Exodus 3:7

3:7 The Lord said, “I have surely seen ¹  the affliction of my people who are in Egypt. I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. ² 

Exodus 3:9

3:9 And now indeed ³  the cry ⁴  of the Israelites has come to me, and I have also seen how severely the Egyptians oppress them. ⁵ 

Exodus 11:6

11:6 There will be a great cry throughout the whole land of Egypt, such as there has never been, ⁶  nor ever will be again. ⁷ 

Exodus 22:23

22:23 If you afflict them ⁸  in any way ⁹  and they cry to me, I will surely hear ¹⁰  their cry,

Exodus 12:30

12:30 Pharaoh got up ¹¹  in the night, ¹²  along with all his servants and all Egypt, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was no house ¹³  in which there was not someone dead.

¹ tn The use of the infinitive absolute with the perfect tense intensifies the statement: I have surely seen – there is no doubt that I have seen and will do something about it.

² sn Two new words are introduced now to the report of suffering: “affliction” and “pain/suffering.” These add to the dimension of the oppression of God’s people.

³ tn The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) focuses attention on what is being said as grounds for what follows.

⁴ tn The word is a technical term for the outcry one might make to a judge. God had seen the oppression and so knew that the complaints were accurate, and so he initiated the proceedings against the oppressors (B. Jacob, Exodus, 59).

⁵ tn Heb “seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.” The word for the oppression is now לַחַץ (lakhats), which has the idea of pressure with the oppression – squeezing, pressuring – which led to its later use in the Semitic languages for torture. The repetition in the Hebrew text of the root in the participle form after this noun serves to stress the idea. This emphasis has been represented in the translation by the expression “seen how severely the Egyptians oppress them.”

⁵ tn Heb “which like it there has never been.”

⁶ tn Heb “and like it it will not add.”

⁷ tn The accusative here is the masculine singular pronoun, which leads S. R. Driver to conclude that this line is out of place, even though the masculine singular can be used in places like this (Exodus, 232). U. Cassuto says its use is to refer to certain classes (Exodus, 292).

⁸ tn Here again and with “cry” the infinitive absolute functions with a diminished emphasis (GKC 342-43 §113.o).

⁹ tn Here is the normal use of the infinitive absolute with the imperfect tense to emphasize the verb: “I will surely hear,” implying, “I will surely respond.”

⁹ 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.

¹⁰ tn The noun is an adverbial accusative of time – “in the night” or “at night.”

¹¹ 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.