4:27 The Lord said 1 to Aaron, “Go to the wilderness to meet Moses. So he went and met him at the mountain of God 2 and greeted him with a kiss. 3
14:19 The angel of God, who was going before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them, and the pillar 4 of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them.
1 tn Heb “And Yahweh said.”
2 tn S. R. Driver considers that this verse is a continuation of vv. 17 and 18 and that Aaron met Moses before Moses started back to Egypt (Exodus, 33). The first verb, then, might have the nuance of a past perfect: Yahweh had said.
3 tn Heb “and kissed him.”
4 sn B. Jacob (Exodus, 400-401) makes a good case that there may have been only one pillar, one cloud; it would have been a dark cloud behind it, but in front of it, shining the way, a pillar of fire. He compares the manifestation on Sinai, when the mountain was on fire but veiled by a dark cloud (Deut 4:11; 5:22). See also Exod 13:21; Num 14:14; Deut 1:33; Neh 9:12, 19; Josh 24:7; Pss 78:14; 105:39.