What Does Exodus 6:12 Mean in the King James?
And Moses spake before the LORD, saying, Behold, the children of Israel have not hearkened unto me; how then shall Pharaoh hear me, who am of uncircumcised lips?
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
Hearing and speaking meet at one threshold here: Moses fears the word cannot be received when he feels unable to voice it.
THE MEANING
When your words meet no response, the failure can seem to attach itself to your own ability to speak. The verse holds both sides of that fear: the people have not heard and responded to Moses, and he describes his own lips as uncircumcised. His question, how will Pharaoh hear? makes the fear of an unreceived word visible.
THE ROOT
שָׁמְעוּ
shamʿu
GROWS FROM
שמע
sh-m-ʿ
Hear and respond; listen with heed.
The people have not “hearkened” with שמע, a word that carries hearing and responsive attention. Moses asks whether Pharaoh can hear what Israel has not received, so the concern reaches beyond sound to the response a word meets.
ALSO GROWS
shema: Hear; hear and respond.
שְׁמַע
This familiar form of the same root makes the passage’s concern with responsive hearing clear.
shemuʿah: A report or thing heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
The branch names what passes from a speaker to a hearer, echoing the word Moses fears will not get through.
עֲרַל
arel
GROWS FROM
ערל
ʿ-r-l
Be uncircumcised; used figuratively of a faculty described as unopened or unready.
“uncircumcised” in this verse is arel. The image is applied to Moses’s lips here, to ears in Jeremiah 6:10, and to the heart in Leviticus 26:41. Speech, hearing, and the heart are described through the same figure of an unopened faculty.
ALSO GROWS
oznayim arelot: Uncircumcised ears.
אָזְנַיִם עֲרֵלוֹת
Jeremiah uses the same image for ears that cannot hearken, joining Moses’s difficulty speaking to a listener’s difficulty receiving.
lev arel: Uncircumcised heart.
לֵב עָרֵל
The same root can describe the heart as unopened, extending the image from speech and hearing to inward receptivity.
שְׂפָתַיִם
sefatayim
GROWS FROM
שפה
sh-p-h
Lip, edge, or language.
שפה can name both the lip and language, and it also appears in the word for a shore, the edge between land and sea. “Uncircumcised lips” places Moses’s fear at the boundary where an inner word has to cross into speech.
ALSO GROWS
safah: Lip; language.
שָׂפָה
The same word links the physical lips to language, making Moses’s expression itself part of the verse’s concern.
sefat hayam: Shore or edge of the sea.
שְׂפַת הַיָּם
This branch gives the image of lips as an edge or boundary, where a word must pass outward.
THE PATTERN
Scripture treats hearing as complete when what is received becomes a response.
And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:THE THREAD
To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken: behold, the word of the LORD is unto them a reproach; they have no delight in it.Jeremiah uses the same word, “uncircumcised,” for ears and connects it to the inability to hearken, while Moses applies it to his lips. The repeated image binds both sides of communication: the question is whether speech can open and be received.
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