"Jehovah look upon you and judge" (i.e., punish you, because) "ye have made the smell of us to stink in the eyes of Pharaoh and his servants," i.e., destroyed our good name with the king and his servants, and turned it into hatred and disgust. ריח, a pleasant smell, is a figure employed for a good name or repute, and the figurative use of the word explains the connection with the eyes instead of the nose. "To give a sword into their hand to kill us." Moses and Aaron, they imagined, through their appeal to Pharaoh had made the king and his counsellors suspect them of being restless people, and so had put a weapon into their hands for their oppression and destruction. What perversity of the natural heart! They call upon God to judge, whilst by their very complaining they show that they have no confidence in God and His power to save. Moses turned (ויּשׁב Exodus 5:22) to Jehovah with the question, "Why hast Thou done evil to this people," - increased their oppression by my mission to Pharaoh, and yet not delivered them? "These are not words of contumacy or indignation, but of inquiry and prayer" (Aug. quaest. 14). The question and complaint proceeded from faith, which flies to God when it cannot understand the dealings of God, to point out to Him how incomprehensible are His ways, to appeal to Him to help in the time of need, and to remove what seems opposed to His nature and His will.

Exodus 6:4 Parallel Commentaries

established

Genesis 6:18 But with you will I establish my covenant; and you shall come into the ark, you, and your sons, and your wife...

Genesis 15:18 In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, To your seed have I given this land...

Genesis 17:7,8,13 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your seed after you in their generations for an everlasting covenant...

Genesis 28:4 And give you the blessing of Abraham, to you, and to your seed with you; that you may inherit the land wherein you are a stranger...

2 Samuel 23:5 Although my house be not so with God; yet he has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure...

Isaiah 55:3 Incline your ear, and come to me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you...

the land of their

Genesis 15:13 And he said to Abram, Know of a surety that your seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them...

Genesis 17:8 And I will give to you, and to your seed after you, the land wherein you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan...

Genesis 23:4 I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a burial plot with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.

Genesis 26:3 Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you, and will bless you; for to you, and to your seed, I will give all these countries...

Psalm 105:12 When they were but a few men in number; yes, very few, and strangers in it.

Acts 7:5 And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on...