Discovery BoxExodus 4:11 
Context4:11 The Lord said to him, “Who gave 1 a mouth to man, or who makes a person mute or deaf or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 2
Exodus 6:13
Context6:13 The Lord spoke 3 to Moses and Aaron and gave them a charge 4 for the Israelites and Pharaoh king of Egypt to bring the Israelites out of the land of Egypt.
Exodus 21:4
Context21:4 If his master gave 5 him a wife, and she bore sons or daughters, the wife and the children will belong to her master, and he will go out by himself.
Exodus 32:24
Context32:24 So I said to them, ‘Whoever has gold, break it off.’ So they gave it 6 to me, and I threw it into the fire, and this calf came out.” 7
1 tn The verb שִׂים (sim) means “to place, put, set”; the sentence here more precisely says, “Who put a mouth into a man?”
sn The argumentation by Moses is here met by Yahweh’s rhetorical questions. They are intended to be sharp – it is reproof for Moses. The message is twofold. First, Yahweh is fully able to overcome all of Moses’ deficiencies. Second, Moses is exactly the way that God intended him to be. So the rhetorical questions are meant to prod Moses’ faith.
2 sn The final question obviously demands a positive answer. But the clause is worded in such a way as to return to the theme of “I AM.” Isaiah 45:5-7 developed this same idea of God’s control over life. Moses protests that he is not an eloquent speaker, and the
3 tn Heb “And Yahweh spoke.”
4 tn The term וַיְצַוֵּם (vayÿtsavvem) is a Piel preterite with a pronominal suffix on it. The verb צָוָה (tsavah) means “to command” but can also have a much wider range of meanings. In this short summary statement, the idea of giving Moses and Aaron a commission to Israel and to Pharaoh indicates that come what may they have their duty to perform.
5 sn The slave would not have the right or the means to acquire a wife. Thus, the idea of the master’s “giving” him a wife is clear – the master would have to pay the bride price and make the provision. In this case, the wife and the children are actually the possession of the master unless the slave were to pay the bride price – but he is a slave because he got into debt. The law assumes that the master was better able to provide for this woman than the freed slave and that it was most important to keep the children with the mother.
6 tn Here “it” has been supplied.
7 sn Aaron first tried to blame the people, and then he tried to make it sound like a miracle – was it to sound like one of the plagues where out of the furnace came life? This text does not mention it, but Deut 9:20 tells how angry God was with Aaron. Only intercession saved his life.
