Exodus 25:20

25:20 The cherubim are to be spreading their wings upward, overshadowing ¹  the atonement lid with their wings, and the cherubim are to face each other, ²  looking ³  toward the atonement lid.

Exodus 37:9

37:9 The cherubim were spreading their wings ⁴  upward, overshadowing the atonement lid with their wings. The cherubim ⁵  faced each other, ⁶  looking toward the atonement lid. ⁷ 

Exodus 37:2

37:2 He overlaid it with pure gold, inside and out, and he made a surrounding border ⁸  of gold for it.

Exodus 3:11

3:11 Moses said ⁹  to God, ¹⁰  “Who am I, that I should go ¹¹  to Pharaoh, or that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

Exodus 5:8

5:8 But you must require ¹²  of them the same quota of bricks that they were making before. ¹³  Do not reduce it, for they are slackers. ¹⁴  That is why they are crying, ‘Let us go sacrifice to our God.’

¹ tn The verb means “overshadowing, screening” in the sense of guarding (see 1 Kgs 8:7; 1 Chr 28:18; see also the account in Gen 3:24). The cherubim then signify two things here: by their outstretched wings they form the throne of God who sits above the ark (with the Law under his feet), and by their overshadowing and guarding they signify this as the place of atonement where people must find propitiation to commune with God. Until then they are barred from his presence. See U. Cassuto, Exodus, 330-35.

² tn Heb “their faces a man to his brother.”

³ tn Heb “the faces of the cherubim will be” (“the cherubim” was moved to the preceding clause for smoother English).

⁴ tn The construction is a participle in construct followed by the genitive “wings” – “spreaders of wings.”

⁵ tn “The cherubim” has been placed here instead of in the second clause to produce a smoother translation.

⁶ tn Heb “and their faces a man to his brother.”

⁷ tn Heb “to the atonement lid were the faces of the cherubim.”

⁸ tn Or “molding.”

⁹ tn Heb “And Moses said.”

¹⁰ sn When he was younger, Moses was confident and impulsive, but now that he is older the greatness of the task makes him unsure. The remainder of this chapter and the next chapter record the four difficulties of Moses and how the Lord answers them (11-12, 13-22; then 4:1-9; and finally 4:10-17).

¹¹ tn The imperfect tense אֵלֵךְ (’elekh) carries the modal nuance of obligatory imperfect, i.e., “that I should go.” Moses at this point is overwhelmed with the task of representing God, and with his personal insufficiency, and so in honest humility questions the choice.

¹² tn The verb is the Qal imperfect of שִׂים (sim, “place, put”). The form could be an imperfect of instruction: “You will place upon them the quota.” Or, as here, it may be an obligatory imperfect: “You must place.”

¹³ tn Heb “yesterday and three days ago” or “yesterday and before that” is idiomatic for “previously” or “in the past.”

¹⁴ tn Or “loafers.” The form נִרְפִּים (nirpim) is derived from the verb רָפָה (rafah), meaning “to be weak, to let oneself go.” They had been letting the work go, Pharaoh reasoned, and being idle is why they had time to think about going to worship.