Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and harsh labor. The seven promises of verses 6–8 are delivered and received with silence. The people cannot hear good news. Their discouragement — kotzer ruach, shortness of spirit — literally means their breath is too short to take in what is being said. Suffering has compressed their capacity for hope. This is not a failure of the message or of Moses; it is an honest description of what prolonged oppression does to human beings. Luke 24:21 records the disciples after the crucifixion: we had hoped he was the one. Hope deferred to the point of death can look identical to hope extinguished. The people who cannot hear Moses' seven promises will nonetheless walk through the sea three chapters later. God does not require their reception of the promise before He acts on it. He acts, and the act creates the capacity to believe what could not be believed before.

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