Exodus 6:12
Moses answered before the Lord Behold the children of Israel do no hearken to me; and how will Pharao hear me, especially as I am of uncircumcised lips?
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Respondit Moyses coram Domino : Ecce filii Israël non audiunt me : et quomodo audiet Pharao, præsertim cum incircumcisus sim labiis ?
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἐλάλησεν δὲ Μωυσῆς ἔναντι Κυρίου λέγων Ἰδοὺ οἱ υἱοὶ Ἰσραὴλ οὐκ εἰσήκουσάν μου, καὶ πῶς εἰσακούσεταί μου Φαραώ; ἐγὼ δὲ ἄλογός εἰμι.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיְדַבֵּ֣ר מֹשֶׁ֔ה לִפְנֵ֥י יְהוָ֖ה לֵאמֹ֑ר הֵ֤ן בְּנֵֽי יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ לֹֽא שָׁמְע֣וּ אֵלַ֔י וְאֵיךְ֙ יִשְׁמָעֵ֣נִי פַרְעֹ֔ה וַאֲנִ֖י עֲרַ֥ל שְׂפָתָֽיִם
Haydock's commentary
Uncircumcised lips. So he calls the defect he had in his words, or utterance. (Challoner)
The Hebrews call the heart, &c., uncircumcised, when it has any natural or moral defect, Acts vii. 15. (Tirinus)
"I do not speak the language in its purity." Sym.[Symmachus?], "I express my sentiments with difficulty," chap. iv. 10. (Onkelos.)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Cyprian Treatise XI, Chapter X
John, in his epistle, proves this, saying: “Greater is He who is in you than he that is in the world.” Also in the cxviith Psalm: “I will not fear what man can do unto me; the Lord is my helper.” And again: “These in chariots, and those in horses; but we will glory in the name of the Lord our God. They themselves are bound, and they have fallen; but we have risen up, and stand upright.” And even more strongly the Holy Spirit, teaching and showing that the army of the devil is not to be feared, and that, if the foe should declare war against us, our hope consists rather in that war itself; and that by that conflict the righteous attain to the reward of the divine abode and eternal salvation, lays down in the twenty-sixth Psalm, and says: “Though an host should be arrayed against me, my heart shall not fear; though war should rise up against me, in that will I put my hope. …
St Augustine Book XI, Chapter II
3. O Lord my God, hear my prayer, and let Thy mercy regard my longing, since it bums not for myself alone, but because it desires to benefit brotherly charity; and Thou seest into my heart, that so it is. I would sacrifice to Thee the service of my thought and tongue; and do Thou give what I may offer unto Thee. For “I am poor and needy,” Thou rich unto all that call upon Thee, who free from care carest for us. Circumcise from all rashness and from all lying my inward and outward lips. Let Thy Scriptures be my chaste delights. Neither let me be deceived in them, nor deceive out of them. …