22:2 “If a thief is caught 10 breaking in 11 and is struck so that he dies, there will be no blood guilt for him. 12
23:4 “If you encounter 15 your enemy’s ox or donkey wandering off, you must by all means return 16 it to him.
1 tn “wife” has been supplied.
2 tn The translation of “food” does not quite do justice to the Hebrew word. It is “flesh.” The issue here is that the family she was to marry into is wealthy, they ate meat. She was not just to be given the basic food the ordinary people ate, but the fine foods that this family ate.
3 sn See S. Paul, “Exodus 21:10, A Threefold Maintenance Clause,” JNES 28 (1969): 48-53. Paul suggests that the third element listed is not marital rights but ointments since Sumerian and Akkadian texts list food, clothing, and oil as the necessities of life. The translation of “marital rights” is far from certain, since the word occurs only here. The point is that the woman was to be cared for with all that was required for a woman in that situation.
4 tn Heb “it”; the referent (the ox) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
5 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the owner) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
6 tn Heb “according to this judgment it shall be done to him.”
7 tn The verb is a Piel imperfect from שָׁלַם (shalam); it has the idea of making payment in full, making recompense, repaying. These imperfects could be given a future tense translation as imperfects of instruction, but in the property cases an obligatory imperfect fits better – this is what he is bound or obliged to do – what he must do.
8 tn Heb “silver.”
9 tn Here the term “animal” has been supplied.
10 tn Heb “found” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV).
11 tn The word בַּמַּחְתֶּרֶת (bammakhteret) means “digging through” the walls of a house (usually made of mud bricks). The verb is used only a few times and has the meaning of dig in (as into houses) or row hard (as in Jonah 1:13).
12 tn The text has “there is not to him bloods.” When the word “blood” is put in the plural, it refers to bloodshed, or the price of blood that is shed, i.e., blood guiltiness.
13 tn The construction again uses the infinitive absolute with the verb in the conditional clause to stress the condition.
14 tn The clause uses the preposition, the infinitive construct, and the noun that is the subjective genitive – “at the going in of the sun.”
16 tn Heb “meet” (so KJV, ASV, NASB).
17 tn The construction uses the imperfect tense (taken here as an obligatory imperfect) and the infinitive absolute for emphasis.
19 tn “Gold” is an adverbial accusative of material.
22 sn There is some debate as to the meaning of מִסְגֶּרֶת (misgeret). This does not seem to be a natural part of the table and its legs. The drawing on the Arch of Titus shows two cross-stays in the space between the legs, about halfway up. It might have been nearer the top, but the drawing of the table of presence-bread from the arch shows it half-way up. This frame was then decorated with the molding as well.
25 tn Here the Pual perfect with the vav (ו) consecutive provides the purpose clause (equal to a final imperfect); the form follows the use of the active participle, “attached” or more Heb “joining.”
28 tn Heb “and [then] they will wash.”
29 tn The verb is “it will be.”
30 tn Heb “for his seed.”
31 tn Or “for generations to come”; it literally is “to their generations.”
31 tn Or “molding.”