Holly Bible - KJV with Concise Commentaries by Z Selam - HTML preview
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the river, and pour it upon the dry land: and the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land.
He is directed, when he shall come to Egypt, to turn some of the water of the river into blood, Ex 4:9. This was done, at first, as a sign, but, not gaining due credit with Pharaoh, the whole river was afterwards turned into blood, and then it became a plague. He is ordered to work this miracle in case they would not be convinced by the other two. Note, Unbelief shall be left inexcusable, and convicted of a willful obstinacy. As to the people of Israel, God had said (Ex 3:18), They shall hearken; yet he appoints these miracles to be wrought for their conviction, for he that has ordained the end has ordained the means.
10 And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent,
neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant; but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.
Moses still continues backward to the service for which God had designed him, even to a fault; for now we can no longer impute it to his humility and modesty, but must own that here was too much of cowardice, slothfulness, and unbelief in it. Observe here,
How Moses endeavours to excuse himself from the work.
1. He pleads that he was no good spokesman: O my Lord! I am not eloquent, Ex 4:10. He was a great philosopher, statesman, and divine, and yet no orator; a man of a clear head, great thought, and solid judgment, but had not a voluble tongue, or ready utterance, and therefore he thought himself unfit to speak before great men about great affairs, and in danger of being run down by the Egyptians. Observe,
(1.) We must not judge of men by the readiness and fluency of their discourse. Moses was mighty in word (Ac 7:22), and yet not eloquent: what he said was strong and nervous, and to the purpose, and distilled as the dew (De 32:2), though he did not deliver himself with that readiness, ease, and elegance,