Exodus 5:9

5:9 Make the work harder ¹  for the men so they will keep at it ²  and pay no attention to lying words!” ³ 

Exodus 18:13

18:13 On the next day ⁴  Moses sat to judge ⁵  the people, and the people stood around Moses from morning until evening.

Exodus 26:26

26:26 “You are to make bars of acacia wood, five for the frames on one side of the tabernacle,

Exodus 32:14

32:14 Then the Lord relented over the evil that he had said he would do to his people.

Exodus 32:35

32:35 And the Lord sent a plague on the people because they had made the calf ⁶  – the one Aaron made. ⁷ 

Exodus 37:13

37:13 He cast four gold rings for it and attached the rings at the four corners where its four legs were.

Exodus 39:10

39:10 They set on it ⁸  four rows of stones: a row with a ruby, a topaz, and a beryl – the first row;

Exodus 40:36

40:36 But when the cloud was lifted up ⁹  from the tabernacle, the Israelites would set out ¹⁰  on all their journeys;

¹ tn Heb “let the work be heavy.”

² tn The text has וְיַעֲשׂוּ־בָהּ (vÿya’asu-vah, “and let them work in it”) or the like. The jussive forms part of the king’s decree that the men not only be required to work harder but be doing it: “Let them be occupied in it.”

³ sn The words of Moses are here called “lying words” (דִבְרֵי־שָׁקֶר, divre-shaqer). Here is the main reason, then, for Pharaoh’s new policy. He wanted to discredit Moses. So the words that Moses spoke Pharaoh calls false and lying words. The world was saying that God’s words were vain and deceptive because they were calling people to a higher order. In a short time God would reveal that they were true words.

⁴ tn Heb “and it was/happened on the morrow.”

⁵ sn This is a simple summary of the function of Moses on this particular day. He did not necessarily do this every day, but it was time now to do it. The people would come to solve their difficulties or to hear instruction from Moses on decisions to be made. The tradition of “sitting in Moses’ seat” is drawn from this passage.

⁷ tn The verse is difficult because of the double reference to the making of the calf. The NJPS’s translation tries to reconcile the two by reading “for what they did with the calf that Aaron had made.” B. S. Childs (Exodus [OTL], 557) explains in some detail why this is not a good translation based on syntactical grounds; he opts for the conclusion that the last three words are a clumsy secondary addition. It seems preferable to take the view that both are true, Aaron is singled out for his obvious lead in the sin, but the people sinned by instigating the whole thing.

⁸ sn Most commentators have difficulty with this verse. W. C. Kaiser says the strict chronology is not always kept, and so the plague here may very well refer to the killing of the three thousand (“Exodus,” EBC 2:481).

¹⁰ tn That is, they set in mountings.

¹³ tn The construction uses the Niphal infinitive construct to form the temporal clause.

¹⁴ tn The imperfect tense in this context describes a customary action.