What Does Exodus 6:13 Mean?

But the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a charge about the people of Israel and about Pharaoh king of Egypt: to bring the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

The divine response to Moses' "uncircumcised lips" objection in verse 12 is not engagement with the objection but a command: the LORD spoke to both Moses and Aaron and gave them a charge. The word "charge" (Hebrew: tsivah), which means a command or injunction given with authority, does not address Moses' adequacy concern but simply extends the commission to both brothers. The response to the objection is not argument but authority: the one who commissions overrides the objection by re-issuing the commission.

The fact that the charge is given to both Moses and Aaron at this point in the narrative acknowledges the partnership that has been established since chapter 4: Moses is not alone in this mission, and the "uncircumcised lips" limitation is met not only by divine promise (chapter 4:12, "I will be with your mouth") but also by the complementary gift of Aaron's speech. Moses' inadequacy in speech is the space into which Aaron has been called. The commission given to the pair is structurally more robust than one given to Moses alone: the limitations of one partner are covered by the gifts of the other.

The charge is stated in its essential form: "to bring the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt." This is the mission statement in its most precise form, the single sentence that summarizes everything from the burning bush through the seven covenant promises and beyond. All of chapters 3-6's divine speech, all of Moses' objections, all of the commissioning and re-commissioning material reduces to one sentence: bring Israel out. The genealogy that follows in verses 14-25 is a kind of narrative breath before the plague narrative begins, establishing the identities of the mission's human principals before the ten plagues unfold.