Exodus 12:24

12:24 You must observe this event as an ordinance for you and for your children forever.

Exodus 12:17

12:17 So you will keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because on this very ¹  day I brought your regiments ²  out from the land of Egypt, and so you must keep this day perpetually as a lasting ordinance. ³ 

Exodus 12:25

12:25 When you enter the land that the Lord will give to you, just as he said, you must observe ⁴  this ceremony.

Exodus 19:5

19:5 And now, if you will diligently listen to me ⁵  and keep ⁶  my covenant, then you will be my ⁷  special possession ⁸  out of all the nations, for all the earth is mine,

Exodus 31:14

31:14 So you must keep the Sabbath, for it is holy for you. Everyone who defiles it ⁹  must surely be put to death; indeed, ¹⁰  if anyone does ¹¹  any ¹²  work on it, then that person will be cut off from among his ¹³  people.

¹ tn Heb “on the bone of this day.” The expression means “the substance of the day,” the day itself, the very day (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 95).

² tn The word is “armies” or “divisions” (see Exod 6:26 and the note there; cf. also 7:4). The narrative will continue to portray Israel as a mighty army, marching forth in its divisions.

³ tn See Exod 12:14.

¹ tn The verb used here and at the beginning of v. 24 is שָׁמַר (shamar); it can be translated “watch, keep, protect,” but in this context the point is to “observe” the religious customs and practices set forth in these instructions.

¹ tn Heb “listen to my voice.” The construction uses the imperfect tense in the conditional clause, preceded by the infinitive absolute from the same verb. The idiom “listen to the voice of” implies obedience, not just mental awareness of sound.

² tn The verb is a perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive; it continues the idea in the protasis of the sentence: “and [if you will] keep.”

³ tn The lamed preposition expresses possession here: “to me” means “my.”

⁴ tn The noun is סְגֻלָּה (sÿgullah), which means a special possession. Israel was to be God’s special possession, but the prophets will later narrow it to the faithful remnant. All the nations belong to God, but Israel was to stand in a place of special privilege and enormous responsibility. See Deut 7:6; 14:2; 26:18; Ps 135:4; and Mal 3:17. See M. Greenburg, “Hebrew sÿgulla: Akkadian sikiltu,” JAOS 71 (1951): 172ff.

¹ tn This clause is all from one word, a Piel plural participle with a third, feminine suffix: מְחַלְלֶיהָ (mÿkhalleha, “defilers of it”). This form serves as the subject of the sentence. The word חָלַל (khalal) is the antonym of קָדַשׁ (qadash, “to be holy”). It means “common, profane,” and in the Piel stem “make common, profane” or “defile.” Treating the Sabbath like an ordinary day would profane it, make it common.

² tn This is the asseverative use of כִּי (ki) meaning “surely, indeed,” for it restates the point just made (see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 73, §449).

³ tn Heb “the one who does.”

⁴ tn “any” has been supplied.

⁵ tn Literally “her” (a feminine pronoun agreeing with “soul/life,” which is grammatically feminine).