Exodus 13:22

13:22 He did not remove the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night from before the people. ¹ 

Exodus 24:18

24:18 Moses went into the cloud when he went up ²  the mountain, and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights. ³ 

Exodus 40:38

40:38 For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, but fire would be ⁴  on it at night, in plain view ⁵  of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.

Exodus 12:30-31

12:30 Pharaoh got up ⁶  in the night, ⁷  along with all his servants and all Egypt, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was no house ⁸  in which there was not someone dead. 12:31 Pharaoh ⁹  summoned Moses and Aaron in the night and said, “Get up, get out ¹⁰  from among my people, both you and the Israelites! Go, serve the Lord as you have requested! ¹¹ 

Exodus 34:28

34:28 So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; ¹²  he did not eat bread, and he did not drink water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments. ¹³ 

¹ sn See T. W. Mann, “The Pillar of Cloud in the Reed Sea Narrative,” JBL 90 (1971): 15-30.

² tn The verb is a preterite with vav (ו) consecutive; here, the second clause, is subordinated to the first preterite, because it seems that the entering into the cloud is the dominant point in this section of the chapter.

³ sn B. Jacob (Exodus, 750) offers this description of some of the mystery involved in Moses’ ascending into the cloud: Moses ascended into the presence of God, but remained on earth. He did not rise to heaven – the ground remained firmly under his feet. But he clearly was brought into God’s presence; he was like a heavenly servant before God’s throne, like the angels, and he consumed neither bread nor water. The purpose of his being there was to become familiar with all God’s demands and purposes. He would receive the tablets of stone and all the instructions for the tabernacle that was to be built (beginning in chap. 25). He would not descend until the sin of the golden calf.

³ tn Here is another imperfect tense of the customary nuance.

⁴ tn Heb “to the eyes of all”; KJV, ASV, NASB “in the sight of all”; NRSV “before the eyes of all.”

⁴ tn Heb “arose,” the verb קוּם (qum) in this context certainly must describe a less ceremonial act. The entire country woke up in terror because of the deaths.

⁵ tn The noun is an adverbial accusative of time – “in the night” or “at night.”

⁶ sn Or so it seemed. One need not push this description to complete literalness. The reference would be limited to houses that actually had firstborn people or animals. In a society in which households might include more than one generation of humans and animals, however, the presence of a firstborn human or animal would be the rule rather than the exception.

⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Pharaoh) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁶ tn The urgency in Pharaoh’s words is caught by the abrupt use of the imperatives – “get up, go” (קוּמוּ צְּאוּ, qumu tsÿ’u), and “go, serve” (וּלְכוּ עִבְדוּ, ulÿkhu ’ivdu) and “take” and “leave/go” (וָלֵכוּ…קְחוּ, qÿkhu...valekhu).

⁷ tn Heb “as you have said.” The same phrase also occurs in the following verse.

⁶ tn These too are adverbial in relation to the main clause, telling how long Moses was with Yahweh on the mountain.

⁷ tn Heb “the ten words,” though “commandments” is traditional.