But he said, “Please, Lord, now send the message by whomever You will.”
Parallel translations
- WEB He said, “Oh, Lord, please send someone else.”
- KJV And he said, O my LORD, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send.
- BSB But Moses replied, “Please, Lord, send someone else.”
- NKJV But he said, “O my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else You may send.”
- NLT But Moses again pleaded, “Lord, please! Send anyone else.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Moses finally pleads with God to send someone else, exposing reluctance beneath his objections. Even chosen servants can resist the call of God.
Overview
Stripped of further excuses, Moses simply asks God to send another, revealing that his hesitancy was rooted not only in inability but in unwillingness. This honest reluctance, met with God's response in the next verses, shows the patience of God toward a flawed servant. It also reminds believers that calling is grounded in God's will and provision, not in our eagerness or sense of fitness.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Exod 4:1Moses answered, “But, behold, they will not believe me, nor listen to my voice; for they will say, ‘Yahweh has not appeared to you.’”
- Jonah 1:3But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid its fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh.
- Judg 2:1Yahweh’s angel came up from Gilgal to Bochim. He said, “I brought you out of Egypt, and have brought you to the land which I swore to give your fathers. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you.
- John 6:29Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”
- Ezek 3:14–15So the Spirit lifted me up, and took me away; and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; and Yahweh’s hand was strong on me.
- Jer 1:6Then I said, “Ah, Lord Yahweh! Behold, I don’t know how to speak; for I am a child.”
- Matt 13:41The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will gather out of his Kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and those who do iniquity,
- Gen 48:16the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads, and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac. Let them grow into a multitude upon the earth.”
- Jonah 1:6So the ship master came to him, and said to him, “What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God! Maybe your God will notice us, so that we won’t perish.”
- Jer 20:9If I say, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name, then there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I can’t.
- Exod 23:20“Behold, I send an angel before you, to keep you by the way, and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.
- 1 Kgs 19:4But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree. Then he requested for himself that he might die, and said, “It is enough. Now, O Yahweh, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.”
- Gen 24:7Yahweh, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house, and from the land of my birth, who spoke to me, and who swore to me, saying, ‘I will give this land to your offspring. He will send his angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there.
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Christ at the center
The Passover lamb whose blood turns away death, the exodus through the sea, the manna, the rock, and the tabernacle where God dwells with his people all foreshadow Jesus — our Passover, our redemption, the bread from heaven, and God-with-us in the flesh.
How Exodus 4:13 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.