Chapter Overview
Summary
Exodus 6 is the theological heart of the book's first half. The divine name is revealed again (6:2–3), the four verbs of redemption are declared (6:6–8: 'I will bring out / deliver / redeem / take'), and the Levitical genealogy centering on Moses, Aaron, and Phinehas is inserted (6:14–25). The LXX preserves these structural elements faithfully, but the rendering of El Shaddai at 6:3 is one of the chapter's most discussed translation choices. The chapter supplies the vocabulary — exagō, lytrosomai, laos mou — that will shape NT redemption theology.
Notable Variants
The rendering of El Shaddai at 6:3 (LXX theos ōn autōn — 'being their God'); the four-verb redemption formula at 6:6 in its LXX form that supplies NT redemption vocabulary; the 'I will take you as my people, and I will be your God' covenant formula at 6:7 quoted at 2 Corinthians 6:16 and Revelation 21:3; Moses' 'uncircumcised lips' at 6:12 and 6:30.
Structural Notes
LXX Exodus 6 preserves MT's 30-verse structure. The Levitical genealogy runs 14–25.
Then the LORD said to Moses, "Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh. By a mighty hand he will let them go, and by a mighty hand he will drive them out of his land."
The divine response 'now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh … by a mighty hand' uses the en cheiri krataia formula that becomes a signature Exodus refrain (recurring at Deut 4:34, 5:15, 6:21, 7:8, 7:19, etc.) for the LXX's language of the Exodus deliverance.
God spoke to Moses and said to him, "I am the LORD.
'I am the LORD' (egō eimi kyrios) is the LXX's standard rendering of the divine self-identification 'ani YHWH,' the signature formula that recurs dozens of times across Exodus and Leviticus 18–27.
I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by My name the LORD I did not make Myself fully known to them.
Masoretic (WLC)
בְּאֵל שַׁדָּי וּשְׁמִי יְהוָה לֹא נוֹדַעְתִּי לָהֶם
I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by My name the LORD I did not make Myself fully known to them
Septuagint (LXX)
θεὸς ὢν αὐτῶν καὶ τὸ ὄνομά μου κύριος οὐκ ἐδήλωσα αὐτοῖς
being their God, but my name — the Lord — I did not declare to them
LXX renders El Shaddai simply as theos ōn autōn — 'being their God' — dropping the puzzling Shaddai epithet entirely. The translators apparently did not know (or refused to render) what Shaddai meant.
This is one of the most telling LXX moves with respect to divine names. Where Hebrew preserves a distinctive older title (El Shaddai — perhaps 'God of the mountain' or 'the Destroyer' etymologically), the LXX flattens it to a generic 'God.' The theology of divine name-progression (patriarchs knew El Shaddai; Moses learns YHWH) is obscured in Greek.
Hebrews 11 and Acts 7, when they speak of the patriarchs' knowledge of God, work with the LXX's more abstract theos rather than with the distinctive Shaddai tradition.
I also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners.
The covenant with the patriarchs to give them Canaan is rendered directly in LXX.
Furthermore, I have heard the groaning of the sons of Israel, whom the Egyptians hold in slavery, and I have remembered My covenant.
God's hearing the groaning (stenagmos) of Israel is rendered with the noun stenagmos that reappears at Romans 8:22–23 (the 'groaning' of creation and of the Spirit's intercession).
Therefore say to the sons of Israel: 'I am the LORD. I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will deliver you from their bondage. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment.
Masoretic (WLC)
וְהוֹצֵאתִי … וְהִצַּלְתִּי … וְגָאַלְתִּי
I will bring you out … I will deliver you … I will redeem you
Septuagint (LXX)
ἐξάξω … ῥύσομαι … λυτρώσομαι
I will bring you out … I will rescue you … I will redeem you
The four verbs of divine deliverance — yatsa hiphil ('bring out'), natsal hiphil ('deliver'), ga'al ('redeem'), laqach ('take') — are LXX's exagō, rhyomai, lytroō, lambanō. The four-verb pattern became the liturgical template of the Passover Haggadah's 'four cups.'
The LXX's lytrōsomai ('I will redeem') is the key NT vocabulary for redemption. Luke 1:68 (Zechariah's Benedictus: epoiēsen lytrōsin tō laō autou, 'he has worked redemption for his people'), Titus 2:14 (lytrōsētai, 'that he might redeem us'), and 1 Peter 1:18 (elytrōthēte, 'you were redeemed') all draw the lytroō root directly from LXX Exodus's fourfold redemption formula.
The 'outstretched arm and great acts of judgment' — en brachioni hypsēlō kai krisei megalē — becomes a standing LXX phrase for the Exodus event (Deut 4:34; 5:15; 7:19; 9:29; 11:2; 26:8; Ps 136:12) and is echoed in the Magnificat's epoiēsen kratos en brachioni autou (Luke 1:51).
I will take you as My people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.
Masoretic (WLC)
וְלָקַחְתִּי אֶתְכֶם לִי לְעָם וְהָיִיתִי לָכֶם לֵאלֹהִים
I will take you as My people, and I will be your God
Septuagint (LXX)
καὶ λήμψομαι ἐμαυτῷ ὑμᾶς λαὸν ἐμοὶ καὶ ἔσομαι ὑμῶν θεός
I will take you to myself as my people, and I will be your God
The 'I will be your God, and you shall be my people' covenant-formula is a signature biblical refrain running through Exodus 6, Leviticus 26:12, Jeremiah 7:23, 11:4, 24:7, 30:22, 31:33, 32:38, Ezekiel 11:20, 14:11, 36:28, 37:23, 37:27, Zechariah 8:8, and more.
2 Corinthians 6:16 ('I will be their God, and they shall be my people') and Revelation 21:3 ('they shall be his peoples, and God himself will be with them as their God') are the NT's climactic invocations of this LXX covenant-formula.
The formula's consistent LXX Greek form — laos mou / theos hymōn — is what the NT writers are citing.
I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, and I will give it to you as a possession. I am the LORD.'"
The promise to bring Israel into the covenant land is rendered directly. The 'possession' (kataschesis in LXX) vocabulary recurs in NT inheritance-theology (Acts 7:5, 'he gave him no inheritance in it, not a foot of ground to place his foot,' uses the kataschesis of which Israel's historical possession was pattern).
Moses spoke this to the sons of Israel, but they did not listen to him because of their crushed spirit and harsh bondage.
Israel's failure to listen because of 'crushed spirit' (oligopsychia) and 'harsh bondage' tracks MT. Oligopsychia ('faint-heartedness') recurs at 1 Thessalonians 5:14 (paramytheisthe tous oligopsychous, 'encourage the faint-hearted').
Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
The divine speech formula ('the LORD spoke to Moses, saying') tracks MT in LXX.
"Go in and tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the sons of Israel go out of his land."
The command to tell Pharaoh to release Israel is rendered directly.
But Moses said before the LORD, "If the sons of Israel have not listened to me, how will Pharaoh listen to me? I am unskilled in speech."
Masoretic (WLC)
וַאֲנִי עֲרַל שְׂפָתָיִם
I am unskilled in speech
Septuagint (LXX)
ἐγὼ δὲ ἄλογός εἰμι
I am without speech
The Hebrew 'uncircumcised of lips' (aral sefatayim) is a vivid idiom that parallels Jeremiah 6:10's 'uncircumcised ears' and Leviticus 26:41's 'uncircumcised heart.' The LXX of Exodus 6:12 renders it abstractly as alogos ('without speech, irrational') rather than preserving the distinctive 'uncircumcised' metaphor.
TCR renders 'unskilled in speech,' a modernizing choice that captures the sense while losing the striking metaphor. The LXX's alogos is a philosophical term (contrasted with Logos) that gave the verse an unintended philosophical-anthropological resonance in Hellenistic Jewish reading.
The LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron and gave them a charge regarding the sons of Israel and regarding Pharaoh king of Egypt, to bring the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt.
The joint charge to Moses and Aaron follows MT.
These are the heads of their fathers' houses: The sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel — Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi. These are the clans of Reuben.
The genealogical insertion begins with Reuben's four clans (Enōch, Phallou, Asrōn, Charmi in LXX). The list follows MT.
The sons of Simeon — Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman. These are the clans of Simeon.
Simeon's clans track MT, with the notice of Shaul's Canaanite mother preserved in LXX.
These are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. The years of Levi's life were 137 years.
The three sons of Levi — Gershon, Kohath, Merari — are rendered with standard LXX transliterations. Levi's 137-year lifespan is preserved.
The sons of Gershon — Libni and Shimei, by their clans.
The two sons of Gershon (Libni and Shimei) tracks MT.
The sons of Kohath — Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. The years of Kohath's life were 133 years.
The four sons of Kohath (Amram, Izhar, Hebron, Uzziel) and Kohath's 133-year lifespan preserve MT.
The sons of Merari — Mahli and Mushi. These are the clans of the Levites according to their generations.
The two sons of Merari (Mahli and Mushi) follow MT.
Amram married Jochebed, his father's sister, and she bore him Aaron and Moses. The years of Amram's life were 137 years.
Masoretic (WLC)
וַיִּקַּח עַמְרָם אֶת־יוֹכֶבֶד דֹּדָתוֹ לוֹ לְאִשָּׁה
Amram married Jochebed, his father's sister
Septuagint (LXX)
ἔλαβεν δὲ Αμβραμ τὴν Ιωχαβεδ θυγατέρα τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτοῦ ἑαυτῷ εἰς γυναῖκα
Amram took Iōchabed, daughter of his father's brother, for himself as a wife
MT has Jochebed as Amram's father's sister (his paternal aunt), a marriage later prohibited by Leviticus 18:12. The LXX quietly changes this to 'daughter of his father's brother' (first cousin) — avoiding the later-prohibited-incest problem.
The LXX's harmonization is similar to its move at Exodus 4:24 (softening YHWH to 'angel'). Where the literal Hebrew creates a theological-legal problem, the Greek smooths it over.
Samaritan Pentateuch preserves the 'father's brother' reading, suggesting the harmonization may be pre-LXX and present in the Hebrew Vorlage used by both traditions.
The sons of Izhar — Korah, Nepheg, and Zichri.
The three sons of Izhar (Korah, Nepheg, Zichri) follow MT. Korah's name will become famous at Numbers 16.
The sons of Uzziel — Mishael, Elzaphan, and Sithri.
The three sons of Uzziel (Mishael, Elzaphan, Sithri) track MT.
Aaron married Elisheba, the daughter of Amminadab and the sister of Nahshon, and she bore him Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.
Aaron's marriage to Elisheba and the birth of Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar is rendered closely. Elisheba becomes Elisabet in Greek — the same name as John the Baptist's mother at Luke 1:5, where the Elizabeth-as-wife-of-a-priest parallel is probably intentional.
The sons of Korah — Assir, Elkanah, and Abiasaph. These are the clans of the Korahites.
The three sons of Korah (Assir, Elkanah, Abiasaph) follow MT. The 'sons of Korah' will become superscriptions of twelve Psalms.
Eleazar the son of Aaron married one of the daughters of Putiel, and she bore him Phinehas. These are the heads of the fathers' houses of the Levites, by their clans.
Eleazar's marriage and Phinehas's birth track MT. Phinehas (Numbers 25) is the zealous grandson who defines priestly zeal in LXX tradition.
It was this Aaron and Moses to whom the LORD said, "Bring the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their hosts."
The genealogy's climax — 'this Aaron and Moses' — tracks MT. The genealogy's pronominal emphasis (hoyos estin Aarōn kai Mōysēs) underscores these as the patriarchally-certified pair chosen for the commission.
It was they who spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt about bringing the sons of Israel out of Egypt — this Moses and Aaron.
The reverse naming — 'this Moses and Aaron' — balances v. 26's 'this Aaron and Moses,' bracketing the genealogy.
On the day when the LORD spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt,
The narrative resumes — 'on the day when the LORD spoke to Moses' — in direct LXX rendering.
the LORD said to Moses, "I am the LORD. Tell Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I say to you."
The divine recommission — 'I am the LORD. Tell Pharaoh' — tracks MT.
But Moses said before the LORD, "I am unskilled in speech. How will Pharaoh listen to me?"
Masoretic (WLC)
הֵן אֲנִי עֲרַל שְׂפָתַיִם
I am unskilled in speech
Septuagint (LXX)
ἐγὼ ἰσχνόφωνός εἰμι
I am thin-voiced
Moses' closing objection returns the 'uncircumcised lips' phrase of v. 12. LXX renders here with ischnophōnos ('thin-voiced') rather than alogos ('without speech'), using the same word as Exodus 4:10.
The LXX's lexical variation between v. 12 (alogos) and v. 30 (ischnophōnos) for the same Hebrew 'aral sefatayim' shows the translator making contextual choices rather than fixed lexical equivalences.