Exodus 1:15

1:15 The king of Egypt said ¹  to the Hebrew midwives, ²  one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, ³ 

Exodus 18:4

18:4 and the other Eliezer (for Moses had said, ⁴  “The God of my father has been my help ⁵  and delivered ⁶  me from the sword of Pharaoh”).

Exodus 25:36

25:36 Their buds and their branches will be one piece, ⁷  all of it one hammered piece of pure gold.

Exodus 26:16

26:16 Each ⁸  frame is to be fifteen feet long, and each frame is to be two feet three inches wide,

Exodus 26:26

26:26 “You are to make bars of acacia wood, five for the frames on one side of the tabernacle,

Exodus 29:15

29:15 “You are to take one ram, and Aaron and his sons are to lay their hands on the ram’s head,

Exodus 29:39

29:39 The first lamb you are to prepare in the morning, and the second lamb you are to prepare around sundown. ⁹ 

Exodus 36:18

36:18 He made fifty bronze clasps to join the tent together so that it might be a unit. ¹⁰ 

Exodus 36:21

36:21 The length of each ¹¹  frame was fifteen feet, the width of each ¹²  frame was two and a quarter feet,

Exodus 36:31

36:31 He made bars of acacia wood, five for the frames on one side of the tabernacle

Exodus 37:22

37:22 Their buds and their branches were of one piece; ¹³  all of it was one hammered piece of pure gold.

Exodus 39:10

39:10 They set on it ¹⁴  four rows of stones: a row with a ruby, a topaz, and a beryl – the first row;

Exodus 40:2

40:2 “On the first day of the first month you are to set up ¹⁵  the tabernacle, the tent of meeting.

Exodus 40:17

40:17 So the tabernacle was set up on the first day of the first month, in the second year.

¹ tn Heb “and the king of Egypt said.”

² sn The word for “midwife” is simply the Piel participle of the verb יָלַד (yalad, “to give birth”). So these were women who assisted in the childbirth process. It seems probable that given the number of the Israelites in the passage, these two women could not have been the only Hebrew midwives, but they may have been over the midwives (Rashi). Moreover, the LXX and Vulgate do not take “Hebrew” as an adjective, but as a genitive after the construct, yielding “midwives of/over the Hebrews.” This leaves open the possibility that these women were not Hebrews. This would solve the question of how the king ever expected Hebrew midwives to kill Hebrew children. And yet, the two women have Hebrew names.

³ tn Heb “who the name of the first [was] Shiphrah, and the name of the second [was] Puah.”

⁴ tn The referent (Moses) and the verb have been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁵ tn Now is given the etymological explanation of the name of Moses’ other son, Eliezer (אֱלִיעֶזֶר, ’eli’ezer), which means “my God is a help.” The sentiment that explains this name is אֱלֹהֵי אָבִי בְּעֶזְרִי (’elohe ’avi bÿ’ezri, “the God of my father is my help”). The preposition in the sentiment is the bet (ב) essentiae (giving the essence – see GKC 379 §119.i). Not mentioned earlier, the name has become even more appropriate now that God has delivered Moses from Pharaoh again. The word for “help” is a common word in the Bible, first introduced as a description of the woman in the Garden. It means to do for someone what he or she cannot do for himself or herself. Samuel raised the “stone of help” (Ebenezer) when Yahweh helped Israel win the battle (1 Sam 7:12).

⁶ sn The verb “delivered” is an important motif in this chapter (see its use in vv. 8, 9, and 10 with reference to Pharaoh).

⁷ tn Heb “will be from it.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “the frame.”

¹³ tn Heb “between the two evenings” or “between the two settings” (בֵּין הָעַרְבָּיִם, ben ha’arbayim). This expression has had a good deal of discussion. (1) Tg. Onq. says “between the two suns,” which the Talmud explains as the time between the sunset and the time the stars become visible. More technically, the first “evening” would be the time between sunset and the appearance of the crescent moon, and the second “evening” the next hour, or from the appearance of the crescent moon to full darkness (see Deut 16:6 – “at the going down of the sun”). (2) Saadia, Rashi, and Kimchi say the first evening is when the sun begins to decline in the west and cast its shadows, and the second evening is the beginning of night. (3) The view adopted by the Pharisees and the Talmudists (b. Pesahim 61a) is that the first evening is when the heat of the sun begins to decrease, and the second evening begins at sunset, or, roughly from 3-5 p.m. The Mishnah (m. Pesahim 5:1) indicates the lamb was killed about 2:30 p.m. – anything before noon was not valid. S. R. Driver concludes from this survey that the first view is probably the best, although the last view was the traditionally accepted one (Exodus, 89-90). Late afternoon or early evening seems to be intended, the time of twilight perhaps.

¹⁶ tn The construction uses the infinitive construct from the verb “to be” to express this purpose clause: “to be one,” or, “so that it might be a unit.”

¹⁹ tn Heb “the frame.”

²⁰ tn Heb “the one.”

²² tn Heb “were from it.”

²⁵ tn That is, they set in mountings.

²⁸ tn Heb “you will raise,” an imperfect of instruction.