John Gill Commentary Exodus 6

Then the Lord said to Moses
In answer to the questions put to him, and the expostulations made with him:

now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh :
in inflicting punishments on him: for with a strong hand shall he let them go; being forced to it by the mighty hand of God upon him; and it is by some rendered, "because of a strong hand" ^F19 ; so Jarchi; for this is not to be understood of the hand of Pharaoh, but of the hand of God:

and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land :
not only be willing that they should go, but be urgent upon them to be gone, (Exodus 12:33) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F19: (hqzx dyb) "propter manum validam"; so some in Drusius.

And God spoke to Moses, and said to him, I am the Lord .
Or Jehovah, the self-existent Being, the Being of beings, the everlasting I am, the unchangeable Jehovah, true, firm, and constant to his promises, ever to be believed, and always to be depended on.

And I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, by
[the name] of God Almighty

Able to fulfil all his purposes, promises, and covenant, with whom nothing is impossible; or Elshaddai, God all-sufficient, who has a sufficiency of happiness in himself, and everything to supply the wants of his creatures in things temporal and spiritual, see (Genesis 17:1) :

but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them ; which he had in the preceding verse called himself by. This is not to be understood absolutely; for it is certain that he had made himself known by this name, and this name was known to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, (Genesis 15:6–8) (Genesis 26:2Genesis 26:24) (28:13) , and but comparatively, as some think; that is, he was not so much made known to them by the one name as the other; though it may be questioned whether the one was more used in speaking to them than the other;

therefore others think, as Saadiah Gaon, that the word only is to be supplied, as in (Genesis 32:28) and the sense to be, that by his name Jehovah he was not only made known to them, but by his name Elshaddai, and others also;

and others reconcile the difficulty thus, that though the name Jehovah itself was known to the patriarchs, by which they were assured that God is eternal, immutable, and faithful to his promises; yet he was not known as to the efficacy of this name, or with respect to the actual performance of his promise, as he now would be by delivering the children of Israel out of Egypt, and bringing them into the land of Canaan;

though perhaps, by reading the words with an interrogation, the clause will appear more plain, "and by my name Jehovah was I not known to them?"^F20 verily I was.

Josephus^F21 says, this name was not before made known to men, and that it was not lawful for a man to speak it; and this is the common notion of the Jews, that it is ineffable, and not lawful to be pronounced, and therefore they put Adonai and Elohim in the room of it, and the vowel points of these words to it, which is a false and superstitious notion:

this name was known among the Heathens; it is the same with (iaw) in the oracle of Apollo^F23 ; and Diodorus Siculus^F24 says, that with the Jews Moses is said to give laws from a God called "IAO", and is the same which in Philo Byblius^F25 is called Jevo; and both are no other than a corruption of Jah or Jehovah; and perhaps the (tetraktuv) of the Pythagoreans^F26 , by which they swore, is the same with the tetragrammaton, or this word of four letters, with the Jews.

FOOTNOTES:

• F20: Vid. Noldium, No. 788.
• F21: Antiqu. l. 2. c. 12. sect. 4.
• F23: Cornelius Labeo de oraculo Apoll. Clarii apud Macrob. Saturnal. l. 1. c. 18.
• F24: Bibliothoc. l. 1. p. 84.
• F25: Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 1. c. 9. p. 31.
• F26: Carmin. Aurea Pythagor. l. 47. & Hierocles in ib. p. 225, 277. Porphyr. de Vita Pythagor. p. 189.

And I have also established my covenant with them
With Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and with their posterity, so that it is sure and firm, and shall never be made null and void: to give them the land of Canaan ;
or to their children, which were as themselves: the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers ;
not being in actual possession of any part of it, but lived as pilgrims and strangers in it, as their posterity now did in another land not theirs; see (Hebrews 11:9Hebrews 11:13) .

And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel , &c.] For the Lord is not only the eternal and immutable Being in his purposes and promises, and a covenant keeping God; but he is compassionate and merciful, and sympathizes with his people in all their afflictions; he takes notice of their sighs and groans, as he now did those of his people in Egypt.

whom the Egyptians keep in bondage ; and which was the reason of their groaning; their bondage being so hard and rigorous, in which they were detained by Pharaoh, who refused to let them go, though Moses in the name of the Lord had required him to do it.

and I have remembered my covenant ; concerning bringing them out of Egypt into the land of Canaan, which he would quickly do, and thereby make it appear he was mindful of his covenant, which is indeed never forgotten by him, though it may seem to be.