Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 7:7

And Moses [was] fourscore years old, and Aaron fourscore and three years old, when they spoke unto Pharaoh.

7. The ages of the two brothers at the time of their dealings with the Pharaoh. The sentence is again of a form which often recurs in P: see Gen 12:4 b, Gen 16:16, Gen 17:24-25, Gen 21:5, Gen 25:26 b (cf. 20), Gen 41:46, Deu 34:7 a. The ages themselves (which are only given by P) are, upon general grounds, higher than is probable, especially if 40 years in the wilderness have to be added to them; nor do they agree with the representation of J, according to which (see on Exo 2:23 a) the Pharaoh of the exodus came to the throne no long time after Moses’ flight into Midian.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Exo 7:7

Fourscore years old.

Age of Moses and Aaron

Their ages would have an important bearing toward the work of these two men.

I. Their ages would indicate that they were not likely to be misled by the enthusiasm of youth. The world is slow to take young men into its confidence. It soon smiles at their visions, and laughs at their enthusiastic hopes.

II. Their ages would be likely to command the respect of those with whom they had to do. The world wants men of tried energy and long experience to achieve its moral emancipation; men in whom hot passion has calmed into a settled force.

III. Their ages would be an incentive to fidelity, as they had spent the younger part of life, and would be forcefully reminded of the future. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)

Delay in entering upon work of life

Let us learn not to be impatient for the discovery of our true lifework. Moses was eighty years old before he entered upon that noble career by which he became the emancipator and educator of his nation. Two-thirds of his days were gone before he really touched that which was his great, distinctive, and peculiar labour, and his enterprise was all the more gloriously accomplished by reason of the delay. Nor is this a solitary instance. The Lord Jesus Himself lived thirty years, during most of which He was in training for a public ministry, which lasted only two-and-forty months. John Knox never entered a pulpit until he was over forty years of age; and much of the fire and energy of his preaching was owing to the fact that the flame had been so long pent up within his breast. Havelock was a dreary while a mere lieutenant, held back by the iniquitous system of purchase, which was so long in vogue in the English army; but, as it happened, that was only a life-long apprenticeship, by which he was enabled all the more efficiently to become, at length, the saviour of the Indian Empire. So let no one chafe and fret over the delay which seems evermore to keep him from doing anything to purpose for the world and his Lord. The opportunity will come in its own season. It does come, sooner or later, to every man; and it is well if, when at length he hears the voice calling, Moses! Moses! he is ready with the answer, Here am I. For while I would comfort you with the assurance that the hour will come, I do not mean that you should be idle until it strikes. No; for if you adopt such a plan, the certainty is that you will not hear its stroke, or that you will not be ready to begin at its call. The true principle is to do with your might that which is lying at your hand day by day, in the firm conviction that you are thereby training yourself into fitness for your future vocation. (W. H. Taylor, D. D.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 7. Moses was fourscore years old] He was forty years old when he went to Midian, and he had tarried forty years in Midian; (see Ex 2:11, and Ac 7:30); and from this verse it appears that Aaron was three years older than Moses. We have already seen that Miriam their sister was older than either, Ex 2:4.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

1491

The ages of Moses and Aaron here, as of Levi and Kohath Exo 6:16,18, and before them of Jacob and Joseph, are so exactly set down, that thence we may, understand the accomplishment of Gods prediction, Gen 15:13, and the time of Israels being in Egypt.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

7. Moses was fourscore yearsoldThis advanced age was a pledge that they had not beenreadily betrayed into a rash or hazardous enterprise, and that underits attendant infirmities they could not have carried through thework on which they were entering had they not been supported by adivine hand.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And Moses was eighty years old,…. At this time, which is observed partly to show how long Israel had been afflicted in Egypt; for their great troubles and miseries began about the time of the birth of Moses, or a little before, as appears from the above history; and partly to show the patience and forbearance of God with the Egyptians, and how just and righteous were his judgments on them; with this perfectly agrees Stephen’s account of the age of Moses, Ac 7:23 and Aaron eighty three years old, when they spake unto Pharaoh; so that they were men that had had a large experience of things, and had been long training up for the service designed to be done by them; they were men of wisdom and prudence, of sedate and composed countenances, and fit to appear before a king, whose age and venerable aspect might command attention to them. Aben Ezra observes, that

“in all the Scripture there is no mention of any prophets that prophesied in their old age but these, because their excellency was greater than all the prophets.”

By this it appears that Aaron was three years older than Moses. A Jewish chronologer says n, that it is affirmed in an exposition of theirs, that Aaron prophesied to the Israelites in Egypt eighty years, which is making him to be a very young prophet when he first entered into the office. The Arabic writers o say, Miriam was at this time eighty seven, so was seven years older than Moses, and four years older than Aaron; see Ex 2:4.

n Shalshalet Hakabala, fol. 7. 1. o Patricides, p. 26. apud Hottinger. p. 415.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

(7) Moses was fourscore years old.Compare Deu. 34:7; Act. 7:23; Act. 7:30. The air of Egypt. and, probably, still more that of the desert, was favourable to longevity; and the Egyptian monuments show many cases of officials actively employed after they were a hundred years old.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

7. Moses was fourscore years old Here, at the close of the recapitulation, we have the ages of the great actors in this drama set before us . Aaron, it seems, was three years older than Moses; and as we hear nothing of any special apprehensions of danger at the time of his birth, it is possible, though not certain, that the cruel edict which endangered the life of Moses had not then been promulgated. Miriam is not here mentioned, but she is generally supposed to be the sister, older than Moses and Aaron, mentioned in the second chapter. Moses entered on his great mission at fourscore, but as his ancestors Amram, Levi, and Jacob lived beyond the third of their second century, and he himself reached the one hundred and twentieth year, we may regard him as now having the vigour of a man of forty-five. There are nearly contemporary Egyptian records which show similar instances of Egyptian longevity. Stuart Poole gives (in Smith’s Dict.) a translation of a hieratic papyrus containing a discourse of a king’s son of the fifteenth dynasty of Shepherd Kings at Memphis, wherein the author speaks of himself as one hundred and ten years of age, and of his father as still reigning, who must then have been older than Moses, and probably as old as Levi. Yet these must be regarded as exceptional instances, for the ninetieth Psalm, entitled “A prayer of Moses, the man of God,” speaks of seventy or eighty years as the usual length of human life. And in harmony with this, Caleb, the contemporary of Moses, says of himself at eighty-five, “Behold, the Lord hath kept me alive, as he said, these forty and five years, even since the Lord spake this word unto Moses, while Israel wandered in the wilderness: and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old. As yet I am strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me.” Jos 14:10-11. Caleb evidently regards himself as vigorous at eighty-five by God’s special blessing .

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Exo 7:7. Moses was fourscore years old So long, and indeed much longer, the Israelites had groaned under the severities of persecution and bondage: yet, though thus afflicted, they were not cast off and rejected by their God. The great lesson in trials and afflictions is, to hold fast our integrity; to persevere in faith and patience unto the end. The age and gravity of Moses and Aaron must have given them great weight and authority before Pharaoh.

REFLECTIONS.We have here,

1. Moses enjoined to proceed, and furnished with power to work wonders in the sight of Pharaoh, and with a spokesman in his brother Aaron. And though Pharaoh will not hearken, he shall feel God’s heavy hand, and Israel shall be delivered. Note;

(1.) The contest is very unequal between a worm of earth and the mighty God. (2.) However ministers of Christ may meet with opposition, they shall have success. (3.) They who will not bow before the sceptre of grace, shall break beneath the rod of judgment.
2. The obedience of Moses and Aaron at last, without farther reluctance. It is well if at last, though late, we desire to give ourselves up wholly to the work and will of God.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Our dear Redeemer was but about 30 years of age when he entered upon his ministry, Luk 4:23 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Exo 7:7 And Moses [was] fourscore years old, and Aaron fourscore and three years old, when they spake unto Pharaoh.

Ver. 7. Fourscore years old. ] And so might say to his countrymen and others, as old Augustus did to his mutinous soldiers, Audite senem iuvenes, quem iuvenem senes audierunt.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)