Exodus 6:2

And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the LORD:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Exodus 6:2. I am the Lord — That is, Jehovah, on which word the emphasis is laid, and it is to be wished that it had been always preserved in this translation, and especially in such passages as this, the sense of which entirely depends on the word. It signifies the same with, I AM THAT I AM, the fountain of being and blessedness, and of infinite perfection. By my name Jehovah was I not known unto them — As it is certain that God declared himself to these patriarchs by the name Jehovah, as may be seen Genesis 15:6-7; Genesis 22:14; Genesis 22:16, some of the best and most accurate writers conclude that the latter part of this verse ought to be read interrogatively, thus, And by my name Jehovah was I not known unto them? The original words will well bear this translation, and it would entirely remove that apparent contradiction which is implied in our version. At the same time it would greatly improve the sense and force of the passage. But if we do not read it in this manner, we must not understand it of the name itself, but of the power and virtue which the name expresses. And then the meaning of the passage will be, that though God had revealed himself to the patriarchs as the El-shaddai, the Almighty, or All-sufficient, yet they did not live to see the accomplishment of his promises; and therefore, though they believed, yet they did not experimentally know that he was a God of unchangeable truth; nor had they experienced that all the powers of nature were in his hand, and that he could change them as he pleased, and even communicate the power of doing so to man. But it was to Moses that God first showed his power of making alterations in nature, or working miracles and prodigies. What makes this sense of the passage probable is, that the knowing of Jehovah is spoken of in this way, Exodus 7:5, And the Egyptians shall know that I am Jehovah, when I stretch forth my hand on Egypt. Thus, Henry observes, “The patriarchs knew this name, but they did know him in this matter by that which this name signifies.” God would now be known by his name Jehovah, that Isaiah , 1 st, A God performing what he had promised, and so giving being to his promises. 2d, A God perfecting what he had begun, and finishing his own work. In the history of the creation God is never called Jehovah till the heavens and the earth were finished, Genesis 2:4. When the salvation of the saints is completed in eternal life, then he will be known by his name Jehovah, Revelation 22:13; in the mean time they shall find him for their strength and support, El-shaddai, a God all-sufficient, a God that is enough.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

6:1-9 We are most likely to prosper in attempts to glorify God, and to be useful to men, when we learn by experience that we can do nothing of ourselves; when our whole dependence is placed on him, and our only expectation is from him. Moses had been expecting what God would do; but now he shall see what he will do. God would now be known by his name Jehovah, that is, a God performing what he had promised, and finishing his own work. God intended their happiness: I will take you to me for a people, a peculiar people, and I will be to you a God. More than this we need not ask, we cannot have, to make us happy. He intended his own glory: Ye shall know that I am the Lord. These good words, and comfortable words, should have revived the drooping Israelites, and have made them forget their misery; but they were so taken up with their troubles, that they did not heed God's promises. By indulging discontent and fretfulness, we deprive ourselves of the comfort we might have, both from God's word and from his providence, and go comfortless.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

There appears to have been an interval of some months between the preceding events and this renewal of the promise to Moses. The oppression in the meantime was not merely driving the people to desperation, but preparing them by severe labor, varied by hasty wanderings in search of stubble, for the exertions and privations of the wilderness. Hence, the formal and solemn character of the announcements in the whole chapter.

Exodus 6:2

I am the Lord ... - The meaning seems to be this: "I am Jehovah (Yahweh), and I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as El Shaddai, but as to my name Jehovah, I was not made known to them." In other words, the full import of that name was not disclosed to them. See Exodus 3:14.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2. And God spake unto Moses—For his further encouragement, there was made to him an emphatic repetition of the promise (Ex 3:20).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the Lord. Or Jehovah, the self-existent Being, the Being of beings, the everlasting I am, the unchangeable Jehovah, true, firm, and constant to his promises, ever to be believed, and always to be depended on.

Geneva Study Bible

And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the LORD:

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

2. I am Yahweh] The speaker declares His name to be ‘Yahweh,’ though to the patriarchs He had been known, not by this name, but as El Shaddai. It is the theory of P that the name ‘Yahweh’ was not known until now; and accordingly in the sections of Genesis belonging to P, Elohim, ‘God,’ is the Divine name regularly employed (except twice, Genesis 17:1; Genesis 21:1 b, where ‘Yahweh’ has been introduced by a scribe or redactor), ‘El Shaddai’ (see the next note) being the distinctive name said to have been revealed to, and used by, the patriarchs. The Being denoted by ‘Yahweh,’ the special, personal name of the God of Israel, is thus identified with the ‘Elohim’ and ‘El Shaddai’ of (according to P) the pre-Mosaic period. On the name Yahweh, see on Exodus 3:14, and p. 40.

as God Almighty] as El Shaddai. See Genesis 17:1 (‘I am El Shaddai,’ addressed to Abraham), Genesis 35:11 (‘I am El Shaddai,’ ad dressed to Jacob); Genesis 28:3 and Genesis 48:3 (‘El Shaddai’ used by Isaac (and Jacob). All these passages belong to P.

‘El Shaddai’ occurs besides in Genesis 43:14 (E), Genesis 49:25 [read with LXX. אל for את], Ezekiel 10:5; ‘Shaddai’ alone, as a poet, name of God, in Numbers 24:4; Numbers 24:16, Ruth 1:20-21, Ezekiel 1:24, Isaiah 13:6 = Joel 1:15, Psalm 68:14; Psalm 91:1, and 31 times in Job. Shaddai is rendered convention ally ‘Almighty’ (LXX. 14 times in Job παντοκράτωρ; elsewhere θεός, κύριος, &c., in Gen. Ex. strangely my (thy, their) God; Vulg. mostly omnipotens); and it is true that the idea of might does suit the context in many passages in which the name occurs; but whether ‘Almighty is its real meaning is more than we can say, neither tradition nor philology throwing any certain light upon it, and all suggested explanations of it,—the ‘Waster,’ the ‘Over-powerer,’ ‘My mountain, (from the Assyrian; cf. ‘My rock,’ Psalm 18:2 al.),—being open to objection of one kind or another (see the writer’s Genesis, p. 404 ff.).

I was not, &c.] Or (cf. Ezekiel 20:5), made I not myself known. For but, &c., a Yemen MS. of 11 cent. (Kittel), LXX., Syr., Vulg., Onk. have ‘but my name J. I made not known to them’ (ה for נ), easing the construction (Ewald, § 281c), but not materially affecting the sense.

2–8. God, who had appeared to the patriarchs as El Shaddai, reveals Himself to Moses by His name Yahweh; and bids him tell the Israelites that, having heard their groanings in bondage, He has resolved to fulfil the covenant made with the patriarchs, to deliver them from their sufferings, to make them His people, and to bring them into the land promised to their forefathers.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 2. - And God spake. The promise of the first verse was, apparently, given first, and was quite distinct from all the others - perhaps separated from them by an interval of hours, or days. It was especially addressed to Moses. The rest was in the main (ver. 6-8) a message to the people. I am the Lord. Or, "I am JEHOVAH." Compare 3:15, and note ad loc. Exodus 6:2

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Equipment of Moses and Aaron as Messengers of Jehovah. - Exodus 6:1. In reply to the complaining inquiry of Moses, Jehovah promised him the deliverance of Israel by a strong hand (cf. Exodus 3:19), by which Pharaoh would be compelled to let Israel go, and even to drive them out of his land. Moses did not receive any direct answer to the question, "Why hast Thou so evil-entreated this people?" He was to gather this first of all from his own experience as the leader of Israel. For the words were strictly applicable here: "What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter" (John 13:7). If, even after the miraculous deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt and their glorious march through the desert, in which they had received so many proofs of the omnipotence and mercy of their God, they repeatedly rebelled against the guidance of God, and were not content with the manna provided by the Lord, but lusted after the fishes, leeks, and onions of Egypt (Numbers 11); it is certain that in such a state of mind as this, they would never have been willing to leave Egypt and enter into a covenant with Jehovah, without a very great increase in the oppression they endured in Egypt. - The brief but comprehensive promise was still further explained by the Lord (Exodus 6:2-9), and Moses was instructed and authorized to carry out the divine purposes in concert with Aaron (Exodus 6:10-13, Exodus 6:28-30; Exodus 7:1-6). The genealogy of the two messengers is then introduced into the midst of these instructions (Exodus 6:14-27); and the age of Moses is given at the close (Exodus 7:7). This section does not contain a different account of the calling of Moses, taken from some other source than the previous one; it rather presupposes Exodus 3-5, and completes the account commenced in Exodus 3 of the equipment of Moses and Aaron as the executors of the divine will with regard to Pharaoh and Israel. For the fact that the first visit paid by Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh was simply intended to bring out the attitude of Pharaoh towards the purposes of Jehovah, and to show the necessity for the great judgments of God, is distinctly expressed in the words, "Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh." But before these judgments commenced, Jehovah announced to Moses (Exodus 6:2), and through him to the people, that henceforth He would manifest Himself to them in a much more glorious manner than to the patriarchs, namely, as Jehovah; whereas to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He had only appeared as El Shaddai. The words, "By My name Jehovah was I now known to them," do not mean, however, that the patriarchs were altogether ignorant of the name Jehovah. This is obvious from the significant use of that name, which was not an unmeaning sound, but a real expression of the divine nature, and still more from the unmistakeable connection between the explanation given by God here and Genesis 17:1. When the establishment of the covenant commenced, as described in Genesis 15, with the institution of the covenant sign of circumcision and the promise of the birth of Isaac, Jehovah said to Abram, "I am El Shaddai, God Almighty," and from that time forward manifested Himself to Abram and his wife as the Almighty, in the birth of Isaac, which took place apart altogether from the powers of nature, and also in the preservation, guidance, and multiplication of his seed. It was in His attribute as El Shaddai that God had revealed His nature to the patriarchs; but now He was about to reveal Himself to Israel as Jehovah, as the absolute Being working with unbounded freedom in the performance of His promises. For not only had He established His covenant with the fathers (Exodus 6:4), but He had also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, and remembered His covenant (Exodus 6:5; וגם - וגם, not only - but also). The divine promise not only commences in Exodus 6:2, but concludes at Exodus 6:8, with the emphatic expression, "I Jehovah," to show that the work of Israel's redemption resided in the power of the name Jehovah. In Exodus 6:4 the covenant promises of Genesis 17:7-8; Genesis 26:3; Genesis 35:11-12, are all brought together; and in Exodus 6:5 we have a repetition of Exodus 2:24, with the emphatically repeated אני (I). On the ground of the erection of His covenant on the one hand, and, what was irreconcilable with that covenant, the bondage of Israel on the other, Jehovah was not about to redeem Israel from its sufferings and make it His own nation. This assurance, which God would carry out by the manifestation of His nature as expressed in the name Jehovah, contained three distinct elements: (a) the deliverance of Israel from the bondage of Egypt, which, because so utterly different from all outward appearances, is described in three parallel clauses: bringing them out from under the burdens of the Egyptians; saving them from their bondage; and redeeming them with a stretched-out arm and with great judgments; - (b) the adoption of Israel as the nation of God; - (c) the guidance of Israel into the land promised to the fathers (Exodus 6:6-8). נטוּיה זרוע, a stretched-out arm, is most appropriately connected with גּדלים שׁפטים, great judgments; for God raises, stretches out His arm, when He proceeds in judgment to smite the rebellious. These expressions repeat with greater emphasis the "strong hand" of Exodus 6:1, and are frequently connected with it in the rhetorical language of Deuteronomy (e.g., Deuteronomy 4:34; Deuteronomy 5:15; Deuteronomy 7:19). The "great judgments" were the plagues, the judgments of God, by which Pharaoh was to be compelled to let Israel go.