What Does Exodus 7:6 Mean?

Moses and Aaron did so; they did just as the LORD commanded them. Verse 6 reports the obedience of Moses and Aaron in the simplest possible terms: "they did just as the LORD commanded them." After all the objections of chapters 3-6, after all the "who am I" and "uncircumcised lips" and "they will not believe me," Moses and Aaron do what they were told. The simplicity of verse 6 is the answer to all the complexity of the objections: in the end, they obeyed. The narrative does not linger on the transition from objecting to obeying; it simply reports the obedience as an accomplished fact.

The "just as the LORD commanded them" standard of full obedience without modification is the fulfillment of the "all that I command you" mandate of verse 2. Moses and Aaron received the commission with maximal fidelity and executed it with the same fidelity. Their obedience is not partial, not qualified, not conditional on the outcome: they do what they were told before they know how Pharaoh will respond. The obedience of verse 6 is the pre-outcome obedience, the going-despite-the-question that the chapter 6 ending anticipated.

The verse 6 report of obedience is structurally typical of the Exodus narrative: command (verses 1-5), obedience (verse 6), execution (verses 7-25). The three-part structure of instruction, compliance, and event organizes the plague narratives throughout chapters 7-12. The obedience report in verse 6 is the hinge between the commissioning and the first plague, the narrative moment that certifies the human agents are in place and functioning before the divine action begins.