Exodus 7:7
in Exodus 7Moses was eighty years old and Aaron was eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And Moses was fourscore years old, and Aaron fourscore and three years old, when they spake unto Pharaoh.
KJV
And Moses was fourscore years old, and Aaron fourscore and three years old, when they spake unto Pharaoh.
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This verse in Exodus 7
Commentary
8 notes on this verseMoses was fourscore years old - He was forty years old when he went to Midian, and he had tarried forty years in Midian; (see Exo 2:11, and Act 7:30); and from this verse it appears that Aaron was three years older than Moses. We have already seen that Miriam their sister was older than either, Exo 2:4.
This site's exposition
as the Lord commanded them, so did they
on Exodus 7:6-7
The obedience is stated twice in one verse, and Gill takes the repetition as the report that from here on the two of them never argued again, after five chapters in which Moses raised objection after objection. Their ages are given at the moment they walk in, fourscore and fourscore and three. Acts 7:23 and 7:30 divide Moses' life into forty years in Egypt and forty in Midian, so the errand begins when four fifths of it is already spent.
This site's exposition
Moses was eighty years old
The ages mark the moment: Moses at eighty and Aaron at eighty-three. Moses spent forty years in Egypt and forty in Midian, the count Stephen gives in Acts 7, as Adam Clarke notes. Matthew Henry contrasts Joseph, raised to serve Pharaoh at thirty, with Moses, made like God to Pharaoh only at eighty.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
On the same basis, you would not be able to point to anyone of the past generations approaching a pregnant woman in the pages of Scripture. Only later, after the birth and weaning of the child, would you again find the wives in physical relations with their husbands. You will find that Moses' father observed this point. He left a three-year gap after Aaron's birth before fathering Moses.
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Joseph, who was to be only a servant to Pharaoh, was preferred at thirty years old; but Moses, who was to be a god to Pharaoh, was not so dignified until he was eighty years old.
And Moses was eighty years old,....
The dispute between Moses and Pharaoh begins, and a famous trial of skill it was. Moses, in God's name, demands Israel's release; The contest is between the power of the great God and the power of a proud prince; and it will be found, in the issue, that when God judgeth he will overcome.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
Moses was fourscore years old--This advanced age was a pledge that they had not been readily betrayed into a rash or hazardous enterprise, and that under its attendant infirmities they could not have carried through the work on which they were entering had they not been supported by a divine hand.
The words behind it
12 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וּמֹשֶׁה֙ | umosheh | and Moses | H4872 → | 765 times |
| בֶּן־ | ben- | [was] a son of | H1121 → | 4930 times |
| שְׁמֹנִ֣ים | shemonim | eighty | H8084 → | |
| שָׁנָ֔ה | shanah | year[s] | H8141 → | 877 times |
| וְאַֽהֲרֹ֔ן | veaharon | and Aaron | H175 → | 347 times |
| בֶּן־ | ben- | [was] a son of | H1121 → | 4930 times |
| שָׁלֹ֥שׁ | shalosh | three | H7969 → | 432 times |
| וּשְׁמֹנִ֖ים | ushemonim | and eighty | H8084 → | |
| שָׁנָ֑ה | shanah | year[s] | H8141 → | 877 times |
| בְּדַבְּרָ֖ם | bedaberam | when spoke they | H1696 → | 1141 times |
| אֶל־ | ʾel- | to | H413 → | 5510 times |
| פַּרְעֹֽה׃ פ | paroh | Pharaoh | H6547 → | 274 times |
וּמֹשֶׁה֙and Moses
umoshehH4872 →765 times
בֶּן־[was] a son of
ben-H1121 →4930 times
שְׁמֹנִ֣יםeighty
shemonimH8084 →
שָׁנָ֔הyear[s]
shanahH8141 →877 times
וְאַֽהֲרֹ֔ןand Aaron
veaharonH175 →347 times
בֶּן־[was] a son of
ben-H1121 →4930 times
שָׁלֹ֥שׁthree
shaloshH7969 →432 times
וּשְׁמֹנִ֖יםand eighty
ushemonimH8084 →
שָׁנָ֑הyear[s]
shanahH8141 →877 times
בְּדַבְּרָ֖םwhen spoke they
bedaberamH1696 →1141 times
אֶל־to
ʾel-H413 →5510 times
פַּרְעֹֽה׃ פPharaoh
parohH6547 →274 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Deuteronomy 34:7Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak, and his vitality had not diminished.
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 31:2
he said to them, “I am now a hundred and twenty years old; I am no longer able to come and go, and the LORD has said to me, ‘You shall not cross the…
- Joshua 14:10–11
Now behold, as the LORD promised, He has kept me alive these forty-five years since He spoke this word to Moses, while Israel wandered in the wilderness. So here I am today, eighty-five years…
- Genesis 48:10
Now Israel’s eyesight was poor because of old age; he could hardly see. Joseph brought his sons to him, and his father kissed them and embraced them.
- Genesis 27:1
When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see, he called his older son Esau and said to him, “My son.” “Here I am,” Esau replied.
- Acts 7:36
He led them out and performed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, at the Red Sea, and for forty years in the wilderness.
- Deuteronomy 31:2
Through
Deuteronomy 29:5For forty years I led you in the wilderness, yet your clothes and sandals did not wear out.
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 8:4
Your clothing did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years.
- Nehemiah 9:21
For forty years You sustained them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.
- Deuteronomy 8:4
Through
Acts 7:30After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai.
it leads to
- Exodus 3:1–2
Meanwhile, Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
- Exodus 3:1–2
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Exodus
Who and where
2 names in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata Book 3; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.