Exodus 4:11

And the LORD said to him, “Who gave man his mouth? Or who makes the mute or the deaf, the sighted or the blind? Is it not I, the LORD?

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — Yahweh speaks to Moses at the burning bush, immediately after Moses has protested that he is "slow of speech and tongue" (Exodus 4:10).

The words — פֶּה (peh) simply means "mouth," the physical organ, not "eloquence" or "rhetoric." The question מִי (mi) — "who?" — is rhetorical, forcing the answer back onto the speaker himself.

The thread — Psalms 94:9 runs the same logic with ear and eye; Isaiah 6:7 shows God acting on the mouth directly, touching Isaiah's lips to remove iniquity before commissioning.

Why it lands — The verse strips the excuse of its premise: if the mouth is a gift from the one asking you to use it, your complaint is an accusation against the giver.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

King James Version

And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the Lord?

Cross-references

Psalms 94:9 He who affixed the ear, can He not hear? He who formed the eye, can He not see?
Psalms 146:8 the LORD opens the eyes of the blind, the LORD lifts those who are weighed down, the LORD loves the righteous.
Isaiah 6:7 And with it he touched my mouth and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your iniquity is removed and your sin is atoned for.”
Ezekiel 3:26 I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth, and you will be silent and unable to rebuke them, though they are a rebellious house.
Amos 3:6 If a ram’s horn sounds in a city, do the people not tremble? If calamity comes to a city, has not the LORD caused it?
Psalms 51:15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare Your praise.
Jeremiah 1:6 “Ah, Lord GOD,” I said, “I surely do not know how to speak, for I am only a child!”
Jeremiah 1:9 Then the LORD reached out His hand, touched my mouth, and said to me: “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.
Genesis 18:14 Is anything too difficult for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you—in about a year—and Sarah will have a son.”
Ezekiel 33:22 Now the evening before the fugitive arrived, the hand of the LORD was upon me, and He opened my mouth before the man came to me in the morning. So my mouth was opened and I was no longer mute.