The big picture
God answers Moses' complaint by returning to identity, covenant, and promises rather than by pretending the new suffering is insignificant. Israel will be brought out, redeemed, taken as God's people, and brought into the promised land. The people, however, are too crushed by anguish and cruel bondage to listen, and Exodus explicitly names those conditions before Moses turns their response into another objection about Pharaoh. The chapter then pauses for a genealogy, moving through Reuben and Simeon before narrowing to Levi and the household of Moses and Aaron. That interruption grounds the messengers in a real family and introduces relatives who will matter later. When the dialogue resumes, nothing about Moses' insecurity has magically vanished. The same man with "uncircumcised lips" still faces the same king, but now the covenant, the promise, and the identity of the messengers have been firmly restated.
In this chapter
- Knowing the Name Through What Happens Next Exodus 6:1-5
The answer to Moses' complaint begins with "Now," but what follows is not an excuse for the suffering of chapter 5.
- Out of Bondage and Into a Relationship Exodus 6:6-8
The promise comes in a chain of first-person verbs that keeps the weight of accomplishment on the LORD: bring out, rid from bondage, redeem, take as a people, be their God, and bring into the land.
- Anguish Is Named Before Unbelief Is Blamed Exodus 6:9-13
Moses delivers the promises, and Israel does not listen.
- The Family Behind the Two Messengers Exodus 6:14-25
Just when the action seems ready to return to Pharaoh, Exodus stops for family names.
- The Same Men, the Same Unfinished Objection Exodus 6:26-30
The genealogy closes by pointing back to the men the reader already knows: this is that Aaron and Moses, and these are the men who speak to Pharaoh.
Scripture beside the summary
Exodus · King James Version · 30Exodus 6:1-5
Knowing the Name Through What Happens Next
The answer to Moses' complaint begins with "Now," but what follows is not an excuse for the suffering of chapter 5. The LORD returns to his name, the ancestral covenant, the promised land, and Israel's groaning. Pharaoh will eventually drive the people out under a strong hand, turning the ruler who refuses release into the ruler who urgently demands departure. The difficult statement about the patriarchs and the name Jehovah remains difficult in light of Genesis' earlier use of that name. Exodus itself does not stop to harmonize every aspect of the wording. Its immediate force is clearer: the God now acting is the same God who appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, established the covenant, and promised Canaan. Israel's present bondage has not cancelled that commitment, and the coming acts will make the identity behind the promise known in a new, public way.
Deep dive
The opening "Now" answers the complaint that nothing has happened. Pharaoh will not merely permit departure; under the strong hand he will drive Israel out. The assurance is followed by God's identification as the LORD and by the covenant with the ancestors. The promise of land belongs to a relationship already established while Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were strangers there. Egypt's present possession of Israel does not erase that prior commitment.
Verse 3 presents a genuine difficulty. Its statement about not being known to the patriarchs by the name Jehovah can sound like a first disclosure of the name itself, yet Genesis 12:8 and 15:7 already use the divine name in the patriarchal account. One reading emphasizes that tension as a difference between the presentations; another understands "known" as fuller knowledge through experience, not merely hearing a designation. On the latter reading, the exodus will disclose what the name means in action. The chapter does not expressly settle every aspect of the difficulty. It does clearly insist that the God acting now is the God who made the ancestral covenant.
Words to trace: land, covenant, hand, LORD, Moses, name
Verse-by-verse path
- Exodus 6:1
“Strong hand” appears twice, and the Hebrew leaves open whose hand it is: God’s hand forcing Pharaoh, or Pharaoh’s own hand, driving Israel out in haste. Both happen in 12:31–33. “Now shalt thou see” answers Moses’ complaint of 5:23 with the same word, “now”.
- Exodus 6:2
“God spake” uses Elohim, and what he says is “I am YHWH”. That bare sentence opens or closes the speech four times in this chapter (verses 2, 6, 8 and 29), placed at the head and foot of the promises like a seal on a royal decree.
- Exodus 6:3
“God Almighty” is El Shaddai, the name used to Abraham in Genesis 17:1 and to Jacob in 35:11. JEHOVAH is the King James rendering of YHWH, a hybrid that combines the consonants of the name with the vowels of Adonai. This is one of only four places the King James prints it in full.
- Exodus 6:4
“The land of their pilgrimage” is literally “the land of their sojournings”, eretz megurehem. The patriarchs were gerim, resident aliens, in the land promised to them. Abraham bought his only piece of it, a grave, as a sojourner (Genesis 23:4).
- Exodus 6:5
“I have also” is repeated from verse 4, linking what God swore to the patriarchs with what he now hears from their descendants. The groaning of 2:24 is heard again, but this time God himself reports it, where there the book reported it.
Exodus 6:1-5
King James Version1Then the LORD said unto Moses, Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh: for with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land.
2And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the LORD:
3And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.
4And I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers.
5And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant.
Exodus 6:6-8
Out of Bondage and Into a Relationship
The promise comes in a chain of first-person verbs that keeps the weight of accomplishment on the LORD: bring out, rid from bondage, redeem, take as a people, be their God, and bring into the land. Freedom from Egypt is only the first movement. The sequence aims toward relationship and inheritance, not merely the absence of taskmasters. Israel will know the LORD as the God who actually brought them out from under Egypt's burdens. Even the language of redemption here is not a commercial bargain with Pharaoh. It appears beside an outstretched arm and great judgments, the vocabulary of reclaiming people from a power that will not willingly release them. The final promise of land then reaches back to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Exodus is answering the missing straw by promising the end of the entire structure that made Pharaoh's labor policy possible.
Deep dive
The sequence of divine commitments has a direction. God will bring Israel out, remove the bondage, redeem them, take them as his people, and bring them into the promised land. Freedom from Egypt is therefore not the final item. The central declaration joins a people to their God, and knowledge of the LORD is tied to recognizing who has brought them out. The repeated first-person promises keep the burden of accomplishing this movement on the speaker rather than on the exhausted audience.
Redemption appears with an outstretched arm and great judgments, not with a price negotiated with Pharaoh. The language describes a decisive reclaiming of people held in another's power. The land is then called an inheritance or possession, contrasting with the patriarchs' earlier status as strangers there. God's name stands at the edges of the announcement, enclosing release, relationship, and destination within the identity being revealed. The answer to chapter 5 is thus larger than a promise to restore the missing straw. The entire condition that makes Pharaoh's straw policy possible is to be ended.
Words to trace: LORD, burdens, Egyptians, Abraham, bondage, bringeth
Verse-by-verse path
- Exodus 6:6
Three verbs of release: bring out, rid, redeem. “Redeem” is ga’al, the duty of a kinsman to buy back a relative sold into slavery or to avenge his blood (Leviticus 25:48). God takes the role of Israel’s next of kin. “Stretched out arm” is a phrase Deuteronomy repeats often.
- Exodus 6:7
“I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God” is the language of marriage and of adoption, and it becomes the covenant formula repeated through Jeremiah and Ezekiel and quoted in Revelation 21:3. The Passover liturgy counts four cups of wine from the four verbs of verses 6–7.
- Exodus 6:8
“Did swear” is literally “lifted up my hand”, the gesture of an oath. The land is a “heritage”, morashah, a possession passed down. The speech closes as it opened, “I am the LORD”, like a signature on the promise.
Exodus 6:6-8
King James Version6Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments:
7And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.
8And I will bring you in unto the land, concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage: I am the LORD.
Exodus 6:9-13
Anguish Is Named Before Unbelief Is Blamed
Moses delivers the promises, and Israel does not listen. Exodus immediately tells the reader why: anguish of spirit and cruel bondage. That explanation refuses to flatten the people's response into a simple spiritual defect. They have just been crushed by harder work, failed quotas, beatings, and the collapse of their first hope for relief. The promise has not become smaller, but the people hearing it have become exhausted. Moses takes their response as evidence that Pharaoh will certainly not hear him and again describes his lips as unfit. The phrase "uncircumcised lips" expresses impediment or unsuitability rather than supplying a new medical diagnosis. God's reply is not to erase either the people's distress or Moses' insecurity. The charge is simply renewed to Moses and Aaron, concerning both Israel and Pharaoh, because the commission has not been cancelled by the first failed reception.
Deep dive
Exodus specifies why the people fail to listen: anguish of spirit and cruel bondage. That explanation matters. The passage does not simply place their response under a general label of stubbornness and move on. Their conditions obstruct their capacity to receive the announcement. The promises are no smaller than before, but the people hearing them have just experienced greater burdens and beatings. The account keeps those circumstances in view.
Moses turns their response into an argument about the next audience. If Israel has not listened, he reasons, Pharaoh is even less likely to do so. His description of himself as having "uncircumcised lips" is a metaphor of impediment or unfitness, not an anatomical statement. The phrase echoes the covenant sign that has already appeared in his own household, but Exodus does not explain it as a new physical defect. God's response is a charge to both brothers concerning both Israel and Pharaoh. The commission continues without requiring the text to pretend that either the audience's distress or the messenger's objection has disappeared.
Words to trace: children, Israel, Moses, spake, Egypt, LORD
Verse-by-verse path
- Exodus 6:9
“Anguish of spirit” is qotser ruach, literally “shortness of breath” or of spirit, the gasping of one pressed beyond endurance. “Cruel bondage” is “hard service”, the same phrase as 1:14, so the book ties their deafness directly to what Egypt did to them.
- Exodus 6:10
A bare introduction, repeated in the book dozens of times, but this one marks a new beginning after Moses’ report of failure. The LORD simply starts again, and the instruction that follows is short.
- Exodus 6:11
“Go in” means enter the palace. The command is broader than before: not a three days’ journey but release “out of his land”. The request has grown since chapter 5, not shrunk.
- Exodus 6:12
“Uncircumcised lips” is a striking image: lips closed or blocked, as an uncircumcised heart in Leviticus 26:41 or ear in Jeremiah 6:10 is unresponsive. Moses reasons from the lesser to the greater: if Israel would not listen, how much less the king.
- Exodus 6:13
After the genealogical pause is set up, the charge is laid on Moses and Aaron together, the verb tsavah, to command with authority. It covers two audiences at once, Israel and Pharaoh, and it answers Moses’ objection in the previous verse by simply restating the order.
Exodus 6:9-13
King James Version9And Moses spake so unto the children of Israel: but they hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage.
10And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
11Go in, speak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, that he let the children of Israel go out of his land.
12And Moses spake before the LORD, saying, Behold, the children of Israel have not hearkened unto me; how then shall Pharaoh hear me, who am of uncircumcised lips?
13And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, and gave them a charge unto the children of Israel, and unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.
Exodus 6:14-25
The Family Behind the Two Messengers
Just when the action seems ready to return to Pharaoh, Exodus stops for family names. Reuben and Simeon appear first, preserving the order of Jacob's sons, but the list grows more detailed when it reaches Levi. There the genealogy locates Moses and Aaron inside the household of Amram and Jochebed and then continues through Aaron's wife and sons to Phinehas. The pause is not interested only in the two famous brothers. Names such as Korah, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar reach forward into later parts of the book and Israel's life. The effect is grounding rather than glamorous. The men about to confront a king are not solitary heroes who arrived without ancestry or obligations. They belong to a wider clan, and their public commission sits inside that family line. Exodus identifies the mouths under discussion before sending them back to speak.
Deep dive
The list begins with Reuben and Simeon before settling on Levi, preserving the brothers' order rather than starting with Moses as though he had no wider family. Once Levi is reached, the detail increases. Amram and Jochebed are named as the parents of Aaron and Moses, supplying the names omitted from the infancy account. The record then follows Aaron's marriage and descendants as far as Phinehas. Its interest extends beyond the two men about to confront Pharaoh.
This is a selective genealogy, not an attempt to repeat every tribal family. Its placement identifies the commissioned men within Israel and introduces relatives whose names will matter later, including Korah and Aaron's sons. The interruption is therefore functional, though it deliberately slows the action. Exodus momentarily steps away from an exchange about inadequate lips to establish exactly whose lips are in question. The men at the center of the deliverance belong to a named household and an extended family, not to an isolated heroic beginning.
Words to trace: sons, families, years, Amram, bare, Kohath
Verse-by-verse path
- Exodus 6:14
The list begins with Reuben and Simeon only to reach Levi, the third son, and then it stops. Reuben is still called “firstborn of Israel” although he lost the rights (Genesis 49:3–4). The four sons match Genesis 46:9 exactly.
- Exodus 6:15
Shaul, “son of a Canaanitish woman”, is singled out, as Genesis 46:10 did. Simeon married outside the family, which Genesis records without comment. Jemuel is Nemuel in Numbers 26:12, and Ohad drops out of later lists entirely, perhaps because his line died out.
- Exodus 6:16
Levi’s age, 137, is given, which Reuben’s and Simeon’s are not. The list is interested in Levi’s line. Gershon, Kohath and Merari become the three clans who carry the tabernacle in Numbers 3–4.
- Exodus 6:17
Libni and Shimi are the heads of the Gershonite clans. Numbers 3:21 names the two families after them, the Libnites and the Shimites, whose job was to carry the tabernacle’s curtains and coverings.
- Exodus 6:18
Kohath’s four sons include Amram, Moses’ father. Kohath lived 133 years. The Kohathites were given the holiest objects to carry, the ark among them (Numbers 4:4–15), which fits the line that produced Moses and Aaron.
- Exodus 6:19
Mahali, spelled Mahli elsewhere, and Mushi are the Merarite clans, who in Numbers 4:31–32 carry the tabernacle’s boards, bars, pillars and sockets, the heaviest loads. With them the three branches of Levi are complete.
- Exodus 6:20
Jochebed means “the LORD is glory”, one of the earliest names built on the divine name. Marriage to a father’s sister was later forbidden in Leviticus 18:12, and the record does not hide it. The Greek and some other versions make her his cousin instead. Amram, like Levi, lived 137 years.
- Exodus 6:21
Korah, son of Izhar, is Moses’ first cousin, and he will lead the rebellion against Moses and Aaron in Numbers 16. The genealogy plants his name here, long before he acts.
- Exodus 6:22
Mishael and Elzaphan are the two cousins who carry out the bodies of Nadab and Abihu in Leviticus 10:4, called there by Moses. Their only recorded act is that sad duty.
- Exodus 6:23
Aaron marries into Judah: Elisheba’s brother Naashon, or Nahshon, is the prince of Judah in Numbers 1:7 and an ancestor of David (Ruth 4:20) and so of Jesus (Matthew 1:4). Elisheba is the Hebrew form of Elizabeth, the name of Aaron’s descendant in Luke 1:5.
- Exodus 6:24
Korah’s sons survived their father’s rebellion; Numbers 26:11 states that “the children of Korah died not”. Their descendants became temple singers, and eleven psalms carry the heading “for the sons of Korah”.
- Exodus 6:25
Putiel is a name not found elsewhere, and it may combine Egyptian and Hebrew elements. Phinehas is an Egyptian name, “the Nubian” or “the dark one”. His zeal in Numbers 25 wins him a covenant of perpetual priesthood, and the list closes on him.
Exodus 6:14-25
King James Version14These be the heads of their fathers’ houses: The sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel; Hanoch, and Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi: these be the families of Reuben.
15And the sons of Simeon; Jemuel, and Jamin, and Ohad, and Jachin, and Zohar, and Shaul the son of a Canaanitish woman: these are the families of Simeon.
16And these are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations; Gershon, and Kohath, and Merari: and the years of the life of Levi were an hundred thirty and seven years.
17The sons of Gershon; Libni, and Shimi, according to their families.
18And the sons of Kohath; Amram, and Izhar, and Hebron, and Uzziel: and the years of the life of Kohath were an hundred thirty and three years.
19And the sons of Merari; Mahali and Mushi: these are the families of Levi according to their generations.
20And Amram took him Jochebed his father’s sister to wife; and she bare him Aaron and Moses: and the years of the life of Amram were an hundred and thirty and seven years.
21And the sons of Izhar; Korah, and Nepheg, and Zichri.
22And the sons of Uzziel; Mishael, and Elzaphan, and Zithri.
23And Aaron took him Elisheba, daughter of Amminadab, sister of Naashon, to wife; and she bare him Nadab, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.
24And the sons of Korah; Assir, and Elkanah, and Abiasaph: these are the families of the Korhites.
25And Eleazar Aaron’s son took him one of the daughters of Putiel to wife; and she bare him Phinehas: these are the heads of the fathers of the Levites according to their families.
Exodus 6:26-30
The Same Men, the Same Unfinished Objection
The genealogy closes by pointing back to the men the reader already knows: this is that Aaron and Moses, and these are the men who speak to Pharaoh. The repeated identification ties the family record directly to the commission rather than allowing the chapter to split into unrelated pieces. Even the order of the brothers changes with the emphasis, first Aaron and Moses in family context, then Moses and Aaron in public action. After that pause, the dialogue resumes almost exactly where it left off. The LORD commands Moses to speak everything he is given, and Moses again raises the problem of his "uncircumcised lips" and asks how Pharaoh will hear him. The objection has not been solved by genealogy, but the man making it has now been firmly located within Israel, its covenant past, and the family that will stand with him.
Deep dive
The repeated identification is unusually emphatic: these are the Aaron and Moses who were told to bring Israel out, and these are the Moses and Aaron who spoke to Pharaoh. Their order reverses as the emphasis moves from family identification to public commission. The repetition ties the genealogy back into the surrounding action rather than launching a separate account. The phrase "according to their armies" also anticipates Israel's ordered departure, though the people are still laboring under Egypt's control.
Verses 28–30 resume the exchange interrupted by the family list. God's command to speak all that he gives is followed again by Moses' objection about his lips and Pharaoh's hearing. That return makes the genealogy a deliberate pause, not evidence that the commission has already succeeded between verses. The chapter ends at the same practical difficulty with which Moses confronted the charge. What has changed is the setting around it: the covenant has been restated, the promise expanded, and the messengers firmly identified.
Words to trace: Egypt, LORD, Moses, Pharaoh, spake, Aaron
Verse-by-verse path
- Exodus 6:26
“That Aaron and Moses” points at the pair as if to say “these very men”. “According to their armies” is tsiv’otam, hosts or divisions, a military word. Israel will leave Egypt as an ordered army, not a crowd of fugitives (12:41, 51).
- Exodus 6:27
Now the order flips to “Moses and Aaron”. Verse 26 names the family relationship with the elder first; verse 27 names the public role with the leader first. The genealogy has done its work of identifying the men.
- Exodus 6:28
A resumption: after the genealogy the account picks up its thread by pointing back to the day God spoke in Egypt. The sentence is left incomplete and finished by verse 29, a common way ancient writers rejoined an account after a digression.
- Exodus 6:29
“I am the LORD” for the fourth time in the chapter. The instruction is total: “all that I say unto thee”. Moses is commissioned as a spokesman who adds and subtracts nothing, the standard Deuteronomy 18:18 later sets for a prophet.
- Exodus 6:30
Moses repeats his objection of verse 12 almost word for word. The repetition frames the genealogy: the family list sits between two identical complaints, and the answer comes in the next chapter, where Aaron is made his prophet.
Exodus 6:26-30
King James Version26These are that Aaron and Moses, to whom the LORD said, Bring out the children of Israel from the land of Egypt according to their armies.
27These are they which spake to Pharaoh king of Egypt, to bring out the children of Israel from Egypt: these are that Moses and Aaron.
28And it came to pass on the day when the LORD spake unto Moses in the land of Egypt,
29That the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, I am the LORD: speak thou unto Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I say unto thee.
30And Moses said before the LORD, Behold, I am of uncircumcised lips, and how shall Pharaoh hearken unto me?
Questions to keep in mind while reading
- Identify the people addressed and the covenant setting.
- Distinguish rescue, worship, holiness, justice, and community responsibility.
- Read commands in their literary and covenant context before making a modern application.
Text first
Where readers differ
The chapter summary begins with what the passage says and how its parts fit together. It does not assume one denomination has already settled every question. Where a conclusion depends on a tradition, literary theory, or historical reconstruction, that dependence is named openly.
The KJV text is presented first. Interpretive conclusions are labeled, and differences are introduced only when they help a reader understand why serious communities do not always reach the same answer.
Comparative interpretive notes for this chapter are in preparation. Until reviewed notes are ready, this page separates the KJV text from summary and application without claiming that serious readers agree on every question.
Questions beneath the surface
- What account of God, human freedom, responsibility, and the good life emerges from Exodus 6?
- Which tension does the chapter refuse to resolve quickly?
- What changes when the chapter is read as part of the whole canon rather than as an isolated moral lesson?
- Where might a sincere reader confuse a familiar tradition with something the text states directly?
Questions for serious personal contemplation
These open-ended questions make room for tension, honest response, prayer, and conclusions that remain accountable to the chapter.
Observe without rushing
What part of Exodus 6 makes you stop, feel unsettled, or feel surprised, and why?
Which detail in the passage would be easiest to overlook? How does that detail change your understanding?
Where do you see tension between what happens and this focus: Exodus 6:1–30 completes a passage that was not covered by the original study-unit map. Its own wording and immediate context supply the focus.?
What important question does the passage leave open instead of resolving quickly?
Examine your inner life honestly
Which person, response, fear, or desire in the passage feels most like your own life right now?
What assumption about God, other people, or yourself does this text challenge?
Which part would you rather soften, avoid, or explain away too quickly? What might that reaction reveal?
If this Scripture could ask you one direct question, what do you think it would ask?
Respond with wisdom and courage
What do you need to remember, confess, grieve, thank God for, or trust after reading this passage?
How might another faithful person read this situation differently without ignoring the text?
What obedient response would be costly, uncomfortable, or slow, yet still faithful to Scripture?
What question will you carry into prayer this week, and which verses will you keep in front of you?
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
