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What Did Moses Mean By His Excuses?
What Did Moses Mean When He Gave His Excuses?
What I am about to present as an explanation for two idiomatic statements by Moses concerning his speech is based upon an presumption that I believe is reasonable. That is, when Moses spoke to the Hebrews and to Pharaoh, Moses spoke Hebrew and not Egyptian. Therefore, when he made these “excuses” about being a poor speaker, he was referring to his ability to speak Hebrew fluently. This presumption is based upon the following reasons:
• Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, is freeing His people from these false gods. Would God speak to Moses on behalf of the people in Hebrew or Egyptian?
• When Moses gave his excuse the first time, Aaron was presented by God as Moses’s mouthpiece (Ex.4:14-16). Would Aaron, a slave, most likely be eloquent in Hebrew or Egyptian?
• Stephen gives inspired information not found in Exodus, which is Moses was “Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in his speech and actions” (Acts 7:22). If this describes his speaking ability after he led the Hebrews, then why are the historical facts listed before and afterwards not a summation but listed before he even had to flee for his life to Midian?
The two idiomatic statements are that Moses claimed to be, “heavy of mouth and heavy of tongue” (Exodus 4:10) and that he spoke with “uncircumcised lips” (Exodus 6:12,30).
Ancient Jewish traditions assert that Moses had a speech impediment. This could also be caused by a physical impairment.
I am suggesting Moses was not claiming to be a bad speaker per se, but rather a bad speaker in one specific way. Moses being “heavy of mouth and heavy of tongue” and spoke with “uncircumcised lips” refers to him growing up as an Egyptian and not a Hebrew which naturally means he grew up speaking Egyptian as his first language and Hebrew was his second language. Therefore, he was not an eloquent speaker in Hebrew. Combine this with the reality that the enslaved Hebrews did not perceive him as a Hebrew but as an Egyptian (Exodus 2:11-14). Moses, in speech, heritage, training, and experience, was not one of them. He was an outsider. They were circumcised. He was a “foreigner”. He spoke with uncircumcised lips.
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