Exodus 4:13 · Bible study
Exodus 4:13 Commentary: Moses' Final Refusal or a Cry for the Messiah?
Hebrew · 10 what the commentators say
Meaning in one sentence
Did Moses' plea 'send someone else' refer to the Messiah or show his final reluctance? Explore the Hebrew text, commentaries, and theological significance.
Research Summary
- Meaning: Moses begs God to send anyone else, culminating his five objections to the call.
- Key words: bi (please), shalach (send), yad (hand, agency). The idiom 'by the hand' expresses instrumentality.
- Main debate: Does Moses pray for the Messiah (early church, Cocceius) or simply refuse (majority of commentators)?
- Theological theme: Human reluctance vs. divine persistence; grace that supplies our lack even in judgment.
- Best use: Preaching on call, resistance, and God's sovereignty in using weak instruments.
Translation Comparison
BSB Berean Standard Bible 2020
But Moses replied, “Please, Lord, send someone else.”
WEB World English Bible 2000
Moses said, “Oh, Lord, please send someone else.”
KJV King James Version 1769
And he said, O my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send.
ASV American Standard Version 1901
And he said, Oh, Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send.
YLT Young's Literal Translation 1898
and he saith, `O, my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand Thou dost send.'
Darby Darby Bible 1890
And he said, Ah Lord! send, I pray thee, by the hand [of him whom] thou wilt send.
Douay-Rheims Douay-Rheims Bible 1899
But he said: I beseech thee, Lord, send whom thou wilt send.
Translations in other languages (10 available)
Y él dijo: ¡ Ay Señor! envía por mano del que has de enviar.
E ele disse: Ai Senhor! envia por meio do que hás de enviar.
Moïse dit: Ah! Seigneur, envoie qui tu voudras envoyer.
Mose sprach aber: Mein Herr, sende, welchen du senden willst.
Doch hij zeide: Och, Heere! zend toch door de hand desgenen, dien Gij zoudt zenden.
E Mosè disse: “Deh! Signore, manda il tuo messaggio per mezzo di chi vorrai!”
I rzekł Mojżesz: Słuchaj Panie, poślij proszę tego, kogo posłać masz.
[Моисей] сказал: Господи! пошли другого, кого можешь послать.
摩西說：「主 啊，你願意 打發誰，就打發誰去吧！」
And he said, O Lord, send, if you will, by the hand of anyone whom it seems good to you to send.
Verse in Context
Original Language (Biblical Hebrew)
Old Testament · Biblical Hebrew · Exodus 4:13
Source: STEPBible TAGNT/TEHB (CC-BY 4.0). Click or tap a morphology code to see the full parsing.
Scholars' Consensus
Most modern commentators agree that Exodus 4:13 represents Moses' final, desperate attempt to escape God's commission. Keil and Delitzsch state plainly: Moses did not wish to undertake the divine mission. Matthew Henry attributes it to cowardice, slothfulness and unbelief. Wesley sums it up as 'By any but me.' The Hebrew phrasing 'send, please, by the hand you will send' is an idiom of refusal: appoint someone, anyone, else. However, a minority tradition, noted by Calvin and Gill, sees a messianic reference, early church fathers such as Justin, Tertullian, Cyprian and Rupert argued Moses was praying for the promised Deliverer. Adam Clarke firmly rejects this reading, calling it both 'improper and dangerous.' The consensus among Reformed, Baptist, Wesleyan and modern critical scholars is that Moses was simply pleading to be excused, a view supported by the immediate context: God's anger burns against Moses (v.14), which would be an inexplicable response to a prayer for the Messiah.
How settled is the interpretation?
Interpretive difficulty: Medium
Main views:
- Messianic reference: Early church fathers (Justin, Tertullian, Cyprian); Cocceius; cited in Calvin and Gill. They connect to Ex 23:20 and the Angel of the Lord.
- Simple refusal: Majority of modern commentators (Calvin, Keil, Matthew Henry, Clarke, Wesley). Context: God's anger, Moses' track record of objections, the idiom of generalized sending.
What is clear: All traditions agree that Moses is resisting God's commission, and that God responds with both anger and merciful provision (Aaron).
What Scholars Agree and Debate
| Topic | Agreed | Debated |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning of 'by the hand you will send' | The phrase is an idiom of refusal: 'send someone else, anyone else.' | Early church fathers (Justin, Tertullian, Cyprian) interpreted it as a prayer for the Messiah; most modern scholars see it as flat rejection. |
| God's anger at Moses | God's anger is a real response to Moses' final objection. | Some (Gill) see Moses finally submitting and God still angry at his prior reluctance; others see anger at the refusal itself. |
| Moses' spiritual state | Moses is unwilling to accept the commission. | Some call it 'weakness of faith' (Barnes, Keil); others see it as understandable humility or even a test of God's provision. |
| Relevance for Christian call | The passage shows God uses flawed and reluctant people. | Some traditions emphasize God's sovereignty overriding human refusal; others stress the need for willing surrender. |
Historical & Cultural Context
Exodus 4:13 is the final of five objections Moses raises at the burning bush (Exodus 3:11, 4:17). Each objection is met with a divine answer: Moses questions his worth (3:11), God provides His presence (3:12); Moses fears the Israelites won't believe him (4:1), God gives three signs (4:2, 9); Moses claims to be 'not eloquent' (4:10), God reminds him He made the mouth (4:11, 12). After each, Moses still says no.
The phrase 'send by the hand of him whom you will send' uses the Hebrew yad (hand), a common Semitic idiom for agency or instrumentality. The verb shalach appears twice, an imperative followed by an imperfect, creating a generalizing effect: 'send through whomever you send.' It is a final, evasive request.
God's response, anger, is unique in the call narrative. Unlike earlier patience, this resistance provokes divine wrath. Yet even in anger, God provides a solution: Aaron. This tension between judgment and mercy marks the climax of the call. Moses' reluctance, rooted in the flesh, is met by God's sovereign provision, mirroring how human weakness often becomes the stage for divine power.
Textual Notes
The consulted sources note no significant textual variants for Exodus 4:13. The Hebrew text is stable across manuscripts, with the phrase 'שלח נא ביד תשלח' consistently attested. The Septuagint renders the sense as 'appoint another who is able, whom you will send,' which paraphrases but does not alter the meaning.
Reception History
Early Christian writers (Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Cyprian) read Exodus 4:13 as a prophecy of the Messiah. They saw Moses' plea 'by the hand you will send' as a sigh for the ultimate Deliverer. Jerome and Rupert of Deutz continued this tradition. During the Reformation, Calvin and the Geneva Bible rejected this reading, seeing only reluctance. Jewish commentators (Rashi, Ibn Ezra) understood the verse simply as Moses asking for another messenger. In modern times, critical scholarship (Keil, Clarke) decisively favors the reluctant-refusal interpretation, though the messianic reading still appears in some devotional and homiletic contexts.
Preaching This Verse
Three-point outline
- The anatomy of reluctance: Moses had exhausted every legitimate excuse. His final plea reveals the heart of unbelief: 'Send anyone but me.'
- The anger of God: God's wrath kindles against stubborn refusal. God's patience has limits when His servants persistently resist His call.
- The mercy of provision: Even in anger, God supplies Aaron. Rejection is answered with help, not abandonment.
Five-point outline
- Objection #5: After four answers, Moses still says no (v.13).
- Reading the Hebrew: 'By the hand you will send' is a deferral to no one in particular.
- God's anger: Divine patience runs its course; God's holiness resists rebellion.
- God's help anyway: Aaron is appointed, a concession that also confirms Moses' role.
- The lesson for us: God often calls the unwilling, and His grace outlasts our excuses.
Illustration hooks
- A qualified employee who keeps rejecting a promotion because they feel inadequate, only to find their boss provides a co-mentor.
- A parent who repeatedly says 'I can't handle this' to a teacher asking them to lead a school event, and the teacher finds another parent to co-lead.
- A volunteer who agrees to serve only after being told a helper will be assigned, the same pattern of reluctant surrender.
Questions your congregation is asking
- Does God get angry at me when I resist His call? What does this episode teach about that?
- If I'm not good at what God asks me to do, does He still want me? How does Aaron's role encourage?
- What's the difference between humble hesitation and stubborn refusal?
Leading a Discussion
This verse shows the limit of divine patience and the surprising shape of grace. Moses had argued his way out of every objection God answered. Now he simply says no. Discuss what this reveals about human nature and God's character.
Discussion questions
- Read Exodus 3:11, 4:12. What are Moses' four previous objections? How did God respond to each?
- In verse 13, Moses says 'send by the hand of him whom thou wilt send.' What exactly is he asking for? Name every possible interpretation.
- Why does God's anger burn against Moses here but not earlier? What changed?
- God responds by appointing Aaron. Does this mean Moses 'won' the argument? Why or why not?
- Some early Christians saw verse 13 as a prayer for the Messiah. What arguments support that reading? What arguments oppose it?
- Have you ever resisted a clear call from God? What excuses did you use?
- How does God's provision of Aaron comfort those who feel inadequate for a task?
Word Study
The key original-language words in this verse. Select any word for its full lexicon entry — meaning, every occurrence in Scripture, and related words.
Cross-References
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (TSK, public domain)
| Genesis 24:7 | Yahweh, the God of heaven—who took me from my father’s house, and from the land of my birth, who spoke to me, and who swore to me, saying, ‘I will give this land to your offspring—he will send his angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there. |
| Genesis 48:16 | the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads, and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac. Let them grow into a multitude upon the earth.” |
| Exodus 4:1 | Moses answered, “But, behold, they will not believe me, nor listen to my voice; for they will say, ‘Yahweh has not appeared to you.’” |
| Exodus 23:20 | “Behold, I send an angel before you, to keep you by the way, and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. |
| Judges 2:1 | Yahweh’s angel came up from Gilgal to Bochim. He said, “I brought you out of Egypt, and have brought you to the land which I swore to give your fathers. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you. |
| I Kings 19:4 | But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree. Then he requested for himself that he might die, and said, “It is enough. Now, O Yahweh, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.” |
| Jeremiah 1:6 | Then I said, “Ah, Lord Yahweh! Behold, I don’t know how to speak; for I am a child.” |
| Jeremiah 20:9 | If I say that I will not make mention of him, or speak any more in his name, then there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones. I am weary with holding it in. I can’t. |
Interlinear and lexical data from STEPBible (CC BY 4.0). Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0). Commentaries are public domain.
For personal reflection
Read the devotional page — prayer, application, and "for families"
What the Commentators Say
10 public-domain commentaries, condensed into plain language.
Adam Clarke's Commentary Methodist/Wesleyan 1826
Clarke firmly rejects the common view that Moses is asking for the Messiah here. He warns against forcing scriptures to refer to Christ where they do not obviously point that way. In his opinion, Moses meant nothing about the Messiah when he spoke these words.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible Protestant 1832
Barnes notes that Moses' reluctance to obey God's call follows the normal pattern of human spiritual growth and fits Moses' own personality, yet in this specific situation it exposed a lack of faith. What would be understandable in other contexts became a failure to trust God's power and promise.
Calvin's Commentaries Reformed 1564
Calvin reads this not as a veiled request for Christ or Aaron but as a plain plea to be excused. Moses finds the task too heavy and asks God to choose anyone else instead, a transfer of the burden that shows his human reluctance.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges Anglican 1880
Moses' objection about his lack of fluency meets a twofold divine response: God first promises to be with him and give him words, then offers Aaron as spokesman. The commentator notes that Moses' own response is unwilling and ambiguous, and that his request to send "whomever" actually means whoever it may be, not a specific person.
Geneva Bible Notes Reformed 1599
The Geneva note highlights that Moses is making a polite but evasive excuse. By asking God to send "the one He should send," Moses is essentially refusing the commission without a direct no, revealing his reluctance to obey God's call.
Gill's Exposition of the Bible Baptist 1748
Gill reads Moses' response not as a plea to send someone else, but as a submission to God's will: "since it must be so, I submit." This interpretation is unusual, as most commentators see Moses asking to be excused. Gill acknowledges God's anger in the next verse, but explains it came because Moses had been so reluctant before.
Keil & Delitzsch OT Commentary Protestant 1876
Keil-Delitzsch sees the real issue not as Moses' speech difficulty but as his hidden unwillingness to accept the mission. God's anger burned at this groundless refusal, yet mercy still provided Aaron. They also note that calling Aaron "the Levite" carries no allusion to the tribe's future prophetic calling.
Lange's Commentary Reformed 1857
Lange sees the three signs as symbolizing the three dimensions of Moses’ coming work: the rod becomes a serpent and then a divine staff, representing his pastoral calling transformed into confrontation with Egypt’s hostile power. The leprous hand placed in the bosom signifies his sympathetic identification with the people’s guilt. The Nile turned to blood shows his authority to turn Egypt’s source of life into a judgment of death.
Matthew Henry's Commentary Reformed/Presbyterian 1710
Henry notes that Moses' continued excuses here can no longer be credited to humility or modesty. What now appears is cowardice, slothfulness, and unbelief. Though Moses claimed he was not eloquent, Henry observes he was mighty in word, so the real problem was not inability but unwillingness to obey God's call.
Wesley's Explanatory Notes Methodist/Wesleyan 1754
Send by whom thou wilt send - By any but me.