Exodus 4:10-16 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

Exodus 4:10-16 J. Moses's Fourth Difficulty slowness of speech. This is met by a promise of prophetic inspiration, the fulfilment of which not only Deuteronomy 34:10, but the whole representation of J, endorses. It is followed here by a further exhibition of unreadiness, which evokes Yahweh's wrath. The association of Aaron with Moses has been compared to Deborah's co-operation with Barak. But since Aaron may only say what Moses tells him, this arrangement is no very clear mark of Divine anger. Moreover, in J, Moses habitually acts and speaks alone, and not by the mouth of Aaron, except in Exodus 4:29 f.*, which obviously follows this passage. Perhaps, therefore, the reference to Aaron has been inserted by a somewhat later hand to explain the undoubted sacredness of the teaching office of the priest (cf. Priests and Levites, HDB, iv.). Aaron is in Exodus 4:14 called the Levite (p. 106). But Moses himself was (Exodus 4:21) traditionally descended from Levi. So here, as elsewhere (cf. Judges 17:7, a young man. of the family of Judah who was a Levite), Levite was a term which connoted not ancestry but profession; it was equivalent to clergyman (M-' Neile, Ex., p. lxvi). Exodus 4:14 b may be due to an editor, who thus led up to Exodus 4:27 E. That Moses was to be to Aaron as God (Exodus 4:16) was a particular case of what may be called the Divine policy of mediation. Parents are to young children in the place of God, and like relations to superiors are frequent; but such a phrase may not be pressed to cover the Jesuit claim to override a subordinate's conscience.