17:4 Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What will I do with 3 this people? – a little more 4 and they will stone me!” 5
1 tn Heb “Thus you have spoken.”
2 tn This is a verbal hendiadys construction: “I will not add again [to] see.”
3 tn The preposition lamed (ל) is here specification, meaning “with respect to” (see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 49, §273).
4 tn Or “they are almost ready to stone me.”
5 tn The perfect tense with the vav (ו) consecutive almost develops an independent force; this is true in sentences where it follows an expression of time, as here (see GKC 334 §112.x).