The BibleTruth.cc Torah Study Series

Parashat Shemot

"Names"

Shemot [Exodus] 1:1-6:1

Shemot ("Exodus") begins by listing the names of the sons of Israel who journeyed to Egypt.

Theme

The theme of Parashat Shemot

Sedarim

The Sons of Yisrael

The New Pharaoh Oppresses Yisrael

The Birth of Mosheh

Mosheh Flees Mitzrayim

Mosheh Encounters Elohim

Mosheh Given Signs

Mosheh Returns to Mitzrayim

Mosheh Makes Demands of Pharaoh

Prophetic Pictures in this Week's Torah Portion

Messiah in the Torah Parashah

Prophetic End Time Shadows in the Torah Parashah

The Sons of Yisrael

1:1 These are the names of the sons of Yisrael who went to Mitzrayim with Ya'acov, each with his family:

² Re'uven, Shim'on, Levi and Yehudah;

³ Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin;

⁴ Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher.

⁵ The descendants of Ya'acov numbered seventy in all; Yoseph was already in Mitzrayim.

The New Pharaoh Oppresses Yisrael

6 Now Yoseph and all his brothers and all that generation died,

⁷ but the sons of Yisrael were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them.

⁸ Then a new king, who did not know about Yoseph, came to power in Mitzrayim.

⁹ "Look," he said to his people, "the sons of Yisrael have become much too numerous for us.

¹⁰ Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country."

¹¹ So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.

¹² But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Mitzrites came to dread the sons of Yisrael

¹³ and worked them ruthlessly.

¹⁴ They made their lives bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their hard labor the Mitzrites used them ruthlessly.

¹⁵ The king of Mitzrayim said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah,

¹⁶ "When you help the Hebrew women in childbirth and observe them on the delivery stool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live."

¹⁷ The midwives, however, feared Elohim and did not do what the king of Mitzrayim had told them to do; they let the boys live.

¹⁸ Then the king of Mitzrayim summoned the midwives and asked them, "Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?"

¹⁹ The midwives answered Pharaoh, "Hebrew women are not like Mitzrite women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive."

²⁰ So Elohim was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous.

²¹ And because the midwives feared Elohim, he gave them families of their own.

²² Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: "Every boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live."

The Birth of Mosheh

2:1 Now a man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman,

² and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months.

³ But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.

⁴ His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.

⁵ Then Pharaoh's daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the river bank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her slave girl to get it.

⁶ She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. "This is one of the Hebrew babies," she said.

⁷ Then his sister asked Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?"

⁸ "Yes, go," she answered. And the girl went and got the baby's mother.

⁹ Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you." So the woman took the baby and nursed him.

¹⁰ When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son. She named him Mosheh, saying, "I drew him out of the water."

Mosheh Flees Mitzrayim

11 One day, after Mosheh had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw a Mitzrite beating a Hebrew, one of his own people.

¹² Glancing this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Mitzrite and hid him in the sand.

¹³ The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, "Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?"

¹⁴ The man said, "Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Mitzrite?" Then Mosheh was afraid and thought, "What I did must have become known."

¹⁵ When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Mosheh, but Mosheh fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well.

¹⁶ Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father's flock.

¹⁷ Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Mosheh got up and came to their rescue and watered their flock.

¹⁸ When the girls returned to Reuel their father, he asked them, "Why have you returned so early today?"

¹⁹ They answered, "A Mitzrite rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock."

²⁰ "And where is he?" he asked his daughters. "Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat."

²¹ Mosheh agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Mosheh in marriage.

²² Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Mosheh named him Gershom, saying, "I have become an alien in a foreign land."

²³ During that long period, the king of Mitzrayim died. The sons of Yisrael groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to Elohim.

²⁴ Elohim heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Avraham, with Yitzchak and with Ya'acov.

²⁵ So Elohim looked on the sons of Yisrael and was concerned about them.

Mosheh Encounters Elohim

3:1 Now Mosheh was tending the flock of Yitro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of Elohim.

² There the angel of Yahuwah appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Mosheh saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up.

³ So Mosheh thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight-- why the bush does not burn up."

⁴ When Yahuwah saw that he had gone over to look, Elohim called to him from within the bush, "Mosheh! Mosheh!" And Mosheh said, "Here I am."

⁵ "Do not come any closer," Elohim said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground."

⁶ Then he said, "I am the Elohim of your father, the Elohim of Avraham, the Elohim of Yitzchak and the Elohim of Ya'acov." At this, Mosheh hid his face, because he was afraid to look at Elohim.

⁷ Yahuwah said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Mitzrayim. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.

⁸ So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Mitzrites and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey-- the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Yebusites.

⁹ And now the cry of the sons of Yisrael has reached me, and I have seen the way the Mitzrites are oppressing them.

¹⁰ So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the sons of Yisrael out of Mitzrayim."

¹¹ But Mosheh said to Elohim, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the sons of Yisrael out of Mitzrayim?"

¹² And Elohim said, "I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Mitzrayim, you will worship Elohim on this mountain."

¹³ Mosheh said to Elohim, "Suppose I go to the sons of Yisrael and say to them, 'The Elohim of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?"

¹⁴ Elohim said to Mosheh, "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the sons of Yisrael: 'I AM has sent me to you.'"

¹⁵ Elohim also said to Mosheh, "Say to the sons of Yisrael, 'Yahuwah, the Elohim of your fathers-- the Elohim of Avraham, the Elohim of Yitzchak and the Elohim of Ya'acov-- has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.

¹⁶ "Go, assemble the elders of Yisrael and say to them, 'Yahuwah, the Elohim of your fathers-- the Elohim of Avraham, Yitzchak and Ya'acov-- appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Mitzrayim.

¹⁷ And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Mitzrayim into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Yebusites-- a land flowing with milk and honey.'

¹⁸ "The elders of Yisrael will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Mitzrayim and say to him, 'Yahuwah, the Elohim of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to Yahuwah our Elohim.'

¹⁹ But I know that the king of Mitzrayim will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him.

²⁰ So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Mitzrites with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.

²¹ "And I will make the Mitzrites favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed.

²² Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Mitzrites."

An interesting phrase we find frequently in the Tanach when Elohim is communicating with humans is the malack Yahuwah (in Hebrew, hA"ïhy> %a;’l.m;), usually translated angel of Yahuwah or messenger of Yahuwah.  To identify who this malack Yahuwah is, we need only to peruse a few occurrences of this phrase.

In the account of Mosheh when he saw a bush burning in the wilderness, we are told:

There the angel of Yahuwah appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Mosheh saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. (Shemot 3:2).

Just like the d'var Yahuwah is the appearing of Yahuwah to humans, the malack Yahuwah also appears to people.  The account of Mosheh and the flaming bush confirms that the malack Yahuwah is Yahuwah himself:

So Mosheh thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight-- why the bush does not burn up."  When Yahuwah saw that he had gone over to look, Elohim called to him from within the bush, "Mosheh! Mosheh!" And Mosheh said, "Here I am."  "Do not come any closer," Elohim said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground."  Then he said, "I am the Elohim of your father, the Elohim of Avraham, the Elohim of Yitzchak and the Elohim of Ya'acov." At this, Mosheh hid his face, because he was afraid to look at Elohim. (Shemot 3:3-6).

We are told that the malack Yahuwah appeared in flames of fire from within the bush, and then that Elohim called to Mosheh from within the bush.  Evidently, the malack Yahuwah is Elohim himself.  This is further demonstrated by Elohim speaking and identifying himself as the Elohim of Avraham, etc.  And Mosheh was afraid to look at Elohim in the flame.

In another place, the malack Yahuwah appears to Gideon:

The angel of Yahuwah came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites.  When the angel of Yahuwah appeared to Gideon, he said, "Yahuwah is with you, mighty warrior."  "But sir," Gideon replied, "if Yahuwah is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, 'Did not Yahuwah bring us up out of Mitzrayim?' But now Yahuwah has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian."  Yahuwah turned to him and said, "Go in the strength you have and save Yisrael out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you?"  "But Yahuwah," Gideon asked, "how can I save Yisrael? (Shoftim [Judges] 6:11-15).

Here, the malack Yahuwah appeared as a man and sat down under the oak and spoke with Gideon.  The text then indicates that Yahuwah (not the angel of Yahuwah) turned to Gideon and spoke again.  Then Gideon speaks to Yahuwah again.  The malack Yahuwah is clearly just another designation for Yahuwah himself.

Again, the malack Yahuwah is Yahuwah himself as he appears to people.  Like the phrase d'var Yahuwah, the malack Yahuwah is a way of indicating that Yahuwah himself, in the form like a man, appeared and spoke a message to a human being.

Mosheh Given Signs

4:1 Mosheh answered, "What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, 'Yahuwah did not appear to you'?"

² Then Yahuwah said to him, "What is that in your hand?" "A staff," he replied.

³ Yahuwah said, "Throw it on the ground." Mosheh threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it.

⁴ Then Yahuwah said to him, "Reach out your hand and take it by the tail." So Mosheh reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand.

⁵ "This," said Yahuwah, "is so that they may believe that Yahuwah, the Elohim of their fathers-- the Elohim of Avraham, the Elohim of Yitzchak and the Elohim of Ya'acov-- has appeared to you."

⁶ Then Yahuwah said, "Put your hand inside your cloak." So Mosheh put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was leprous, like snow.

⁷ "Now put it back into your cloak," he said. So Mosheh put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh.

⁸ Then Yahuwah said, "If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first miraculous sign, they may believe the second.

⁹ But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground."

¹⁰ Mosheh said to Yahuwah, "Yahuwah, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue."

¹¹ Yahuwah said to him, "Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, Yahuwah?

¹² Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say."

¹³ But Mosheh said, "Yahuwah, please send someone else to do it."

¹⁴ Then Yahuwah's anger burned against Mosheh and he said, "What about your brother, Aharon the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and his heart will be glad when he sees you.

¹⁵ You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do.

¹⁶ He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were Elohim to him.

¹⁷ But take this staff in your hand so you can perform miraculous signs with it."

Mosheh Returns to Mitzrayim

¹⁸ Then Mosheh went back to Yitro his father-in-law and said to him, "Let me go back to my own people in Mitzrayim to see if any of them are still alive." Yitro said, "Go, and I wish you well."

¹⁹ Now Yahuwah had said to Mosheh in Midian, "Go back to Mitzrayim, for all the men who wanted to kill you are dead."

²⁰ So Mosheh took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Mitzrayim. And he took the staff of Elohim in his hand.

²¹ Yahuwah said to Mosheh, "When you return to Mitzrayim, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.

²² Then say to Pharaoh, 'This is what Yahuwah says: Yisrael is my firstborn son,

²³ and I told you, "Let my son go, so he may worship me." But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.'"

²⁴ At a lodging place on the way, Yahuwah met [Mosheh] and was about to kill him.

²⁵ But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son's foreskin and touched [Mosheh'] feet with it. "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me," she said.

²⁶ So Yahuwah let him alone. (At that time she said "bridegroom of blood," referring to circumcision.)

²⁷ Yahuwah said to Aharon, "Go into the desert to meet Mosheh." So he met Mosheh at the mountain of Elohim and kissed him.

²⁸ Then Mosheh told Aharon everything Yahuwah had sent him to say, and also about all the miraculous signs he had commanded him to perform.

²⁹ Mosheh and Aharon brought together all the elders of the sons of Yisrael,

³⁰ and Aharon told them everything Yahuwah had said to Mosheh. He also performed the signs before the people,

³¹ and they believed. And when they heard that Yahuwah was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.

Mosheh Makes Demands of Pharaoh

5:1 Afterward Mosheh and Aharon went to Pharaoh and said, "This is what Yahuwah, the Elohim of Yisrael, says: 'Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the desert.'"

² Pharaoh said, "Who is Yahuwah, that I should obey him and let Yisrael go? I do not know Yahuwah and I will not let Yisrael go."

³ Then they said, "The Elohim of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to Yahuwah our Elohim, or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword."

⁴ But the king of Mitzrayim said, "Mosheh and Aharon, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work!"

⁵ Then Pharaoh said, "Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working."

⁶ That same day Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and foremen in charge of the people:

⁷ "You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw.

⁸ But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don't reduce the quota. They are lazy; that is why they are crying out, 'Let us go and sacrifice to our Elohim.'

⁹ Make the work harder for the men so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies."

¹⁰ Then the slave drivers and the foremen went out and said to the people, "This is what Pharaoh says: 'I will not give you any more straw.

¹¹ Go and get your own straw wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced at all.'"

¹² So the people scattered all over Mitzrayim to gather stubble to use for straw.

¹³ The slave drivers kept pressing them, saying, "Complete the work required of you for each day, just as when you had straw."

¹⁴ The Yisraelite foremen appointed by Pharaoh's slave drivers were beaten and were asked, "Why didn't you meet your quota of bricks yesterday or today, as before?"

¹⁵ Then the Yisraelite foremen went and appealed to Pharaoh: "Why have you treated your servants this way?

¹⁶ Your servants are given no straw, yet we are told, 'Make bricks!' Your servants are being beaten, but the fault is with your own people."

¹⁷ Pharaoh said, "Lazy, that's what you are-- lazy! That is why you keep saying, 'Let us go and sacrifice to Yahuwah.'

¹⁸ Now get to work. You will not be given any straw, yet you must produce your full quota of bricks."

¹⁹ The Yisraelite foremen realized they were in trouble when they were told, "You are not to reduce the number of bricks required of you for each day."

²⁰ When they left Pharaoh, they found Mosheh and Aharon waiting to meet them,

²¹ and they said, "May Yahuwah look upon you and judge you! You have made us a stench to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us."

²² Mosheh returned to Yahuwah and said, "Yahuwah, why have you brought trouble upon this people? Is this why you sent me?

²³ Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble upon this people, and you have not rescued your people at all."

Messiah in the Torah Parashah

Prophetic End Time Shadows in the Torah Parashah