Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 6:20
And Amram took him Jochebed his father’s sister to wife; and she bore him Aaron and Moses: and the years of the life of Amram [were] a hundred and thirty and seven years.
20. The family of Kohath’s first son, Amram ( v. 18), viz. Aaron and Moses.
Jochebed ] Mentioned besides only Num 26:59 (P). The name means probably ‘Yahweh is glory’ [viz. to us or to our people] (cf. the Phoen. Kabd-melart, ‘Melart is glory’), ‘Yahweh’ being contracted (through Yahw, Yhaw, Yaw), as in many other proper names (e.g. Jo‘zer, ‘Yahweh is help’), to Y ( Jo).
his father’s sister ] and so the ‘daughter of Levi,’ Exo 2:1, cf. Num 26:59. Marriage with a father’s sister was afterwards forbidden, Lev 18:12; cf. another deviation from the later law in Gen 20:12. P must here preserve a genuine ancient tradition.
Aaron and Moses ] Sam. LXX. Pesh. add, and Miriam; cf. Num 26:59. Aaron, according to P (Exo 7:7) was three years older than Moses (cf. Num 33:39 with Deu 34:7). Miriam’s age is nowhere stated: it may be inferred from Exo 2:8 (presuming her to be there referred to) that she was some years older than either of her brothers.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
20 25. The descendants of Kohath’s sons.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Amram – This can scarcely be the same person who is mentioned in Exo 6:18; but his descendant and representative in the generation immediately preceding that of Moses. The intervening links are omitted, as is the rule where they are not needed for some special purpose, and do not bear upon the history.
Jochebed – The name means the glory of Jehovah (Yahweh), one clear instance of the use of the sacred name before the Exodus.
Fathers sister – This was within the prohibited degrees after the law was given Lev 18:12 but not previously.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 20. His father’s sister] dodatho. The true meaning of this word is uncertain. Parkhurst observes that dod signifies an uncle in 1Sa 10:14; Le 10:4, and frequently elsewhere. It signifies also an uncle’s son, a cousin-german: compare Jer 32:8 with Ex 6:12, where the Vulgate renders dodi by patruelis mei, my paternal cousin; and in Am 6:10, for dodo, the Targum has karibiah, his near relation. So the Vulgate, propinquus ejus, his relative, and the Septuagint, , those of their household. The best critics suppose that Jochebed was the cousin-german of Amram, and not his aunt. See Clarke on Ex 2:1.
Bare him Aaron and Moses] The Samaritan, Septuagint, Syriac, and one Hebrew MS. add, And Miriam their sister. Some of the best critics suppose these words to have been originally in the Hebrew text.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
His fathers sister or rather, kinswoman, or cousin, or niece; for so this Hebrew word is sometimes used, as appears from Jer 32:8,9,12.
Object. She is called the daughter of Levi, Exo 2:1.
Answ. Even nieces are oft called daughters, as we have showed. See Luk 1:5, and See Poole “Exo 2:1“.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
20. Amram took him Jochebed hisfather’s sister to wifeThe Septuagint and Syriacversions render it “his cousin.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And Amram took him Jochebed his father’s sister to wife,…. This Amram was the first son of Kohath, and the father of Moses, as after related, and so must be the same with the man of the house of Levi, and his wife the daughter of Levi, as in Ex 2:1 and though such a marriage was afterwards prohibited, Moses does not conceal it, though it may seem to reflect some dishonour on him and his family; he writing not for his own glory, but for the sake of truth, and the good of mankind, and especially the church and people of God. Indeed the Vulgate Latin version, and the Septuagint, Samaritan, and Syriac versions, make her to be his first cousin, the daughter of his father’s brother, his uncle’s daughter: and so does Polyhistor from Demetrius h; but in Nu 26:59, she is expressly said to be a daughter of Levi, born to him in Egypt, and therefore must be his father’s sister:
and she bare him Aaron and Moses: and Miriam also, though not mentioned, it being for the sake of these two that the genealogy is made:
and the years of the life of Amram were one hundred and thirty seven years: just the age of his grandfather Levi, Ex 6:16. A Jewish chronologer i says he died in the thirtieth year of Moses: but the Arabic writers k say in the fifty sixth or fifty seventh, and at the end of A. M. 3810. Polyhistor l from Demetrius makes his age to be one hundred and thirty six, and him to be the father of Moses and Aaron, and Aaron to be three years older than Moses, exactly according to the Scripture account.
h Apud Euseb. ut supra. (Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 21. p. 425.) i Shalshalet Hakabala, ut supra. (fol. 5. 1.) k Patricides, p. 26. Elmacinus, p. 46. apud Hottinger. Smegma Oriental. l. 1. c. 8. p. 392. l Apud Euseb. ut supra.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(20) Amram took him Jocheoed his fathers sister to wife.Marriages with aunts and nieces were not unlawful before the giving of the Law. They were common throughout the East, and at Sparta (Herod. vi. 71, 7:239).
The years of the life of Amram.The long lives of Levi, Kohath, and Amram, the father of Moses, are not recorded for any chronological purpose, but to show that the blessing of God rested in an especial way on the house of Levi, even before it became the priestly tribe. Life in Egypt at the time not unfrequently reached 120 years; but the 137 of Levi, the 133 of Kohath, and the 137 of Amram, the father of Moses, would, even in Egypt, have been abnormal.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
20. And Amram took him Jochebed his father’s sister to wife , here rendered father’s sister, we render daughter of father’s brother, or cousin, in this following the Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate, and Targum Pal . , thus understanding the text to declare that Amram married Jochebed his cousin. This is a much disputed text, furnishing a most important chronological item . Our Authorized Version and most modern commentators make Jochebed to have been Amram’s aunt and Levi’s daughter, so that Moses was thus Levi’s grandson . This view certainly is favoured by Num 26:59, “And the name of Amram’s wife was Jochebed, the daughter of Levi, whom her mother bare to Levi in Egypt;” as if Levi had a daughter born to him after the descent into Egypt, in addition to the three sons who went down with him from Canaan . But,
(1,) It is not probable that Moses’ own father and mother violated a law of nature which was in the next generation so expressly incorporated into the Mosaic ordinances, though it is, of course, possible . (2,) If Jochebed were Amram’s aunt, then Levi must have begotten, and Jochebed have borne, children at such an extreme age that the birth of Jochebed, Miriam, and Aaron, as well as of Moses, must all be set down as miraculous, while the record here gives no hint of a miracle . This may be seen thus: Take the shortest period of the sojourn, two hundred and fifteen years, which will make the difficulties least, and as Moses was eighty at the Exode, we have 215-80, or 135 years, as the time from Jacob’s descent into Egypt to the birth of Moses. Levi was about forty-five when the sojourn began, and as Jochebed was (on this supposition) his daughter, there were then one hundred and thirty-five years from Levi’s forty-fifth year to the birth of his grandson, Moses. Now wherever we divide this period of one hundred and thirty-five years we shall make Levi to have become a father, and Jochebed a mother, in extreme age. Thus, if Jochebed were born when Levi was one hundred, then it would have been fifty-five years after the arrival in Egypt, since 100-45=55. In that case Jochebed must have borne Moses at eighty, since 135-55=80; Aaron, therefore, at seventy-seven, and Miriam when past sixty. If we suppose Jochebed to have been herself born ten or twenty years later, we then make Levi one hundred and ten or one hundred and twenty at her birth, and make her so many years younger at the birth of her children, but we do not relieve the difficulties. If we take the long period of sojourn, four hundred and thirty years, it will be seen at once that all the difficulties are vastly increased. But all are completely obviated by considering Jochebed Amram’s cousin, for this inserts another generation into the one hundred and thirty-five years.
(3.) The Hebrew word , here rendered father’s sister, is, as noted above, rendered daughter of the father’s brother by the Septuagint, followed by the Syriac, Vulgate, and Palestine Targum . The corresponding masculine, , uncle, also means son of the uncle in Jer 32:12. It seems certain that if dodh may mean uncle’s son, dodha may mean uncle’s daughter . Accordingly it is here rendered cousin by Lyra, Estius, La Haye, and Adam Clarke .
(4.) The difficulty of the common translation may be relieved thus:
Num 26:59 states that her mother, not mentioning who, bore Jochebed to Levi in Egypt . Is it not a likely supposition that Levi in his old age adopted this granddaughter as his daughter? If so, she might have been considered as the sister of his three famous sons, and this fact was deemed worthy of special mention, since she was the mother of the line of the high priests . Thus she might have been considered Amram’s aunt, although really his cousin .
It is the opinion of Kurtz, Keil, Canon Cook, and others, that two Amrams are here referred to, and that several genealogical links are dropped between Amram the son of Kohath and Amram the father of Moses. But, (1,) The impression is certainly very strongly made, in reading Exo 6:18-20, that the same Amram is referred to throughout. (2,) It is a fact not noted by these scholars that in Lev 10:4, Uzziel, Amram’s brother, is called Aaron’s uncle; and though, as seen above, the word rendered uncle has much latitude, yet it would be necessary to suppose a second Uzziel also contemporary with the second Amram . As to the dropping of genealogical links, there is an undoubted example in Matthew i, where the names of three well known kings are omitted in the genealogy of our Lord; and a probable instance, yet more remarkable, in Ezr 7:1, where, if the parallel list in 1 Chronicles vi is correct, six names have been dropped out between Meraioth and Azariah . It is likewise certain that son often means simply descendant, as Christ is called “son of David . ” If the sojourn in Egypt were four hundred and thirty years several generations must have been omitted here, but all the events can be brought within two hundred and fifteen years. See note on Exo 12:40.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Exo 6:20 And Amram took him Jochebed his father’s sister to wife; and she bare him Aaron and Moses: and the years of the life of Amram [were] an hundred and thirty and seven years.
Ver. 20. Jochebed his father’s sister.] See Exo 2:1 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jochebed. See note on Num 26:59.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Amram: Exo 2:1, Exo 2:2, Num 26:59
and the years: The Samaritan, LXX, Syriac, and one Hebrew manuscript add, “And Miriam their sister;” which some of the best critics suppose to have been originally in the text. Exo 6:16, Exo 6:18
Reciprocal: Exo 2:8 – mother Exo 6:26 – That Aaron Lev 18:12 – General Lev 20:19 – mother’s Num 3:1 – generations Num 3:19 – General Num 17:3 – General Jos 21:10 – General 1Ch 6:3 – Aaron 1Ch 23:13 – The sons Heb 7:3 – descent
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Exo 6:20-23. His fathers sister That is, kinswoman, as the Hebrew word frequently means. Amminadab A prince of the tribe of Judah. The Levites might marry into any tribe, there being no danger of confusion or loss of inheritance thereby.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
6:20 And Amram took him Jochebed his {g} father’s sister to wife; and she bare him Aaron and Moses: and the years of the life of Amram [were] an hundred and thirty and seven years.
(g) This type of marriage was later forbidden in the law; Lev 18:12.