Read Exodus 4:18-6:1 at Bible Gateway.
the teaching tools of scripture
Hebrew paragraph divisions
Exo 4:18-26 {p} Return to Egypt with rod of God (signs, wonders) + circumcision (obedience)
Exo 4:27-6:1 {s} Pharaoh’s response to Moses and the children of Israel
Exo 4:18-6:1 chiastic structure
1a) Exo 4:18-26 {p} YHVH SENT MOSES TO EGYPT;
1a.1) Exo 4:18-19a Return to Egypt;
1a) Exo 4:18a So Moses went and returned to Jethro his father-in-law, and said to him, “Please let me go and return to my brethren who are in Egypt, and see whether they are still alive;”
central axis) Exo 4:18b And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace;”
2a) Exo 19a Now YHVH said to Moses in Midian, “Go, return to Egypt;”
1a.2) Exo 4:19b For all the men who sought your life are dead;
1a.3) Exo 4:20-21a Moses’ wife and sons/ signs and wonders;
a) Exo 4:20a Then Moses took his wife and his sons and set them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt;
b) Exo 4:20b And Moses took the rod of God in his hand;
a repeated) Exo 4:21a YHVH said to Moses: When you go back to Egypt;
b repeated) Exo 4:21b See that you do all those wonders before Pharaoh which I have put in your hand;
1b) Exo 4:21c But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go;
central axis) Exo 4:22 Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says YHVH: “Israel is My son, My firstborn;
2b) Exo 4:23 So I say to you, let My son go that he may serve Me. But if you refuse to let him go, indeed I will kill your son, your firstborn;
2a.1) Exo 4:24a And it came to pass on the way, at the encampment;
2a.2) Exo 4:24b That YHVH met him and sought to kill him;
2a.3) Exo 4:25-26 {p} Moses’ wife and sons/ obedience to God’s commandment;
1a) Exo 4:25a Then Zipporah took a sharp stone and cut off the foreskin of her son and cast it at Moses’ feet;
1b) Exo 4:25b And said, “Surely you are a husband of blood to me!”
central axis) Exo 4:26a So He let him go;
2b) Exo 4:26b Then she said, “You are a husband of blood!”—
2b) Exo 4:26c {p} Because of the circumcision;
1b) Exo 4:27-31 MOSES AND AARON MET THE ELDERS;
1a) Exo 4:27 And YHVH said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he went and met him on the mountain of God, and kissed him;
1b) Exo 4:28 So Moses told Aaron all the words of YHVH who had sent him, and all the signs which He had commanded him;
central axis) Exo 4:29 Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel;
2b) Exo 4:30 And Aaron spoke all the words which YHVH had spoken to Moses. Then he did the signs in the sight of the people;
2a) Exo 4:31 So the people believed; and when they heard that YHVH had visited the children of Israel and that He had looked on their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshiped;
1c.1) Exo 5:1-5 WHY DO YOU TAKE THE PEOPLE FROM THEIR LABOR;
1a) Exo 5:1a Afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh;
1b) Exo 5:1b “Thus says YHVH, the God of Israel: ‘Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness;’”
1c) Exo 5:2a And Pharaoh said, “Who is YHVH;”
central axis) Exo 5:2b That I should obey His voice to let Israel go?
2c) Exo 5:2c “I do not know YHVH, nor will I let Israel go;”
2b) Exo 5:3 So they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please, let us go three days’ journey into the desert and sacrifice to YHVH our God, lest He fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword;”
2a) Exo 5:4-5 The king of Egypt said to Moses and Aaron;
1a) Exo 5:4 Then the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people from their work? Get back to your labor;”
central axis) Exo 5:5a And Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are many now;
2a) Exo 5:5b And you make them rest from their labor!”
1c.2) Exo 5:6-7 So the same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their officers, saying, “YOU SHALL NO LONGER GIVE THE PEOPLE STRAW to make brick as before. Let them go and gather straw for themselves;”
1c.3) Exo 5:8a And you shall lay on them THE QUOTA OF BRICKS WHICH THEY MADE BEFORE. You shall not reduce it;
1d) Exo 5:8b For THEY ARE IDLE; therefore they cry out, saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God;’
1e) Exo 5:9-13 THE TASKMASTERS SET UNREALISTIC DEMANDS;
1a) Exo 5:9 Let more work be laid on the men, that they may labor in it, and let them not regard false words;
1b) Exo 5:10-11a And the taskmasters of the people and their officers went out and spoke to the people, saying, “Thus says Pharaoh: ‘I will not give you straw. Go, get yourselves straw where you can find it;
central axis) Exo 5:11b Yet none of your work will be reduced;
2b) Exo 5:12 So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble instead of straw;
2a) Exo 5:13 And the taskmasters forced them to hurry, saying: Fulfill your work, your daily quota, as when there was straw;
1f) Exo 5:14a Also the officers of the children of Israel, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, WERE BEATEN;
1g) Exo 5:14b And were asked: WHY HAVE YOU NOT FULFILLED YOUR TASK IN MAKING BRICK both yesterday and today, as before?
central axis) Exo 5:15 Then the officers of the children of Israel came and cried out to Pharaoh, saying: Why are you dealing thus with your servants?
2g) Exo 5:16a There is no straw given to your servants, and they say to us, ‘MAKE BRICK!’
2f) Exo 5:16b And indeed your servants ARE BEATEN;
2e) Exo 5:16c But the FAULT IS IN YOUR OWN PEOPLE;
2d) Exo 5:17 But he said: YOU ARE IDLE! Idle! Therefore you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to YHVH;’
2c.1) Exo 5:18a Therefore GO NOW AND WORK;
2c.2) Exo 5:18b For NO STRAW SHALL BE GIVEN YOU;
2c.3) Exo 5:18c-19 Yet you shall deliver THE FORMER QUOTA OF BRICKS;
1a) Exo 5:18c Yet you shall deliver the quota of bricks;
central axis) Exo 5:19a And the officers of the children of Israel saw that they were in trouble;
2a) Exo 5:19b After it was said: You shall not reduce any bricks from your daily quota;
2b) Exo 5:20-21 Then, as they came out from Pharaoh, THEY MET MOSES AND AARON who stood there to meet them. And they said to them: Let YHVH look on you and judge, because you have made us abhorrent in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to kill us;
2a) Exo 5:22-6:1 {s} MOSES RETURNED TO YHVH;
1a) Exo 5:22 So Moses returned to YHVH and said: Lord, why have You brought trouble on this people? Why is it You have sent me?
1b) Exo 5:23a For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done evil to this people;
central axis) Exo 5:23b Neither have You delivered Your people at all;
2b) Exo 6:1a Then YHVH said to Moses: Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh;
2a) Exo 6:1b {s} For with a strong hand he will let them go, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.
There is so much highlighted in this structure! God gave Moses a God-ordained mission, Moses obeyed, and the enemy opposed him. I believe Moses expected Pharaoh to see the signs, and say, Okay, go! Not only did the enemy not let the people go, he made their oppression worse. But God said, Now you will see what I will do. The increased oppression and resistance only served to increase the degree that God’s glory was manifest in overcoming the oppression and resistance in accomplishing the mission regardless!
Now isn’t it interesting that the central axis of the whole structure is that when the going got tough, Israel went … to Pharaoh for a redress of grievances, and not to YHVH! Their identity as slaves was so ingrained into them that the thought did not occur to them to petition YHVH for redress! However, Moses, who was raised a prince of Egypt and lived a free man for so many years in Midian, who did not have a slave identity, petitioned YHVH for redress and not Pharaoh.
Then, something leapt out at me in the 1C.1 pair. Pharaoh’s objection to Moses’ request, was that going to worship YHVH made the people rest from their labor. Wow, wow, wow! Rest from labor is the Sabbath commandment! The enemy, enslaver, and oppressor drives us to work and denies us rest from labor, but worshiping YHVH, celebrating and feasting in thanksgiving to Him, means rest from our labor (and this connection is why so many feast days are also Sabbaths)! Rest from labor is not idleness, despite Pharaoh’s accusation, for “six days you shall labor and do all your work,” so there is that famous Protestant work ethic, “but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.” (Exo 20:9-10, the 4th commandment). The modern American church has been told that actual physical rest from labor on the seventh day has passed away … but who is the author of denying and dismissing rest? Not YHVH.
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