Exodus: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13a 13b 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30a 30b 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38a 38b 39 40
Chapter 5 (to 6:1)
5:1 VA ACHAR BA'U MOSHEH VE AHARON VA YOMRU EL PAR'OH KOH AMAR YHVH ELOHEY YISRA-EL SHALACH ET AMI VA YACHOGU LI BA MIDBAR
וְאַחַר בָּאוּ מֹשֶׁה וְאַהֲרֹן וַיֹּאמְרוּ אֶל פַּרְעֹה כֹּה אָמַר יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל שַׁלַּח אֶת עַמִּי וְיָחֹגּוּ לִי בַּמִּדְבָּר
KJ (King James translation): And afterward Moses
and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Let my
people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.
BA'U: Two Ivri slaves do not easily obtain an audience with the Pharaoh. But Mosheh is not a regular Ivri slave; he is Pharaoh's grandson (or probably the late Pharaoh's grandson, the current Pharaoh's adoptive-brother), whether actual, by adoption, or by up-bringing. At the same time he is also a man who was once wanted for murder, though his seekers are now all dead, including that Pharaoh. So this refugee criminal can just walk into the palace and see the new Pharaoh, with his slave-brother at his side? And if they really were after him for the murder, and knew Aharon, as Pharaoh clearly does, by name, could they not have, would they not have used Aharon, and through him the rest of the family, to get to Mosheh when they were still pursuing him? There are many incongruities in this episode.
Perhaps rather more important is the statement, right here in verse one, at the start of the Pharonic part of the tale, that the request is as YHVH expressed it the second time (Exodus 3:12), and not as he expressed it the first (Exodus 3:8-10), which was to take them out of the land of Mitsrayim, all the way to Kena'an, and a land flowing with milk and honey. This is to be a journey into the desert for a religious purpose, with an implied intention to return afterwards; which may, of course, as I noted at the time, be disingenuous, a mere divine strategy; but the ways of god are notoriously mysterious and so we cannot know this, we can only read and interpret the text.
VE YACHOGU: What feast is it anyway? We have been told about OTOT, which are intended as "signs" and appear to link with the thrown sceptre that becomes a serpent. But elsewhere, especially at Creation, the signs are "festivals and seasons" (see for example Genesis 1:14). And here the verb is YACHOGU, from CHAG. There are only three official CHAGIM in the Yisra-Eli calendar, all three "pilgrim festivals", which is to say "harvest festivals": Shavu'ot in the summer for the first fruits, Sukot in the autumn for the corn and tree-fruits, and the one that we are about to witness, the Pesach itself, the beginning of the agricultural year in the spring.
5:2 VA YOMER PAR'OH MI YHVH ASHER ESHMA BE KOLO LESHALACH ET YISRA-EL LO YADA'TI ET YHVH VE GAM ET YISRA-EL LO ASHALACH
וַיֹּאמֶר פַּרְעֹה מִי יְהוָה אֲשֶׁר אֶשְׁמַע בְּקֹלוֹ לְשַׁלַּח אֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל לֹא יָדַעְתִּי אֶת יְהוָה וְגַם אֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל לֹא אֲשַׁלֵּחַ
KJ: And Pharaoh said, Who is the LORD,
that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the LORD, neither
will I let Israel go.
YISRA-EL: Highly unlikely that an Egyptian Pharaoh ever thought of these people as Beney Yisra-El, though here he is simply throwing Mosheh and Aharon's words back at them, probably sarcastically. To him they were Habiru, which would become IVRIM in the Yehudit; and it is as Habiru that they refer to themselves in the next verse, probably in recognition of his negative response to Yisra-El.
5:3 VA YOMRU ELOHEY HA IVRIM NIKRA ALEYNU NELCHAH NA DERECH SHELOSHET YAMIM BA MIDBAR VE NIZBECHAH LA YHVH ELOHEYNU PEN YIPHGA'ENU BA DEVER O BE CHAREV
וַיֹּאמְרוּ אֱלֹהֵי הָעִבְרִים נִקְרָא עָלֵינוּ נֵלְכָה נָּא דֶּרֶךְ שְׁלֹשֶׁת יָמִים בַּמִּדְבָּר וְנִזְבְּחָה לַיהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ פֶּן יִפְגָּעֵנוּ בַּדֶּבֶר אוֹ בֶחָרֶב
KJ: And they said, The God
of the Hebrews hath met with us: let us go, we pray thee, three days' journey
into the desert, and sacrifice unto the LORD our God; lest he fall upon us with
pestilence, or with the sword.
ELOHEY HA IVRIM: which is not necessarily the same as ELOHEY YISRA-EL in verse 1; at least, Pharaoh might not understand it as the same. But we need to note that, just as the god is sometimes Elohim and sometimes YHVH and sometimes Ha Elohim, so the people are sometimes Ivrim (Hebrews) and sometimes Beney Yisra-El (Israelites), and these may not actually be the same folk.
NIKRA ALEYNU: translations say "met with us", but NIKRA means "called to us".
From On (Heliopolis), which is Cairo today, to Ismailia, at the tip of the Bitter Lakes, where the Suez Canal now sits, is a distance of 170 kilometres or just over a hundred miles; if the Pharaoh was not Hyksos, this is where they would have started. If the Pharaoh was Hyksos, they would have started at Avaris, much further north, and about sixty miles from Ismailia. A large band of pilgrims, on foot in a desert, might manage that latter in three days, if they put the children and the elderly on donkeys, but they are unlikely to get any further, especially as they have the lakes to cross (the Sea of Reeds is almost certainly these lakes, as well as the marshlands on each side. The Red Sea is a great deal further, and the Red Sea crossing into Midyan a very great deal further still - click here for the enlarged version of the map. People undertaking the Camino de Santiago in Spain reckon 12 or 13 miles in a day is about maximum - click here. All of which suggests that Mosheh is not planning to go anywhere near the Bitter Lakes, let alone the Red Sea. Succoth, which is marked on the above map, is about the limit. Based on these figures, the real miracle of the Red Sea crossing was not the turning back of the water, but that quite so many people (well over a million, according to the numbers we are given later) could make that immense cross-desert journey in a single night.
NIZBECHAH: the intention is to make sacrifice, but there is no evidence of any sacrifice when they get there - except, of course, the Golden Calf.
PEN YIPHGA'ENU: "Lest he strike us down", meaning that the Ivrim will be punished if they do not go; but the instruction, and the plagues to follow, clearly state that it is the Mitsrim who will suffer. And given that he does not believe in their god(s), why should this influence Pharaoh in their favour? The argument makes no sense. And then, note the verb that is used, and see my comment at verse 20.
DEVER: the same root as DAVAR = "word", as in VA YEDABER = "and he spoke". It is also the root of DEVORAH (Deborah), the wet-nurse of Rivkah (Rebecca), and the oracle of Alon Bachot. Here it is used alongside YIPHGA'ENU, which is the main word for plague in this tale (the noun is MAGEPHAH - מגפה); but the fifth plague, which is a pestilence affecting cattle, is also called DEVER in the Yehudit (Exodus 9:3).
CHAREV: A sword, as we have seen before, particularly with the flaming sword that guards the gates of Eden. But it is also the name of the mountain, Chorev (Horeb), to which they are supposedly going to make this festival. So perhaps it does not mean "sword" here, but refers to the volcano; when Mir-Yam is covered in volcanic dust in Numbers 12:10, that will be described as "leprosy", which is a kind of "plague", at least in the understanding of these matters at that time.
5:4 VA YOMER ALEYHEM MELECH MITSRAYIM LAMAH MOSHEH VE AHARON TAPHRIY'U ET HA AM MI MA'ASAV LECHU LE SIVLOTEYCHEM
וַיֹּאמֶר אֲלֵהֶם מֶלֶךְ מִצְרַיִם לָמָּה מֹשֶׁה וְאַהֲרֹן תַּפְרִיעוּ אֶת הָעָם מִמַּעֲשָׂיו לְכוּ לְסִבְלֹתֵיכֶם
KJ: And the king of Egypt
said unto them, Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their
works? get you unto your burdens.
LECHU LE SIVLOTEYCHEM: And if Mosheh was a prince of Egypt, then he had no burdens to get back to; "tasks" maybe, "official duties" certainly, but the word used here infers "suffering".
5:5 VA YOMER PAR'OH HEN RABIM ATAH AM HA ARETS VE HISHBATEM OTAM MI SIVLOTAM
וַיֹּאמֶר פַּרְעֹה הֵן רַבִּים עַתָּה עַם הָאָרֶץ וְהִשְׁבַּתֶּם אֹתָם מִסִּבְלֹתָם
KJ: And Pharaoh said,
Behold, the people of the land now are many,
and ye make them rest from their burdens.
At first you will have baulked at my translation. Take the verse word by word, ask where the punctuation needs to go, and note the broken phrases. VA YOMER PAR'OH: "HEN RABIM. ATAH AM HA ARETS. VE HISHBATEM OTAM MI SIVLOTAM".
HEN RABIM: with the logical inference: "how can you organise taking that many people quite that far? It isn't doable". (And a second instance of HEN for "them", usng the feminine.)
AM HA ARETS: is the Yehudit equivalent of "hoi poloi".
And if my translation still troubles, why would Pharaoh say what the KJ has him say, given that he said the same thing exactly in the previous verse? If Mosheh and the Pharaoh grew up together, as I am presuming, and that this is how he is able to gain audience as and when he pleases, a relationship of considerable informality, including the hostility that we witness here, is not only plausible but likely. In a filmed version of this, I would want Pharaoh to be shaking his head in dismay and disbelief as he gives Mosheh this ticking off.
5:6 VA YETSAV PAR'OH BE YOM HA HU ET HA NOGSIM BA'AM VE ET SHOTRAV LEMOR
וַיְצַו פַּרְעֹה בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא אֶת הַנֹּגְשִׂים בָּעָם וְאֶת שֹׁטְרָיו לֵאמֹר
KJ: And Pharaoh commanded
the same day the taskmasters of the people, and their officers, saying,
5:7 LO TOSIPHUN LATET TEVEN LA AM LILBON HA LEVENIM KITMOL SHILSHOM HEM YELCHU VE KOSHESHU LAHEM TEVEN
לֹא תֹאסִפוּן לָתֵת תֶּבֶן לָעָם לִלְבֹּן הַלְּבֵנִים כִּתְמוֹל שִׁלְשֹׁם הֵם יֵלְכוּ וְקֹשְׁשׁוּ לָהֶם תֶּבֶן
KJ: Ye shall no more give
the people straw to make brick, as heretofore: let them go and gather straw for
themselves.
5:8 VE ET MATKONET HA LEVENIM ASHER HEM OSIM TEMOL SHILSHOM TASIYMU ALEYHEM LO TIGRE'U MIMENU KI NIRPHIM HEM AL KEN HEM TSO'AKIM LEMOR NELCHAH NIZBECHAH LELOHEYNU
וְאֶת מַתְכֹּנֶת הַלְּבֵנִים אֲשֶׁר הֵם עֹשִׂים תְּמוֹל שִׁלְשֹׁם תָּשִׂימוּ עֲלֵיהֶם לֹא תִגְרְעוּ מִמֶּנּוּ כִּי נִרְפִּים הֵם עַל כֵּן הֵם צֹעֲקִים לֵאמֹר נֵלְכָה נִזְבְּחָה לֵאלֹהֵינוּ
KJ: And the tale of the
bricks, which they did make heretofore, ye shall lay upon them; ye shall not
diminish ought thereof:
for they be idle;
therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice
to our God.
5:9 TICHBAD HA AVODAH AL HA ANASHIM VE YA'ASU VAH VE AL YISH'U BE DIVREY SHAKER
תִּכְבַּד הָעֲבֹדָה עַל הָאֲנָשִׁים וְיַעֲשׂוּ בָהּ וְאַל יִשְׁעוּ בְּדִבְרֵי שָׁקֶר
KJ: Let there more work be
laid upon the men, that they may labour therein; and let them not regard vain
words.
Nice word-play on YA'ASU and YISH'U.
The classic despotic response: the request suggests insubordination, protest, possibly a threat of insurrection. The "mighty hand" (YAD CHAZAKAH) comes down on them - see 6:1, below.
5:10 VA YETSU NOGSHEY HA AM VE SHOTRAV VA YOMRU EL HA AM LEMOR KOH AMAR PAR'OH EYNENI NOTEN LACHEM TEVEN
וַיֵּצְאוּ נֹגְשֵׂי הָעָם וְשֹׁטְרָיו וַיֹּאמְרוּ אֶל הָעָם לֵאמֹר כֹּה אָמַר פַּרְעֹה אֵינֶנִּי נֹתֵן לָכֶם תֶּבֶן
KJ: And the taskmasters of
the people went out, and their officers, and they spake to the people, saying,
Thus saith Pharaoh, I will not give you straw.
What follows is the classic slave response, collaborating in their own victimhood. Note that the creation of the final text probably took place around the time of the return from the Babylonian exile, so these episodes would have had particular poignancy. By paralleling their Babylonian experience in an imaginary Egyptian one, the leaders had the means of driving the people out of their collaborative mentality. All it then needed was a Mosheh, or in that case a Nechem-Yah, to soften the heart of the Pharaoh... or better still, for the Pharaoh to be conquered by someone better disposed, which was the case with King Koresh (Cyrus) of the Medes (Persia), who didn't just encourage the Yehudim to return home, but gave them the means to do so.
5:11 ATEM LECHU KECHU LACHEM TEVEN ME ASHER TIMTSA'U KI EYN NIGRA ME AVODAT'CHEM DAVAR
אַתֶּם לְכוּ קְחוּ לָכֶם תֶּבֶן מֵאֲשֶׁר תִּמְצָאוּ כִּי אֵין נִגְרָע מֵעֲבֹדַתְכֶם דָּבָר
KJ: Go ye, get you straw
where ye can find it: yet not ought of your work shall be diminished.
Yet another usage of the word DAVAR.
5:12 VA YAPHETS HA AM BE CHOL ERETS MITSRAYIM LEKASHESH KASH LA TEVEN.
וַיָּפֶץ הָעָם בְּכָל אֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם לְקֹשֵׁשׁ קַשׁ לַתֶּבֶן
KJ: So the people were
scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble instead of
straw.
LEKASHESH: it is not clear how this word should be pronounced. Possibly LIKSHOSH rather than LEKOSHESH, which the late pointing gives. The root is KASHASH (קשש). It rather depends on whether we read the phrase as Pa'al or Pi'el, normal active, or rather more intensive. LIKSHOSH would be the former, LEKASHESH the latter.
Why did they need to go scrabbling throughout the land? This is odd. If there was going to be straw anywhere in Mitsrayim, it was most likely to be found in the marshy and arable regions of Goshen, where they were, and not the desert regions almost everywhere else.
5:13 VE HA NOGSHIM ATSIM LEMOR KALU MA'ASEYCHEM DEVAR YOM BE YOMO KA ASHER BIHEYOT HA TEVEN
וְהַנֹּגְשִׂים אָצִים לֵאמֹר כַּלּוּ מַעֲשֵׂיכֶם דְּבַר-יוֹם בְּיוֹמוֹ כַּאֲשֶׁר בִּהְיוֹת הַתֶּבֶן
KJ: And the taskmasters hasted them, saying, Fulfil your works, your daily tasks, as when there was straw.
BN: And the overseers harried them, saying: "Fulfill your work-quotas, your daily targets, as when there was straw."
ATSIM: An irresistible footnote, that the root of this word is UTS (אוץ), which is spelled with an Aleph; but spell it with an Ayin (ע) and you are in the land of Uts, that place of terrible suffering and misfortune in which Iyov (Job) lived.
5:14 VA YUKU SHOTREY BENEY YISRA-EL ASHER SAMU ALEHEM NOGSHEY PAR'OH LEMOR MADU'A LO CHILIYTEM CHAKCHEM LILBON KITMOL SHILSHOM GAM TEMOL GAM HA-YOM
וַיֻּכּוּ שֹׁטְרֵי בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אֲשֶׁר שָׂמוּ עֲלֵהֶם נֹגְשֵׂי פַרְעֹה לֵאמֹר מַדּוּעַ לֹא כִלִּיתֶם חָקְכֶם לִלְבֹּן כִּתְמוֹל שִׁלְשֹׁם גַּם תְּמוֹל גַּם הַיּוֹם
KJ: And the officers of
the children of Israel, which Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them, were
beaten, and demanded,
Wherefore have ye not fulfilled your task in making brick both yesterday and to
day, as heretofore?
SHOTREY BENEY YISRA-EL: Oh, but it is so tempting to translate this as Judenrat!
CHAKCHEM: is this the same CHOK that gives law later on?
TEMOL: Which would usually be ETMOL (אתמול). Is this a scribal error, or is it feasible that the Aleph (א) was added when Aramaic replaced proto-Yehudit as the national language, at the time of the exile? A prefictual Aleph is one of the most common differences between Yehudit and Aramaic.
No question in these last few verses that the Ivrim are slaves in the strongest sense of that word (though this still does now allow us to determine that Ivrim is synonymous with Beney Yisra-El). When later they speak of returning to the "fleshpots of Mitsrayim", this version of "Responsible Capitalism" is apparently what they mean.
5:15 VA YAVO'U SHOTREY BENEY YISRA-EL VA YITS'AKU EL PAR'OH LEMOR LAMAH TA'ASEH CHOH LA AVADEYCHA
וַיָּבֹאוּ שֹׁטְרֵי בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וַיִּצְעֲקוּ אֶל פַּרְעֹה לֵאמֹר לָמָּה תַעֲשֶׂה כֹה לַעֲבָדֶיךָ
KJ: Then the officers of
the children of Israel came and cried unto Pharaoh, saying, Wherefore dealest
thou thus with thy servants?
5:16 TEVEN EYN NITAN LA AVADECHA U LEVENIM OMRIM LANU ASU VE HINEH AVADEYCHA MUKIM VE CHATA'T AMECHA
תֶּבֶן אֵין נִתָּן לַעֲבָדֶיךָ וּלְבֵנִים אֹמְרִים לָנוּ עֲשׂוּ וְהִנֵּה עֲבָדֶיךָ מֻכִּים וְחָטָאת עַמֶּךָ
KJ: There is no straw given unto thy servants, and they say to us, Make brick: and, behold, thy servants are beaten; but the fault is in thine own people.
5:17 VA YOMER NIRPIM ATEM NIRPIM AL KEN ATEM OMRIM NELCHAH NIZBECHAH LA YHVH
וַיֹּאמֶר נִרְפִּים אַתֶּם נִרְפִּים עַל כֵּן אַתֶּם אֹמְרִים נֵלְכָה נִזְבְּחָה לַיהוָה
KJ: But he said, Ye are idle, ye are idle:
therefore ye say, Let us go and do sacrifice to
the LORD.
BN: But he said: "You are idlers, you are idlers. That's why you say: 'Let us go and make sacrifices to YHVH....
NIRPIM: From the same root RAPHAH that we discussed at length at Exodus 4:26.
Pharaoh's problem does not seem to be the festival itself, nor the deity, but the idea of taking time off work for anything at all, which is actually no different from a zero hours contract in an American franchise store today, and we don't call that slavery (perhaps we should). How much of this is simply necessary prefiguration for the laws to follow?
5:18 VE ATAH LECHU IVDU VE TEVEN LO YINATEN LACHEM VE TOCHEN LEVENIM TITENU
וְעַתָּה לְכוּ עִבְדוּ וְתֶבֶן לֹא יִנָּתֵן לָכֶם וְתֹכֶן לְבֵנִים תִּתֵּנוּ
KJ: Go therefore now, and work; for
there shall no straw be given you, yet shall ye deliver the tale of bricks.
IVDU: Used here to mean "work", rather than "slave"; and if it does mean "work", then really the verb used here should be LIPOL (לִפְעוֹל).
5:19 VA YIR'U SHOTREY VENEY YISRA-EL OTAM BERA LEMOR LO TIGRE'U MI LIVNEYCHEM DEVAR YOM BE YOMO
וַיִּרְאוּ שֹׁטְרֵי בְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אֹתָם בְּרָע לֵאמֹר לֹא תִגְרְעוּ מִלִּבְנֵיכֶם דְּבַר יוֹם בְּיוֹמוֹ
KJ: And the officers of
the children of Israel did see that they were in evil case, after it was
said, Ye shall not minish ought from
your bricks of your daily task.
TIGRE'U: the same language that was used in verse 8.
5:20 VA YIPHGE'U ET MOSHEH VE ET AHARON NITSAVIM LIKRA'TAM BE TSE'TAM ME ET PAR'OH.
וַיִּפְגְּעוּ אֶת מֹשֶׁה וְאֶת אַהֲרֹן נִצָּבִים לִקְרָאתָם בְּצֵאתָם מֵאֵת פַּרְעֹה
KJ: And they met Moses and
Aaron, who stood in the way, as they came forth from Pharaoh:
Which confirms that Mosheh and Aharaon were not part of this delegation to Pharaoh; and is it possible that such a delegation was a negative factor in Mosheh and Aharon's attempts to persuade Pharaoh? Or actually, as the next verse will tell us, and as we know from above, the other way around.
5:21 VA YOMRU ALEHEM YER'E YHVH ALEYCHEM VE YISHPOT ASHER HIV'ASHTEM ET REYCHENU BE EYNEY PHAR'OH U VE EYNEY AVADAV LATET CHEREV BE YADAM LEHARGENU
וַיֹּאמְרוּ אֲלֵהֶם יֵרֶא יְהוָה עֲלֵיכֶם וְיִשְׁפֹּט אֲשֶׁר הִבְאַשְׁתֶּם אֶת רֵיחֵנוּ בְּעֵינֵי פַרְעֹה וּבְעֵינֵי עֲבָדָיו לָתֶת חֶרֶב בְּיָדָם לְהָרְגֵנוּ
KJ: And they said unto
them, The LORD look upon you, and judge; because ye have made our savour to be
abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a
sword in their hand to slay us.
This the first time that the "Hebrews" will raise their voices against Mosheh and Aharon. There will be many more!
HIVASHTEM ET REYCHENU: Does this really mean "made us stink" rather than the splendidly euphemistic "made our savour to be abhorred"? Indeed it does, but the metapor then gets mixed up, bcause the stink would be in Pharaoh's nostrils, not his eyes. My translation is thus a compromise.
5:22 VA YASHAV MOSHEH EL YHVH VA YOMER ADONAY LAMAH HARE'OTAH LA AM HA ZEH LAMAH ZEH SHELACHTANI
וַיָּשָׁב מֹשֶׁה אֶל יְהוָה וַיֹּאמַר אֲדֹנָי לָמָה הֲרֵעֹתָה לָעָם הַזֶּה לָמָּה זֶּה שְׁלַחְתָּנִי
KJ: And Moses returned
unto the LORD, and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil
entreated this people? why is it that thou hast
sent me?
VA YASHAV: Where did he go to say this? Physically I mean. In order to speak to a god, other than inside oneself, there needs to be a physical location, a synagogue or church or mosque, a Temple or a wayside shrine, a teraph in the barn or an icon on the mantlepiece, or indeed a holy mountain. All the way back to Chorev then? It would take weeks; and he will go back again and again in the coming chapters leading up to the Exodus. So we can read this as Mosheh thinking his own thoughts, arguing with himself, and treating his alter ego as the deity.
LAMAH HARE'OTAH: Having made clear that he wasn't the man for the job, so that YHVH had to bully him into doing it, Mosheh can never be to blame for anything, ever - or only one time, when he goes against YHVH's instructions, at Merivah. He is, in truth a mere puppet, and the negatives are always the deity's fault. The principal of "Polish Death Camps" begins here. He is, in the language of Nuremburg, "only obeying orders".
5:23 U ME-AZ BA'TI EL PAR'OH LEDABER BISHMECHA HERA LA AM HA ZEH VE HATSEL LO HITSALTA ET AMCHA
וּמֵאָז בָּאתִי אֶל פַּרְעֹה לְדַבֵּר בִּשְׁמֶךָ הֵרַע לָעָם הַזֶּה וְהַצֵּל לֹא הִצַּלְתָּ אֶת עַמֶּךָ
KJ: For since I came to
Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people; neither hast
thou delivered thy people at all.
HERA: As with HIVASHTEM previously, one word seems to convey a great deal.
VE HATSEL LO HITSALTA: The word for "shadow" comes from the same root, and previous usages have been ambiguous.
✡
Chapter 6
6:1 VA YOMER YHVH EL MOSHEH ATAH TIR'EH ASHER E'ESEH LE PHAR'OH KI VE YAD CHAZAKAH YESHALCHEM U VE YAD CHAZAKAH YEGARSHEM ME ARTSO
וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֶל מֹשֶׁה עַתָּה תִרְאֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶעֱשֶׂה לְפַרְעֹה כִּי בְיָד חֲזָקָה יְשַׁלְּחֵם וּבְיָד חֲזָקָה יְגָרְשֵׁם מֵאַרְצוֹ
KJ: Then 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.
BN: And YHVH said to Mosheh: "Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for by the power of my hand he will let them go, and by the power of my hand he himself will drive them out of his land."
BN: And YHVH said to Mosheh: "Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for by the power of my hand he will let them go, and by the power of my hand he himself will drive them out of his land."
Does the strong hand here belong to Pharaoh (see verse 9, above), and not yet to YHVH? The text is ambiguous (or do I mean ambivalent?) Again the essence of the story seems to be less the historical narrative than the analogy of YHVH's amazing powers – a story to inspire faith.
It is very hard to equate this picture of YHVH with the merciful and compassionate god elsewhere. This is YHVH as Freud does not describe him, the Midyanite volcano god who scorches his enemies with fire and molten lava, the god of Sedom and the Flood. No rainbows here.
Samech break. End of Sedra Shemot.
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