Exodus 6:20

6:14-30 Moses and Aaron were Israelites; raised up unto them of their brethren, as Christ also should be, who was to be the Prophet and Priest, the Redeemer and Lawgiver of the people of Israel. Moses returns to his narrative, and repeats the charge God had given him to deliver his message to Pharaoh, and his objection against it. Those who have spoken unadvisedly with their lips ought to reflect upon it with regret, as Moses seems to do here.Uncircumcised, is used in Scripture to note the unsuitableness there may be in any thing to answer its proper purpose; as the carnal heart and depraved nature of fallen man are wholly unsuited to the services of God, and to the purposes of his glory. It is profitable to place no confidence in ourselves, all our sufficiency must be in the Lord. We never can trust ourselves too little, or our God too much. I can do nothing by myself, said the apostle, but I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

And Amram took him Jochebed his father's sister to wife,.... This Amram was the first son of Kohath, and the father of Moses, as after related, and so must be the same with the man of the house of Levi, and his wife the daughter of Levi, as in Exodus 2:1 and though such a marriage was afterwards prohibited, Moses does not conceal it, though it may seem to reflect some dishonour on him and his family; he writing not for his own glory, but for the sake of truth, and the good of mankind, and especially the church and people of God. Indeed the Vulgate Latin version, and the Septuagint, Samaritan, and Syriac versions, make her to be his first cousin, the daughter of his father's brother, his uncle's daughter: and so does Polyhistor from Demetrius (h); but in Numbers 26:59 , she is expressly said to be a daughter of Levi, born to him in Egypt, and therefore must be his father's sister: and she bare him Aaron and Moses: and Miriam also, though not mentioned, it being for the sake of these two that the genealogy is made: and the years of the life of Amram were one hundred and thirty seven years: just the age of his grandfather Levi, Exodus 6:16. A Jewish chronologer (i) says he died in the thirtieth year of Moses: but the Arabic writers (k) say in the fifty sixth or fifty seventh, and at the end of A. M. 3810.

Polyhistor (l) from Demetrius makes his age to be one hundred and thirty six, and him to be the father of Moses and Aaron, and Aaron to be three years older than Moses, exactly according to the Scripture account. (h) Apud Euseb. ut supra. (Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 21. p. 425.) (i) Shalshalet Hakabala, ut supra. (fol. 5. 1.) (k) Patricides, p. 26. Elmacinus, p. 46. apud Hottinger. Smegma Oriental. l. 1. c. 8. p. 392. (l) Apud Euseb. ut supra.

(20) Amram took him Jocheoed his father’s sister to wife. —Marriages with aunts and nieces were not unlawful before the giving of the Law. They were common throughout the East, and at Sparta (Herod. vi. 71, 7:239). The years of the life of Amram.—The long lives of Levi, Kohath, and Amram, the father of Moses, are not recorded for any chronological purpose, but to show that the blessing of God rested in an especial way on the house of Levi, even before it became the priestly tribe. Life in Egypt at the time not unfrequently reached 120 years; but the 137 of Levi, the 133 of Kohath, and the 137 of Amram, the father of Moses, would, even in Egypt, have been abnormal.

His father’s sister or rather, kinswoman , or cousin , or niece ; for so this Hebrew word is sometimes used, as appears from Jeremiah 32:8,9,12 . Object. She is called the daughter of Levi , Exodus 2:1 . Answ. Even nieces are oft called daughters , as we have showed. See Luke 1:5 , and See Poole "Exodus 2:1" .

Verse 20. - Amram . That this Amram is the "man of the house of Levi" mentioned in Exodus 2:1 , cannot be doubted; but it is scarcely possible that he should be the Amram of ver. 18, the actual son of Kohath and contemporary of Joseph. He is probably a descendant of the sixth or seventh generation, who bore the same name, and was the head of the Amramite house. That house, at the time of the Exodus, numbered above two thousand males ( Numbers 3:27, 28 ). See the excellent remarks of Keil and Delitzsch, 'Biblical Commentary,' vol. 1. p. 470, E. T.; and compare Kurtz, 'History of Old Covenant,' vol. 2. p. 144, and Cook, in 'Speaker's Commentary,' vol. 1. p. 274. Jochebed his father's sister . Marriages with aunts and nieces have been common in many countries, and are not forbidden by any natural instinct. They first became unlawful by the positive command recorded in Leviticus 18:12 . The name Jochebed is the earliest known compounded with Jah, or Jehovah. It means "the glory of Jehovah." She bare him Aaron and Moses . Aaron is placed first, as being older than Moses ( Exodus 7:7 ). Miriam is omitted, since the object of the writer is confined to tracing descent in the male line. Exodus 6:20

Amram - This can scarcely be the same person who is mentioned in Exodus 6:18 ; but his descendant and representative in the generation immediately preceding that of Moses. The intervening links are omitted, as is the rule where they are not needed for some special purpose, and do not bear upon the history. Jochebed - The name means "the glory of Jehovah (Yahweh)," one clear instance of the use of the sacred name before the Exodus. Father's sister - This was within the prohibited degrees after the law was given Leviticus 18:12 but not previously.

20 . The family of Kohath’s first son, Amram ( v. 18), viz. Aaron and Moses. Jochebed ] Mentioned besides only Numbers 26:59 (P). The name means probably ‘Yahweh is glory’ [viz. to us or to our people] (cf. the Phoen. Kabd-melḳart , ‘Melḳart is glory’),—‘Yahweh’ being contracted (through Yahw, Yĕhaw, Yaw ), as in many other proper names (e.g. Jo‘çzer, ‘Yahweh is help’), to Yô ( Jo ). his father’s sister ] and so the ‘daughter of Levi,’ Exodus 2:1 , cf. Numbers 26:59 . Marriage with a father’s sister was afterwards forbidden, Leviticus 18:12 ; cf. another deviation from the later law in Genesis 20:12 . P must here preserve a genuine ancient tradition. Aaron and Moses ] Sam. LXX. Pesh. add, and Miriam ; cf. Numbers 26:59 . Aaron, according to P ( Exodus 7:7 ) was three years older than Moses (cf. Numbers 33:39 with Deuteronomy 34:7 ). Miriam’s age is nowhere stated: it may be inferred from Exodus 2:8 (presuming her to be there referred to) that she was some years older than either of her brothers. 20–25 . The descendants of Kohath’s sons.

The Genealogy of Moses and Aaron. - "These are their (Moses' and Aaron's) father's-houses." בּית־אבות father's-houses (not fathers' house) is a composite noun, so formed that the two words not only denote one idea, but are treated grammatically as one word, like בּית־עצבּים idol-houses ( 1 Samuel 31:9 ), and בּית־בּמות high-place-houses (cf. Ges. 108, 3; Ewald, 270c). Father's house was a technical term applied to a collection of families, called by the name of a common ancestor. The father's-houses were the larger divisions into which the families (mishpachoth), the largest subdivisions of the tribes of Israel, were grouped. To show clearly the genealogical position of Levi, the tribe-father of Moses and Aaron, among the sons of Jacob, the genealogy commences with Reuben, the first-born of Jacob, and gives the names of such of his sons and those of Simeon as were the founders of families ( Genesis 46:9-10 ). Then follows Levi; and not only are the names of his three sons given, but the length of his life is mentioned ( Exodus 6:16 ), also that of his son Kohath and his descendant Amram, because they were the tribe-fathers of Moses and Aaron. But the Amram mentioned in Exodus 6:20 as the father of Moses, cannot be the same person as the Amram who was the son of Kohath ( Exodus 6:18 ), but must be a later descendant.