Three verses near the beginning of this week’s Torah portion have achieved a measure of fame independent of their appearance in the Torah itself. Verses six-eight in chapter six of Shemot contain four active verbs for God’s four redemptive acts that served as the source for the four cups of wine we drink at our Pesach seder. The four verbs are “I will free you (from the labors of Egypt,” “I will deliver you (from bondage),” “I will redeem you (with an outstretched arm),” and “I will take you (to be my people).”

Another tradition cites one other active verb in the sequence: “I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” as the basis for the fifth cup of wine, the cup of Elijah, which appears near the end of the seder. Elijah, in Jewish folklore, is the herald of redemption; he will appear to proclaim the coming of the Messiah.

The passage as a whole appears as God’s response to Moses following Moses’ complaint, recorded at the very end of last week’s portion. Ever since he had spoken to Pharaoh, Moses pleads, Pharaoh has dealt worse with Israel, “…and still, You have not delivered Your people.”

To this complaint, God now responds in this very aggressive way. This is hardly the “behind-the-scenes” God of the Joseph story, a God who may be directing the course of the events but who works indirectly, using human agency throughout. Even more, this is not the God of the Esther story who doesn’t even appear in the narrative itself. Here, and in the entire Exodus story, this is a God who brings everything to pass, who is in the forefront, dramatically present, whose work is described in forceful terms. This is a God who uses five verbs when one could do quite well.

All of this simply heightens the dilemma posed by the verse that immediately precedes these three verses: “I have now heard the moaning of the Israelites because the Egyptians are holding them in bondage, and I have remembered My covenant.”

Two things puzzle me, first, the term “now” that appears as a translation for the Hebrew word “v’gam.” In the extended JPS commentary to this verse, Dr. Nahum Sarna notes that here, the Hebrew word is used for emphasis, “with the sense of ‘indeed.’”

In other words, God is saying, “I have indeed heard the moaning of the Israelites….” The translation as “now” is quite unfortunate because it implies that only “now” has God heard their moaning. If that’s so, then why now? Where has God been until now?

“Indeed” is a much more satisfactory translation. It suggests that God is responding to Moses’ complaints that the fate of the people has become worse. God is reassuring Moses. God is ready to redeem them.

But the unhappiness with the “now” translation lingers, because even if the text is not suggesting that only “now” has God heard the moanings of the Israelites, the fact remains that in the entire Torah there is no explicit and satisfactory justification for the suffering of the Israelites in Egypt. And even if the captivity is only four or 40 years long, as opposed to the 400 years suggested by one tradition, any suffering at all calls into question God’s presence and God’s concern.

There are various hints at an explanation: In some contexts, it was designed to display the full array of God’s power. In others, it was designed to train the people to understand the feelings of the oppressed.

But neither of these is satisfactory. Even if we use the “indeed” translation, the verse suggests that God is fully prepared to redeem the people, and God proceeds to reaffirm that readiness using the five aggressive verbs of redemption.

To which we can still only wonder: Why now? Where were You until now?