But Moses said to the Lord: if the Israelites will not listen to me, why would Pharaoh listen to me, since I speak with faltering lips? Moses raises the same objection he raised at the burning bush — he cannot speak well — but now grounds it in fresh evidence: his own people did not listen. The argument has a certain logic: if those who share his faith and share his suffering cannot receive his message, why would the most powerful and proudest ruler in the world? The phrase faltering lips — aral sefatayim — literally means uncircumcised lips, lips that are closed or sealed. The same word used for the uncircumcised heart in Deuteronomy 10:16 and Jeremiah 4:4. Moses is describing himself as spiritually and rhetorically inadequate — sealed where he needs to be open. 1 Corinthians 2:3–5 records Paul entering Corinth with weakness and fear — and the gospel still powerful. Inadequacy and fruitfulness are not mutually exclusive in God's economy.

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