Yet by My Name, Adonai, did I not make Myself known to them. ⁴ I also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage where they journeyed. ⁵ Furthermore, I have heard the groaning of Bnei-Yisrael, whom the Egyptians are keeping in bondage. So I have remembered My covenant. ⁶ Therefore say to Bnei-Yisrael: I am Adonai, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will deliver you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. ⁷ I will take you to Myself as a people, and I will be your God. You will know that I am Adonai your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. ⁸ So I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, and give it to you as an inheritance. I am Adonai.”

⁹ Moses spoke this way to Bnei-Yisrael, but they did not listen to him because of their broken spirit and cruel bondage. ¹⁰ So Adonai told Moses, ¹¹ “Go, speak to Pharaoh king of Egypt, so that will he let Bnei-Yisrael go out of his land.”

¹² But Moses said to Adonai, “Bnei-Yisrael have not listened to me. So how would Pharaoh listen to me—I, who have uncircumcised lips?”

¹³ Then Adonai spoke to Moses and to Aaron and gave to them a charge for Bnei-Yisrael and Pharaoh king of Egypt, to bring Bnei-Yisrael out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁴ These are the heads of their father’s houses. The sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel were Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron and Carmi. These are the families of Reuben. ¹⁵ The sons of Simeon were Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar and Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman. These are the families of Simeon.

¹⁶ These are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations: Gershon, Kohath and Merari. Levi lived 137 years. ¹⁷ The sons of Gershon were Libni and Shimei, according to their families. 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 are the families of the Levites according to their generations.

²⁰ Amram married Jochebed, his father’s sister, and she bore him Aaron and Moses. Amram lived 137 years. ²¹ The sons of Izhar were Korah, Nepheg and Zichri. ²² The sons of Uzziel were Mishael, Elzaphan and Sithri. ²³ Aaron married Elisheba daughter of Amminadav, sister of Nahshon, and she bore him Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. ²⁴ The sons of Korah were Assir, Elkanah and Abiasaph. These are the families of the Korahites. ²⁵ Eleazar, Aaron’s son, married one of the daughters of Putiel and she bore him Phinehas. These are the heads of the ancestral houses of the Levites according to their families.

²⁶ These are the same Aaron and Moses to whom Adonai said, “Bring Bnei-Yisrael out from the land of Egypt according to their divisions.” ²⁷ These are the ones that spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt, to bring Bnei-Yisrael out from Egypt. These are that same Moses and Aaron. ²⁸ So it happened on the day when Adonai spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt, ²⁹ that Adonai said to Moses, “I am Adonai. Tell Pharaoh king of Egypt everything that I tell to you.” ³⁰ But Moses said to Adonai, “I am of uncircumcised lips, so how would Pharaoh listen to me?”