What Does Exodus 4:13 Mean?

But he said, "Oh, my Lord, please send someone else." Moses' fifth and final objection strips away all the specific reasons and arrives at the bare refusal: please send someone else. After the objections of inadequacy, ignorance, credibility, and speech limitation, Moses is left with nothing more specific to say: he simply does not want to go.

"Send someone else" is the most honest expression of the failure of willingness that underlies all the previous objections. Moses is not convinced by the signs, not reassured by the divine presence promise, not encouraged by the promise of divine speech-accompaniment. He wants out of the calling entirely.

The Hebrew of verse 13 is compressed and emphatic: bishlach na beyad tishlach, "please send by the hand of I beg you send." The doubling of "send" and the insertion of "please" (na) produces a pleading tone: Moses is not commanding but begging. The resistance is not defiant but desperate. He understands the commission; he understands the demonstration at the burning bush; he has received the signs and the promises. And he is still asking God to send someone else.

God's response in verse 14 will be the first time in Moses' dialogue with the burning bush that divine anger appears: "the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses." The refusal crosses a threshold: objections to being sent, even repeated ones, can be met with divine instruction and reassurance. But the bare refusal to go, "send someone else," is the point at which the patience of the commissioning God reaches its limit. Moses will be given a concession (Aaron as spokesman), but the concession comes alongside the first expression of divine displeasure in the Exodus narrative. The fifth objection is the one that costs Moses something.