Exodus 6:7

And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(7) I will take you to me for a people.—Comp. Exodus 19:5-6; Deuteronomy 7:6. The selection of Israel as a “peculiar people” did not involve the abandonment of all other nations, as we see by the instances of Balaam, Ruth, Job, Nebuchadnezzar, Darius the Mede, Cyrus, and others. God always continued to “govern all the nations upon the earth” (Psalm 67:4); and “in every nation those that feared him and worked righteousness” were accepted with him (Acts 10:35). The centurion of the Gospels (Matthew 8:5-13, Luke 7:2-10) and Cornelius in the Acts (Acts 10:1-33) carry the same principle into Gospel times.

I will be to you a God.—See Genesis 17:8.

Benson Commentary

Exodus 6:7-9. I will take you to me for a people — A peculiar people; and I will be to you a God — And more than this we need not ask, we cannot have, to make us happy. I am the Lord — And therefore have power to dispose of lands and kingdoms as I please. But they hearkened not to Moses, for anguish of spirit — That is, they were so taken up with their troubles that they did not heed him.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

6:1-9 We are most likely to prosper in attempts to glorify God, and to be useful to men, when we learn by experience that we can do nothing of ourselves; when our whole dependence is placed on him, and our only expectation is from him. Moses had been expecting what God would do; but now he shall see what he will do. God would now be known by his name Jehovah, that is, a God performing what he had promised, and finishing his own work. God intended their happiness: I will take you to me for a people, a peculiar people, and I will be to you a God. More than this we need not ask, we cannot have, to make us happy. He intended his own glory: Ye shall know that I am the Lord. These good words, and comfortable words, should have revived the drooping Israelites, and have made them forget their misery; but they were so taken up with their troubles, that they did not heed God's promises. By indulging discontent and fretfulness, we deprive ourselves of the comfort we might have, both from God's word and from his providence, and go comfortless.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

With a stretched out arm - The figure is common and quite intelligible; it may have struck Moses and the people the more forcibly since they were familiar with the hieroglyphic which represents might by two outstretched arms.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

3. I … God Almighty—All enemies must fall, all difficulties must vanish before My omnipotent power, and the patriarchs had abundant proofs of this.

but by my name, &c.—rather, interrogatively, by My name Jehovah was I not known to them? Am not I, the Almighty God, who pledged My honor for the fulfilment of the covenant, also the self-existent God who lives to accomplish it? Rest assured, therefore, that I shall bring it to pass. This passage has occasioned much discussion; and it has been thought by many to intimate that as the name Jehovah was not known to the patriarchs, at least in the full bearing or practical experience of it, the honor of the disclosure was reserved to Moses, who was the first sent with a message in the name of Jehovah, and enabled to attest it by a series of public miracles.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Will take you to me for a people, i.e. for my people; ye shall no longer be the people and slaves of the king of Egypt, but my people and servants, whom I will bless and preserve.

And I will be to you a God, to judge and deliver you.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And I will take you to me for a people,.... Out of the hands of the Egyptians, and out of their country, to be in a political sense his kingdom and subjects; and in a religious sense a holy people to himself, to fear, serve, worship, and glorify him, by walking according to laws and rules given them by him; and this he did by setting up and establishing a civil and ecclesiastical polity among them:

and I will be to you a God; their King and their God to rule over them, protect and defend them, they being a theocracy; and their covenant God and Father, giving them various spiritual privileges, the adoption, the glory, the covenant, the law, service, and promises:

and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God; by the promises fulfilled, the favours granted, and the deliverances wrought for them:

which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians; see the preceding verse Exodus 6:6.

Geneva Study Bible

And I will {b} take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.

(b) He means, concerning the outward calling, the dignity of which they lost later by their rebellion: but as for election to life everlasting, it is unchangeable.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7. and I will take you to me for a people] to be owned by Me, and enjoy My protection. The thought, as Exodus 19:5 (J), Deu Exo 26:18; cf. also Deuteronomy 29:13. The common expression is ‘and ye (or they) shall be to me a people,’ Jeremiah 7:23, Ezekiel 11:20 (and often in Jer. Ez.); Zech. 2:15, 8:8; Leviticus 26:12 (H).

and I will be to you a God] to be revered by you, and also to be your all-powerful leader, protector, and benefactor. The correlative of the last expression: cf. Genesis 17:7-8, Exodus 29:45, Leviticus 11:45; Leviticus 22:33; Leviticus 25:38; Leviticus 26:45, Numbers 15:41 (all P or H); and together with that expression, Leviticus 26:12 (H), Deuteronomy 26:17; Deuteronomy 29:13, Jeremiah 7:23, Ezekiel 11:20 (and often in Jer. Ez.), Zechariah 8:8.

and ye shall know, &c.] learn by what you witness and experience that I am Jehovah, your Deliverer; so Exodus 7:5; Exodus 14:4; Exodus 14:18; Exodus 16:12; Exodus 29:46 (all P); cf. Exodus 31:13 b (H), and Exodus 10:2. Sentences of the type, ‘and ye (they, thou) shall know (viz. by some signal and impressive manifestation of power) that I am Yahweh,’ are extremely common in Ezek., a prophet who in other respects also displays many literary affinities with P, as Exodus 6:7; Exodus 6:10; Exodus 6:13-14, Exodus 7:4; Exodus 7:9, &c. (more than 50 times altogether): comp. LOT. p. 266 f. (ed. 6–8, p. 295).

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 7, 8. - The promises are continued, heaped one upon another.

1. God will take them for his own people.

2. He will be, in a special sense, their God.

3. They shall clearly know that it is he who brings them forth out of Egypt.

4. They shall be brought into the promised land.

5. The land shall be made over to them, and become their own inheritance.

The Israelites were formally taken to be God's people at Sinai (Exodus 19:5, 6); where, at the same time, he became (specially but not exclusively) their God (Exodus 20:1; Exodus 29:45, 40). They had evidence that it was he who brought them forth in the pillar of fire and of a cloud (Exodus 13:21; Exodus 14:19, 20, etc.). They were brought into the promised land by Joshua (Joshua 4:1), and given the full possession of it by him and his successors - the various judges and kings, until at last, under David and Solomon, they held the entire tract that had been promised to Abraham (see 1 Kings 4:21; 2 Chronicles 9:26). Exodus 6:7

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The adoption of Israel as the nation of God took place at Sinai (Exodus 19:5). וגו נשׁאתי אשׁר, "with regard to which I have lifted up My hand to give it" (Exodus 6:8). Lifting up the hand (sc., towards heaven) is the attitude of swearing (Deuteronomy 32:40 cf. Genesis 14:22); and these words point back to Genesis 22:16. and Genesis 26:3 (cf. Genesis 24:7 and Genesis 50:24).