2:16 Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and began to draw 1 water 2 and fill 3 the troughs in order to water their father’s flock. 2:17 When some 4 shepherds came and drove them away, 5 Moses came up and defended them 6 and then watered their flock.
1 tn The preterites describing their actions must be taken in an ingressive sense, since they did not actually complete the job. Shepherds drove them away, and Moses watered the flocks.
2 tn The object “water” is not in the Hebrew text, but is implied.
3 tn This also has the ingressive sense, “began to fill,” but for stylistic reasons is translated simply “fill” here.
4 tn The definite article here is the generic use; it simply refers to a group of shepherds.
5 tn The actions of the shepherds are subordinated to the main statement about what Moses did.
6 sn The verb used here is וַיּוֹשִׁעָן (vayyoshi’an, “and he saved them”). The word means that he came to their rescue and delivered them. By the choice of words the narrator is portraying Moses as the deliverer – he is just not yet ready to deliver Israel from its oppressors.