כי ביד חזקה, because through a combination of (My) strong hand and coupled with (his) obstinacy, i.e. ויד חזקה, he will expel them from Egypt. When G-d said in 11,1 that Pharaoh would dispatch, ישלח, the Israelites, He referred to his dispatching them permanently, not for a three day trip into the desert.

אני ה, “I am the Lord;” even though I have told you that you will be elohim as far as Pharaoh is concerned, I did not mean that Pharaoh is to stand in awe of you. He too is to stand in awe of Me. Rashi understands the line as “I am the One who is certain to reward and punish as and when required.” If you were to ask how the 4-lettered tetragram conveys that G-d rewards and punishes, and that this applies to this attribute of His more so than to any other attribute, this is the meaning when He explained in Exodus 3,14-15 that the very fact of His being eternal, and enjoying a full view of past and future developments, “this enables Me to mete out both reward and punishment equitably as I can foresee the implications of all of My actions.”

ושמי ה' לא נודעתי להם, Rashi explains this as follows; “and My attribute (name) of Hashem I have not let them be familiar with.” It is significant that G-d did not use the active causative mode of הודעתי here. In answering the question why He had not done so, what comes to mind is first: “they did not bother to ask Me about it.” [They should have asked as I revealed Myself to Avraham as such already at the covenant between the pieces in Genesis 15,7, where G-d told Avraham that He had saved him miraculously in order to give him (his descendants) that land in which He appeared to him. G-d reminds Moses that neither Avraham nor Yitzchok or Yaakov, to all of whom He had spoken far less that He had to Moses, ever questioned what they could have questioned about G-d’s judgments. To quote just one such example: when after having been told by G-d that his descendants would inherit the land of Canaan, and it came to burying his wife Sarah there, he could not even do this without paying a minor fortune for a cave, he surely might have asked Me about this. They believed Me on My word alone, without the need for any miracles or proof. They could not have known me by My real name, as I had made promises and had not yet kept them. My true name is based not only on My ability to promise but on My ability beyond question to also keep My promises. Now, G-d says, “I will explain to you why I did not reveal Myself to the patriarchs as the attribute of Hashem. The promises I made to them referred to a distant future.” They would not live to see their fulfilment. The promises I made to you and through you to My people, will be fulfilled within the immediate future. As this occurs, the past partially passive mode of the root ידע will be appropriate, i.e. “I will have become known as Hashem.” Seeing that this is so, the people should not have asked: “what is His name?” Who asks about something that he knows and is familiar with? Rashi also explains why the conjunctive letter ו in וגם in verse 4 is appropriate. The word: הקימותי is not to be confused with “I have kept (a promise),” but is to be understood as the promises made to the patriarchs still being in effect, and the fact that they had not yet been fulfilled is due to their having been made by G-d in His capacity as שדי, “the G-d whose promises are meaningful because He is able to fulfill them and no one can stop Him from doing so.” The reason that the time for fulfilling them has arrived is because the Children of Israel’s outcry on account of their suffering is justified.

וגם אני הקימותי, Accordingly, the correct translation of the word הקימותי here is: “and also I have sworn,” exactly as in Genesis 3,53, where the word וישבע does not mean “I have sworn,” in the sense of “it is the truth,” but “I confirm solemnly something that I have promised already previously.”

ולא שמעו אל משה, “but they did not listen (accept) what Moses had said to them;” they were too afraid to accept what Moses said to them on account on the recent worsening of their condition as a result of Moses’ intervention and Pharaoh’s reaction to this. Pharaoh had succeeded at this stage in making the people forget their dreams of freedom or at least improved conditions, by burdening them with additional hard labour. (Compare 5,9) The words דברי שקר, there refer to Moses’ “false promises.”

!בא דבר אל פרעה, “go and speak sternly to Pharaoh!” G-d implies that He will go with Moses on this mission. On the other hand, at the time when Moses is bidden to go outside instead of into the city, G-d uses the term: לך, [as when G-d instructed Avraham to leave Charan and to go to a land which He would show him (Genesis 12,1). Ed.], as in Exodus 7,15 where G-d is told to speak to Pharaoh at the banks of the Nile.

,אל משה ואל אהרן ,“to Moses and Aaron.” G-d took Aaron with to this interview with Pharaoh in order to put Moses at ease. [I fail to understand this comment by our author, seeing that Aaron had accompanied Moses also at the first interview. Ed.] An alternate interpretation, especially on the words: ויצום אל בני ישראל, “He commanded them to the Children of Israel;” Moses was to tell the Israelites everything that G-d had said to him from the beginning of the portion until לכם מורשה אני ה', “for you as an ancestral land;” (in verse 8). Moses was to go to Pharaoh after having told the people, and they, Moses and Aaron, were to tell Pharaoh to release the Children of Israel from bondage in Egypt.

ובני קהת עמרם ויצהר וגו, “and the sons of Kehot were Amram, Yitzhar, etc.;” the reason why the Torah does not mention the sons of Moses and the sons of Chevron and Ittamar, is that no specific action in which these had been involved has been recorded. The Torah did mention the sons of Amram, as they had been mentioned independently in the Torah so many times, i.e. both Moses and Aaron. The sons of YItzhar were mentioned on account of their involvement in the uprising of Korach. The sons of Uzziel were mentioned because they were called upon to remove the bodies of Nadav and Avihu who had died in the precincts of the Tabernacle on account of having offered unauthorized incense in the Sanctuary, and having added man made fire to their censers. The sons of Ittamar were mentioned in Chronicles on account of the High Priest Eli. (Rash’bam)

ויקח עמרם את יוכבד דודתו “Amram married his aunt Yocheved;”The only reason that seems feasible in understanding why G-d agreed to such great people as Moses and his siblings to be born from a union that the Torah would forbid once it was revealed at Mount Sinai, is the rule that we do not appoint a person to the highest position in the land unless the people were aware of at least something inappropriate that such a person had been guilty of actively or passively before his appointment. [This rule, if enforced, will diminish the chances of such high ranking people allowing their high office to develop feelings of superiority to those around him. Ed.] The best known example of the rule is King David, one of whose ancestors was Ruth, the Moabite, a people with whom intermarriage is strictly prohibited by the Torah. [He was reminded of this repeatedly during his life, not only his fitness as king being questioned, but even his claim to be Jewish. Compare Rashi on Yuma 22. Ed.]

ויקח אהרן את אלישבע, Aaron married Elisheva; she is mentioned by name because of the priestly status of her husband. (Compare Nachmanides)

מבנות פוטיאל, of the daughters of Putiel; she is mentioned by name because of her son Pinchas who was granted the hereditary priesthood forever (Numbers 25,11; see also Ibn Ezra here).

הוא אהרן ומשה, whenever Moses and Aaron are mentioned in context of their respective ages, Aaron is mentioned first as he was the senior of the two. When these two brothers are mentioned in context of their respective status amongst the people, Moses is mentioned first, as in verse 27. After all, Moses took out the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.

?ואיך ישמעני פרעה, “what is the likelihood of Pharaoh listening to me (when my own people do not)? This paragraph is a continuation of the previous paragraph in which Moses complained about the people not listening to him. (verse 12) [Moses attributes the reason both times to his lack of eloquence or his stammer.] The only difference between the two occasions is that earlier he was very brief, as the Torah wished to insert the passage of the ancestry of some of the principal characters in the hierarchy. The Torah takes up the thread that had been interrupted so that the reader is reminded of where it was interrupted. In this way the lines of ואני ערל שפתים, and ואהרן אחיך יהיה נביאך, “I am afflicted with a speech defect,” and “your brother Aaron will be your spokesman,” have been joined together.