Read Exodus 6 here or at Bible Gateway.
The Hebrew paragraphs:
4:27-6:1 {s} Pharaoh’s response to Moses and the children of Israel
6:2-9 {p} YHVH to reveal the meaning of His name by redeeming Israel from Egypt
6:10-12 {p} Speak to Pharaoh / How shall he heed me? (Moses’ question)
6:13 {s} YHVH commanded Israel and Pharaoh, through Moses and Aaron
6:14-28 {s} Moses and Aaron the seed of Levi
6:29-30 {p} I am YHVH (YHVH’s answer)
The Strong Themes of Exodus encountered so far:
1:1-2:22 {px3} Israel’s increase called forth the enemy’s opposition, so the deliverer born
2:23-4:17 {s+p} God called Moses in response to Israel’s need for deliverance
4:18-26 {p} Moses’ return to Egypt with Word and Signs of God; even then obedience necessary (circumcision)
4:27-6:9 {s+p} Pharaoh does not know YHVH, and plagues Israel; thus YHVH to reveal who He is to Pharaoh and Israel
6:10-12 {p} How shall he heed me? (Moses’ question)
6:13-30 {s+s+p} I have commanded you through Moses; I am YHVH (God’s answer)
The sense I get from the 6:13-30 Strong Theme, is that if YHVH gives someone a message, it is not their place to wonder whether anyone will heed it. It is their place to deliver the message. It is enough that YHVH has commanded it; He is YHVH; He will take care of the heeding or not heeding, one way or another.
Now why would the genealogy of Moses appear in the middle of the chapter 6 narrative? It answers the question alluded to, back in Genesis 15:
Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” Gen 15:13-16
The structure of verse 13 in the Hebrew is this:
A Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs
B and will serve them
B and they will afflict them
A four hundred years.
In this passage God is speaking of Abram’s descendants, of whom Isaac became the heir at his weaning at 5 yrs old, 30 years after Abram entered Canaan. Elsewhere it says the sojourning was 430 years, from Abram to the Exodus. Here it says the sojourning was 400 years, from Isaac, officially designated as Abraham’s heir at his weaning (25 years to his birth + 5 years to his weaning) to the Exodus.
The other clue we are given in Gen 15, is that the descendants will return to Canaan from Egypt in the fourth generation. The generations are given in Exo 6:14-20.
generation 1 = Levi, brother of Joseph; that generation the first in Egypt
generation 2 = Kohath, his son
generation 3 = Amram, his son
generation 4 = Moses, his son; this generation returned to Canaan.
if there are questions, these are good resources:
The Chronology of the Old Testament – Dr. Floyd Nolen Jones
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