Keluaran 4:11

4:11 The Lord said to him, “Who gave ¹  a mouth to man, or who makes a person mute or deaf or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? ² 

Yohanes 9:32-33

9:32 Never before ³  has anyone heard of someone causing a man born blind to see. ⁴  9:33 If this man ⁵  were not from God, he could do nothing.”

[4:11]  ¹ tn The verb שִׂים (sim) means “to place, put, set”; the sentence here more precisely says, “Who put a mouth into a man?”

[4:11]  sn The argumentation by Moses is here met by Yahweh’s rhetorical questions. They are intended to be sharp – it is reproof for Moses. The message is twofold. First, Yahweh is fully able to overcome all of Moses’ deficiencies. Second, Moses is exactly the way that God intended him to be. So the rhetorical questions are meant to prod Moses’ faith.

[4:11]  ² sn The final question obviously demands a positive answer. But the clause is worded in such a way as to return to the theme of “I AM.” Isaiah 45:5-7 developed this same idea of God’s control over life. Moses protests that he is not an eloquent speaker, and the Lord replies with reminders about himself and promises, “I will be with your mouth,” an assertion that repeats the verb he used four times in 3:12 and 14 and in promises to Isaac and Jacob (Gen 26:3; 31:3).

[9:32]  ³ tn Or “Never from the beginning of time,” Grk “From eternity.”

[9:32]  ⁴ tn Grk “someone opening the eyes of a man born blind” (“opening the eyes” is an idiom referring to restoration of sight).

[9:33]  ⁵ tn Grk “this one.”