What Does Exodus 4:10 Mean in the King James?
And Moses said unto the LORD, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Hebrew calls both Moses’s mouth and tongue heavy, making his difficulty a felt weight rather than merely a lack of words.
THE MEANING
This verse gives you language for a difficulty that remains present even after a word is spoken to you. Your mouth and tongue can feel heavy, and naming that weight does not make it imaginary.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that hearing a call automatically removes a real limitation: Moses says his speech remains heavy even after the LORD has spoken to him.
THE ROOT
כְבַד
khevad
GROWS FROM
כבד
To be heavy or weighty.
“slow” in this verse is khevad. The same root gives words for weight and honor, gathering bodily heaviness and weightiness into one word-family. Moses’s difficulty remains real, while the Hebrew carries more than pace alone.
ALSO GROWS
kavod: Weight, honor, glory.
כָּבוֹד
The same root that describes Moses’s heavy speech can name weight or honor.
kibbed: To honor or treat as weighty.
כִּבֵּד
This branch makes the shared sense of heaviness visible in an act of giving weight.
מֹשֶׁה
Moshe
GROWS FROM
משה
To draw out.
“Moses” in this verse is Moshe. The story links Moshe’s name to being drawn out of the water. The one named through a drawing-out now names the weight that makes speaking difficult; both the rescue in the name and the impediment in the verse remain present.
ALSO GROWS
mashah: To draw out.
מָשָׁה
This is the action the story connects to Moses’s name.
meshitihu: I drew him out.
מְשִׁיתִהוּ
This form appears in the naming scene in Exodus 2:10 and makes the name’s drawing-out meaning concrete.
THE PATTERN
A voiced limitation can remain real beside an active calling.
Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.THE THREAD
And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, that he shall follow after them; and I will be honoured upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host; that the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD. And they did so.The כבד root describes the heaviness Moses feels in his mouth and tongue; here, the same root is translated “harden” and “honoured.” One Hebrew seed can name weight experienced as limitation and weight expressed as honor, widening the word without erasing Moses’s difficulty.
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