What Does Exodus 6:13 Mean?
And the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, and gave them a charge to the children of Israel, and to Pharaoh king of Egypt, to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And 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.THE KEY
Moses (מֹשֶׁה, Moshe, “drawn out”) is charged to bring a people out, and the charge names Pharaoh alongside Israel.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks now into constriction: release is addressed both to the one held and to the power holding them. Moses (מֹשֶׁה, Moshe, “drawn out”) carries a charge that echoes his own name by bringing others out. The way out is named and directed, not left as an unnamed wish.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the one under pressure must create the way out alone; the charge comes from beyond the captive and reaches the power holding them.
THE ROOT
לְהוֹצִיא
lehotsi
GROWS FROM
יָצָא
yatsa
Go out, come out. In this causative form, the word means to cause someone to go out, to bring them out.
The phrase names release as an exit caused for others, not merely an abstract escape. Moses (מֹשֶׁה, Moshe, “drawn out”) echoes that movement in his own name story, though his name and the verb “bring out” come from different roots.
ALSO GROWS
yatsa: Go out, come out
יָצָא
This is the base movement; the verse’s causative form makes that movement happen for another: to bring someone out.
motsa: That which goes out; what proceeds
מוֹצָא
Deuteronomy 8:3 uses this word for what proceeds from the LORD’s mouth; alongside the spoken charge here, it suggests release as a way out spoken into motion.
וַיְצַוֵּם
vayetsavvem
GROWS FROM
צָוָה
tsavah
Command, direct, give an order.
The clause sends the directive to Israel and Pharaoh. This is a charge whose reach includes both the people held and the king who holds them.
ALSO GROWS
mitzvah: Commandment, directive
מִצְוָה
This branch carries the same root into a named instruction, showing that the charge is a directive with a recipient.
tzav: Command, precept
צַו
This compact form also means an order; the verse gives the command a reach across the boundary between Israel and Pharaoh.
THE PATTERN
Release moves from constriction toward spaciousness when its spoken charge reaches both the person held and the power holding them.
Now go, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.From the narrow place I call out to the LORD, and the LORD answers me in a wide place.So if the Son sets you free, you will be truly free.THE THREAD
Now go, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.The same root יָצָא (yatsa, “go out, come out”) appears in “bring forth,” naming the same exit-motion as Exodus 6:13. Here that movement is directed toward both Israel and Pharaoh, making release a command that addresses the held and the holder.
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