3:5 “I 7 will come to you in judgment. I will be quick to testify against those who practice divination, those who commit adultery, those who break promises, 8 and those who exploit workers, widows, and orphans, 9 who refuse to help 10 the immigrant 11 and in this way show they do not fear me,” says the Lord who rules over all.
1 tn Heb “And you shall not oppress a man his fellow citizen.”
2 tn Heb “and they [fem. pl.] feared”; the referent (the midwives) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
3 tn The verb is the Piel preterite of חָיָה (khaya, “to live”). The Piel often indicates a factitive nuance with stative verbs, showing the cause of the action. Here it means “let live, cause to live.” The verb is the exact opposite of Pharaoh’s command for them to kill the boys.
3 tn The temporal indicator וַיְהִי (vayÿhi) focuses attention on the causal clause and lays the foundation for the main clause, namely, “God made households for them.” This is the second time the text affirms the reason for their defiance, their fear of God.
4 tn Or “families”; Heb “houses.”
4 sn See Exod 17:8-16.
5 tn The first person pronoun (a reference to the
6 tn Heb “those who swear [oaths] falsely.” Cf. NIV “perjurers”; TEV “those who give false testimony”; NLT “liars.”
7 tn Heb “and against the oppressors of the worker for a wage, [the] widow and orphan.”
8 tn Heb “those who turn aside.”
9 tn Or “resident foreigner”; NIV “aliens”; NRSV “the alien.”