Exodus 3:5

3:5 God ¹  said, “Do not approach any closer! ²  Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ³  ground.” ⁴ 

Exodus 14:10

14:10 When ⁵  Pharaoh got closer, ⁶  the Israelites looked up, ⁷  and there were the Egyptians marching after them, ⁸  and they were terrified. ⁹  The Israelites cried out to the Lord, ¹⁰ 

Exodus 16:9

16:9 Then Moses said to Aaron, “Tell the whole community ¹¹  of the Israelites, ‘Come ¹²  before the Lord, because he has heard your murmurings.’”

Exodus 22:8

22:8 If the thief is not caught, ¹³  then the owner of the house will be brought before the judges ¹⁴  to see ¹⁵  whether he has laid ¹⁶  his hand on his neighbor’s goods.

Exodus 29:3

29:3 You are to put them in one basket and present ¹⁷  them in the basket, along with ¹⁸  the bull and the two rams.

Exodus 29:10

29:10 “You are to present the bull at the front of the tent of meeting, and Aaron and his sons are to put ¹⁹  their hands on the head ²⁰  of the bull.

Exodus 40:32

40:32 Whenever they entered ²¹  the tent of meeting, and whenever they approached ²²  the altar, they would wash, ²³  just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

¹ tn Heb “And he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² sn Even though the Lord was drawing near to Moses, Moses could not casually approach him. There still was a barrier between God and human, and God had to remind Moses of this with instructions. The removal of sandals was, and still is in the East, a sign of humility and reverence in the presence of the Holy One. It was a way of excluding the dust and dirt of the world. But it also took away personal comfort and convenience and brought the person more closely in contact with the earth.

³ sn The word קֹדֶשׁ (qodesh, “holy”) indicates “set apart, distinct, unique.” What made a mountain or other place holy was the fact that God chose that place to reveal himself or to reside among his people. Because God was in this place, the ground was different – it was holy.

⁴ tn The causal clause includes within it a typical relative clause, which is made up of the relative pronoun, then the independent personal pronoun with the participle, and then the preposition with the resumptive pronoun. It would literally be “which you are standing on it,” but the relative pronoun and the resumptive pronoun are combined and rendered, “on which you are standing.”

⁵ tn The disjunctive vav introduces a circumstantial clause here.

⁶ tn Heb “drew near.”

⁷ tn Heb “lifted up their eyes,” an expression that indicates an intentional and careful looking – they looked up and fixed their sights on the distance.

⁸ tn The construction uses הִנֵּה (hinneh) with the participle, traditionally rendered “and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them.” The deictic particle calls attention in a dramatic way to what was being seen. It captures the surprise and the sudden realization of the people.

⁹ tn The verb “feared” is intensified by the adverb מְאֹד (mÿ’od): “they feared greatly” or “were terrified.” In one look their defiant boldness seems to have evaporated.

¹⁰ sn Their cry to the Lord was proper and necessary. But their words to Moses were a rebuke and disloyal, showing a lack of faith and understanding. Their arrogance failed them in the crisis because it was built on the arm of flesh. Moses would have to get used to this murmuring, but here he takes it in stride and gives them the proper instructions. They had cried to the Lord, and now the Lord would deliver.

⁹ tn Or “congregation” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV); the same word occurs in v. 10.

¹⁰ tn The verb means “approach, draw near.” It is used in the Torah of drawing near for religious purposes. It is possible that some sacrifice was involved here, but no mention is made of that.

¹³ tn Heb “found.”

¹⁴ tn Here again the word used is “the gods,” meaning the judges who made the assessments and decisions. In addition to other works, see J. R. Vannoy, “The Use of the Word ha’elohim in Exodus 21:6 and 22:7,8,” The Law and the Prophets, 225-41.

¹⁵ tn The phrase “to see” has been supplied.

¹⁶ tn The line says “if he has not stretched out his hand.” This could be the oath formula, but the construction here would be unusual, or it could be taken as “whether” (see W. C. Kaiser, Jr., “Exodus,” EBC 2:438). U. Cassuto (Exodus, 286) does not think the wording can possibly fit an oath; nevertheless, an oath would be involved before God (as he takes it instead of “judges”) – if the man swore, his word would be accepted, but if he would not swear, he would be guilty.

¹⁷ tn The verb קָרַב (qarav) in the Hiphil means to “bring near” to the altar, or, to offer something to God. These gifts will, therefore, be offered to him for the service of this ritual.

¹⁸ tn Heb “and with.”

²¹ tn The verb is singular, agreeing with the first of the compound subject – Aaron.

²² sn The details of these offerings have to be determined from a careful study of Leviticus. There is a good deal of debate over the meaning of laying hands on the animals. At the very least it identifies the animal formally as their sacrifice. But it may very well indicate that the animal is a substitute for them as well, given the nature and the effect of the sacrifices.

²⁵ tn The construction is the infinitive construct with the temporal preposition and the suffixed subjective genitive. This temporal clause indicates that the verb in the preceding verse was frequentative.

²⁶ tn This is another infinitive construct in a temporal clause.

²⁷ tn In this explanatory verse the verb is a customary imperfect.