What Does Exodus 6:30 Mean?
And Moses said before the LORD, Behold, I am of uncircumcised lips, and how will Pharaoh hear and respond to me?
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 Moses said before the LORD, Behold, I am of uncircumcised lips, and how shall Pharaoh hearken unto me?THE KEY
Speech and reception share a hidden opening here: Moses names his lips as covered while wondering whether Pharaoh can hear and respond.
THE MEANING
When your words feel obstructed, the question extends beyond whether you can speak to whether another person can receive and respond. The verse holds that uncertainty without resolving it: the lips feel covered, and the hearing ahead remains unknown.
THE ROOT
עֲרַל שְׂפָתָיִם
ʿăral səfātayim
GROWS FROM
ערל
ʿ-r-l
Uncircumcised; with the foreskin still present.
“uncircumcised lips” in this verse is ʿăral səfātayim. Here, a bodily covering becomes an image for speech that feels obstructed. The same word is used for ears and hearts, extending the image from expression to reception.
ALSO GROWS
ʿăral sefatayim: Lips pictured as still covered.
עֲרַל שְׂפָתָיִם
This is Moses’s own image for the obstruction he experiences in speaking.
ʿărēlāh oznām: An ear pictured as still covered.
עֲרֵלָה אָזְנָם
Jeremiah uses the same word for an inability to hear and heed, linking the speaker’s obstruction with the hearer’s.
lēvāvām hēʿārēl: A heart pictured as still covered.
לְבָבָם הֶעָרֵל
The same image reaches inward to receptivity, showing that the obstruction can involve more than the mouth.
יִשְׁמָעֵנִי
yishmaʿeni
GROWS FROM
שמע
sh-m-ʿ
Hear, listen, attend; in an appeal, hear and respond.
“hear and respond” in this verse is yishmaʿeni. The question is not only whether sound reaches Pharaoh, but whether the words are received and answered. English “hearken” holds this sense of attentive response inside the act of hearing.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: An imperative to hear attentively.
שְׁמַע
The familiar call “Hear, O Israel” uses this root for listening that involves response.
shemuʿah: A message received by hearing.
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch places the message and its reception in the same root family.
מֹשֶׁה
Mosheh
GROWS FROM
משה
m-sh-h
Draw out.
“Moses” in this verse is Mosheh. His name carries the sense of being drawn out, while here his lips feel covered. The name and the complaint place release and constraint side by side, leaving the tension open.
ALSO GROWS
māšâ: To draw something or someone out.
מָשָׁה
This is the verb behind the name’s explanation in Exodus 2:10.
mĕšîtihū: The speaker’s action of drawing him out.
מְשִׁיתִהוּ
This form appears in the explanation of Moses’s name, linking his identity with being drawn out of the water.
THE PATTERN
Scripture uses uncircumcision as an image for an opening left covered, which can obstruct speech, hearing, or receptivity.
And Moses spoke before the LORD, saying, Behold, the children of Israel have not heard and responded to me; how then will Pharaoh hear and respond to me, who am of uncircumcised lips?So cut the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stiff-necked.Hard-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always fall against the Set-Apart Breath, as your fathers did, so also you.THE THREAD
To whom shall I speak and bear witness, that they may hear and respond? Behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot bend it. Behold, the word of the LORD has become to them a taunt; they have no delight in it.Jeremiah uses the same word for an ear that cannot hear, making explicit the paired blockage beside Moses’s covered lips. One root links the obstruction in speaking with the obstruction in receiving.
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