Secret Number 91

Did Moses Stutter?

Audio read by Tom Parks - MP3

The Byte Show Interview - MP3

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Did Moses have an impediment of speech?: Moses told God that he was "slow of speech, and of a slow tongue" (Exodus 4:10). Some have thought this indicates he halted in his words, or that he stuttered. But this is not the case. Stephen said that Moses "was mighty in words" (Acts 7:22). Still, he was "slow of tongue." This simply means it was a struggle for Moses to speak the Hebrew language in a fluent way. Recall that he was reared as a young man in the royal family of Egypt and his native language would have been Egyptian (Exodus 2:5-10). He no doubt spoke with a heavy Egyptian accent. The reason that Moses was given a brother Aaron to be is spokesman at the very beginning of his teaching is because Aaron had been reared in Israelite society and spoke Hebrew with fluency (Exodus 4:13-16). But once Moses was proved to be a true prophet of God in the eyes of the Israelites, Moses did not have to use his brother again. They accepted Moses, Egyptian accent and all.