Keluaran 4:15-16

4:15 “So you are to speak to him and put the words in his mouth. And as for me, I will be with your mouth ¹  and with his mouth, ²  and I will teach you both ³  what you must do. ⁴  4:16 He ⁵  will speak for you to the people, and it will be as if ⁶  he ⁷  were your mouth ⁸  and as if you were his God. ⁹ 

Bilangan 23:5

23:5 Then the Lord put a message ¹⁰  in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and speak what I tell you.” ¹¹ 

Ulangan 18:15

18:15 The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you – from your fellow Israelites; ¹²  you must listen to him.

Ulangan 18:18

18:18 I will raise up a prophet like you for them from among their fellow Israelites. I will put my words in his mouth and he will speak to them whatever I command.

Yesaya 50:4

The Servant Perseveres

50:4 The sovereign Lord has given me the capacity to be his spokesman, ¹³ 

so that I know how to help the weary. ¹⁴ 

He wakes me up every morning;

he makes me alert so I can listen attentively as disciples do. ¹⁵ 

[4:15]  ¹ tn Or “I will help you speak.” The independent pronoun puts emphasis (“as for me”) on the subject (“I”).

[4:15]  ² tn Or “and will help him speak.”

[4:15]  ³ tn The word “both” is supplied to convey that this object (“you”) and the subject of the next verb (“you must do”) are plural in the Hebrew text, referring to Moses and Aaron. In 4:16 “you” returns to being singular in reference to Moses.

[4:15]  ⁴ tn The imperfect tense carries the obligatory nuance here as well. The relative pronoun with this verb forms a noun clause functioning as the direct object of “I will teach.”

[4:16]  ⁵ tn The word “he” represents the Hebrew independent pronoun, which makes the subject emphatic.

[4:16]  ⁶ tn The phrase “as if” is supplied for clarity.

[4:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “and it will be [that] he, he will be to you for a mouth,” or more simply, “he will be your mouth.”

[4:16]  ⁸ tn Heb “he will be to you for a mouth.”

[4:16]  ⁹ tn The phrase “as if” is supplied for clarity. The word “you” represents the Hebrew independent pronoun, which makes the subject emphatic.

[4:16]  sn Moses will be like God to Aaron, giving him the words to say, inspiring him as God would inspire a prophet. The whole process had now been removed one step. Instead of God speaking to Moses and Moses telling the people, Aaron would be the speaker for a while. But God was still going to work through Moses.

[23:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “word.”

[23:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and thus you shall speak.”

[18:15]  ¹² tc The MT expands here on the usual formula by adding “from among you” (cf. Deut 17:15; 18:18; Smr; a number of Greek texts). The expansion seems to be for the purpose of emphasis, i.e., the prophet to come must be not just from Israel but an Israelite by blood.

[18:15]  tn “from your brothers,” but not referring to actual siblings. Cf. NAB “from among your own kinsmen”; NASB “from your countrymen”; NRSV “from among your own people.” A similar phrase occurs in v. 17.

[50:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “has given to me a tongue of disciples.”

[50:4]  sn Verses 4-11 contain the third of the so-called servant songs, which depict the career of the Lord’s special servant, envisioned as an ideal Israel (49:3) who rescues the exiles and fulfills God’s purposes for the world. Here the servant alludes to opposition (something hinted at in 49:4), but also expresses his determination to persevere with the Lord’s help.

[50:4]  ¹⁴ tc Heb “to know [?] the weary with a word.” Comparing it with Arabic and Aramaic cognates yields the meaning of “help, sustain.” Nevertheless, the meaning of עוּת (’ut) is uncertain. The word occurs only here in the OT (see BDB 736 s.v.). Various scholars have suggested an emendation to עָנוֹת (’anot) from עָנָה (’anah, “answer”): “so that I know how to respond kindly to the weary.” Since the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a and the Vulgate support the MT reading, that reading is retained.

[50:4]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “he arouses for me an ear, to hear like disciples.”