Exodus 4:22

World English Bible

Contextual Overview

¹⁸ Moses went and returned to Jethro his father-in-law, and said to him, "Please let me go and return to my brothers who are in Egypt, and see whether they are still alive." Jethro said to Moses, "Go in peace." ¹⁹ Yahweh said to Moses in Midian, "Go, return into Egypt; for all the men who sought your life are dead." ²⁰ Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt. Moses took God's rod in his hand. ²¹ Yahweh said to Moses, "When you go back into Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your hand, but I will harden his heart and he will not let the people go. ²² You shall tell Pharaoh, 'Thus says Yahweh, Israel is my son, my firstborn, ²³ and I have said to you, "Let my son go, that he may serve me;" and you have refused to let him go. Behold, I will kill your son, your firstborn.'"

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Israel: Exodus 19:5, Exodus 19:6, Deuteronomy 14:1, Jeremiah 31:9, Hosea 11:1, Romans 9:4, 2 Corinthians 6:18, Hebrews 12:23, James 1:18

Reciprocal: Genesis 6:2 - the sons Exodus 9:1 - General Exodus 13:2 - Sanctify Exodus 15:2 - my God Exodus 21:4 - shall be her Deuteronomy 32:6 - thy father 2 Kings 1:16 - Forasmuch 1 Chronicles 2:42 - his firstborn Isaiah 63:8 - Surely Isaiah 63:16 - thou art Isaiah 64:8 - thou art Jeremiah 2:3 - all that Jeremiah 2:14 - Israel Malachi 1:6 - if then Matthew 2:15 - Out John 8:41 - we have

Cross-References

Exodus 25:3
This is the offering which you shall take from them: gold, silver, brass,

Numbers 31:22
however the gold, and the silver, the brass, the iron, the tin, and the lead,

Deuteronomy 8:9
a land in which you shall eat bread without scarceness, you shall not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you may dig copper.

Deuteronomy 33:25
Your bars shall be iron and brass; As your days, so shall your strength be.

2 Chronicles 2:7
Now therefore send me a man skillful to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in iron, and in purple, and crimson, and blue, and who knows how to engrave [all manner of] engravings, [to be] with the skillful men who are with me in Judah and in Jerusalem, whom David my father did provide.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And thou shall say unto Pharaoh,.... When arrived in Egypt, and in his presence:

thus saith the Lord; he was to declare to him that he came in his name, and by his orders, and, as an ambassador of his, required the dismission of the children of Israel out of Egypt:

Israel [is] my son, [even] my firstborn; as dear to him as a man's firstborn is, or as his only son: adoption is one of the privileges peculiar to Israel after the flesh, even national adoption, with all the external privileges appertaining to it, Romans 9:4.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

My firstborn - The expression would be perfectly intelligible to Pharaoh, whose official designation was “son of Ra.” In numberless inscriptions the Pharaohs are styled “own sons” or “beloved sons” of the deity. It is here applied for the first time to Israel; and as we learn from Exodus 4:23, emphatically in antithesis to Pharaoh’s own firstborn.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Exodus 4:22. Israel is my son, even my firstborn — That is, The Hebrew people are unutterably dear to me.