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Aaron’s Office as Assistant. 10 Moses, however, said to the Lord, “If you please, my Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor now that you have spoken to your servant; but I am slow of speech and tongue.”(A) 11 The Lord said to him: Who gives one person speech? Who makes another mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now go, I will assist you in speaking[a] and teach you what you are to say. 13 But he said, “If you please, my Lord, send someone else!”[b] 14 Then the Lord became angry with Moses and said: I know there is your brother, Aaron the Levite, who is a good speaker; even now he is on his way to meet you. When he sees you, he will truly be glad. 15 You will speak to him and put the words in his mouth. I will assist both you and him in speaking and teach you both what you are to do. 16 He will speak to the people for you: he will be your spokesman,[c] and you will be as God to him.(B)

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Footnotes

  1. 4:12 Assist you in speaking: lit., “be with your mouth”; cf. v. 15, lit., “be with your mouth and with his mouth.”
  2. 4:13 Send someone else: lit., “send by means of him whom you will send,” that is, “send whom you will.”
  3. 4:16 Spokesman: lit., “mouth”; Aaron was to serve as a mouthpiece for Moses, as a prophet does for God; hence the relation between Moses and Aaron is compared to that between God and his prophet: Moses “will be as God to,” i.e., lit., “will become God for him.” Cf. 7:1.

Then the Lord extended his hand and touched my mouth, saying to me,

See, I place my words in your mouth!(A)

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19     Thus the Lord answered me:
If you come back and I take you back,
    in my presence you shall stand;
If you utter what is precious and not what is worthless,
    you shall be my mouth.
Then they will be the ones who turn to you,
    not you who turn to them.

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Chapter 3

He said to me: Son of man, eat what you find here: eat this scroll, then go, speak to the house of Israel. So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat. (A)Son of man, he said to me, feed your stomach and fill your belly with this scroll I am giving you. I ate it, and it was as sweet as honey[a] in my mouth. Then he said to me, Son of man, go now to the house of Israel, and speak my words to them.

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Footnotes

  1. 3:3 As sweet as honey: though the prophet must foretell terrible things, the word of God is sweet to the one who receives it.