Keluaran 6:4

6:4 I also established my covenant with them ¹  to give them the land of Canaan, where they were living as resident foreigners. ² 

Keluaran 6:14-16

The Ancestry of the Deliverer

6:14 ³ These are the heads of their fathers’ households: ⁴ 

The sons ⁵  of Reuben, the firstborn son of Israel, were Hanoch and Pallu, Hezron and Carmi. These were the clans ⁶  of Reuben.

6:15 The sons of Simeon were Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jakin, Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman. These were the clans of Simeon.

6:16 Now these are the names of the sons of Levi, according to their records: ⁷  Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. (The length of Levi’s life was 137 years.)

Keluaran 6:20

6:20 Amram married ⁸  his father’s sister Jochebed, and she bore him Aaron and Moses. (The length of Amram’s life was 137 years.)

Keluaran 6:25

6:25 Now Eleazar son of Aaron married one of the daughters of Putiel and she bore him Phinehas.

These are the heads of the fathers’ households ⁹  of Levi according to their clans.

Keluaran 35:18

35:18 tent pegs for the tabernacle and tent pegs for the courtyard and their ropes;

Keluaran 39:36

39:36 the table, all its utensils, and the Bread of the Presence;

[6:4]  ¹ tn The statement refers to the making of the covenant with Abraham (Gen 15 and following) and confirming it with the other patriarchs. The verb הֲקִמֹתִי (haqimoti) means “set up, establish, give effect to, conclude” a covenant agreement. The covenant promised the patriarchs a great nation, a land – Canaan, and divine blessing. They lived with those promises, but now their descendants were in bondage in Egypt. God’s reference to the covenant here is meant to show the new revelation through redemption will start to fulfill the promises and show what the reality of the name Yahweh is to them.

[6:4]  ² tn Heb “the land of their sojournings.” The noun מְגֻרִים (mÿgurim) is a reminder that the patriarchs did not receive the promises. It is also an indication that those living in the age of promise did not experience the full meaning of the name of the covenant God. The “land of their sojournings” is the land of Canaan where the family lived (גּרוּ, garu) as foreigners, without owning property or having the rights of kinship with the surrounding population.

[6:14]  ³ sn This list of names shows that Moses and Aaron are in the line of Levi that came to the priesthood. It helps to identify them and authenticate them as spokesmen for God within the larger history of Israel. As N. M. Sarna observes, “Because a genealogy inherently symbolizes vigor and continuity, its presence here also injects a reassuring note into the otherwise despondent mood” (Exodus [JPSTC], 33).

[6:14]  ⁴ tn The expression is literally “the house of their fathers.” This expression means that the household or family descended from a single ancestor. It usually indicates a subdivision of a tribe, that is, a clan, or the subdivision of a clan, that is, a family. Here it refers to a clan (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 46).

[6:14]  ⁵ tn Or “descendants.”

[6:14]  ⁶ tn Or “families,” and so throughout the genealogy.

[6:16]  ⁷ tn Or “generations.”

[6:20]  ⁸ tn Heb “took for a wife” (also in vv. 23, 25).

[6:25]  ⁹ tn Heb “heads of the fathers” is taken as an abbreviation for the description of “households” in v. 14.