What Does Exodus 6:1 Mean?

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for with a strong hand he will send them out, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land." The divine response to Moses' lament prayer at the end of chapter 5 begins not with rebuke but with a promise and a reversal: "Now you shall see." The word "now" (Hebrew: atah) marks the transition from lament to action.

Moses has asked "why have you done evil to this people?" and "why did you ever send me?" God answers neither question directly; instead he announces what is coming: Moses will see YHWH act against Pharaoh in ways that will answer both questions with demonstration rather than explanation.

The phrase "with a strong hand he will send them out" (Hebrew: beyad chazakah) is the same language used in chapter 3 and will become the refrain of the Exodus: "with a strong hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt" (Deuteronomy 6:21). The strong hand of YHWH is the signature action of the Exodus.

But verse 1 adds the unexpected: "with a strong hand he will drive them out." The same phrase describes both YHWH's action and what Pharaoh's strong hand will: do: drive Israel out. The irony is total: the same hand that currently oppresses Israel will be the hand that expels them. Pharaoh's resistance will end not in maintained control but in urgent dispossession.

The verb "drive out" (Hebrew: geresh) is the same verb used for the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden (Genesis 3:24) and for the expulsion of nations before Israel in Canaan (Exodus 33:2).

When Pharaoh drives Israel out, he will not be choosing to release them; he will be compelled to remove them under conditions of urgency. The Exodus will not be a negotiated settlement but a forced expulsion on Pharaoh's part. The very king who said "I will not let Israel go" will be the one who actively drives them out of his land, and he will do it, as chapter 12:33 records, because the Egyptians "were urgent with the people to send them out of the land in haste."