Moses Pleads Not a Man of Words and the Seventy Tongues

Midrash Aggadah, Exodus 4:10

Curated by Arthur·Told by Maggid·

And Moses said to the LORD (Exodus 4:10). "Please, my Lord" — by God, You pass over us! Aaron is greater than me, yet You send me. Aaron prophesied concerning them for eighty years, and You say to me that I should go on Your mission. "I am not a man of words" — He said to Him: I know that there are seventy languages in Pharaoh's palace, so that if an emissary comes from whatever place, they converse with him in his own tongue. And I am going on Your mission, and they will test me, saying that if I am Your emissary, it is revealed and known before You that I know how to converse with them. Another interpretation: "I am not a man of words" — as it is said, "Behold, I am of uncircumcised lips" (Exodus 6:12). The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: Adam, the first man, whom no man taught Torah, yet he knew seventy languages.

Themes

Adam EveMosesEgyptExodusPassover

Biblical References

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