How remarkable these words are. Moses and Aaron have never spoken to Pharaoh with this kind of audacity before. “How long will you withhold yourself from bowing in submission to Me?” Who talks that way to the King of Egypt? It is hard to convey in English just how provocative these words really are. I’ve translated the Hebrew word le’anot here as “bow in submission.” But to put that in context, keep in mind that the verb here, ‘a-n-h, appearing as it does in its pi’el form, is the classic Hebrew term for “enslavement” or “oppression.” It is, in fact, the precise term the Torah used earlier to
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