2 Chronicles 1:10

1:10 Now give me wisdom and discernment so ¹  I can effectively lead this nation. ²  Otherwise ³  no one is able ⁴  to make judicial decisions for ⁵  this great nation of yours.” ⁶ 

Exodus 3:11

3:11 Moses said ⁷  to God, ⁸  “Who am I, that I should go ⁹  to Pharaoh, or that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

Exodus 3:2

3:2 The angel of the Lord ¹⁰  appeared ¹¹  to him in ¹²  a flame of fire from within a bush. ¹³  He looked ¹⁴  – and ¹⁵  the bush was ablaze with fire, but it was not being consumed! ¹⁶ 

Exodus 7:18

7:18 Fish ¹⁷  in the Nile will die, the Nile will stink, and the Egyptians will be unable ¹⁸  to drink water from the Nile.”’”

Exodus 7:1

7:1 So the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God ¹⁹  to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. ²⁰ 

Exodus 29:14

29:14 But the meat of the bull, its skin, and its dung you are to burn up ²¹  outside the camp. ²²  It is the purification offering. ²³ 

Exodus 29:2

29:2 and ²⁴  bread made without yeast, and perforated cakes without yeast mixed with oil, and wafers without yeast spread ²⁵  with oil – you are to make them using ²⁶  fine wheat flour.

Colossians 2:16

2:16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you with respect to food or drink, or in the matter of a feast, new moon, or Sabbath days –

Ephesians 3:8

3:8 To me – less than the least of all the saints ²⁷  – this grace was given, ²⁸  to proclaim to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ

[1:10]  ¹ tn The cohortative with prefixed vav (ו) following the imperative here indicates purpose/result.

[1:10]  ² tn Heb “so I may go out before this nation and come in.” The expression “go out…and come in” here means “to lead” (see HALOT 425 s.v. יצא qal.4).

[1:10]  ³ tn Heb “for.” The word “otherwise” is used to reflect the logical sense of the statement.

[1:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “who is able?” The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “no one.”

[1:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “to judge.”

[1:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “these numerous people of yours.”

[3:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “And Moses said.”

[3:11]  ⁸ sn When he was younger, Moses was confident and impulsive, but now that he is older the greatness of the task makes him unsure. The remainder of this chapter and the next chapter record the four difficulties of Moses and how the Lord answers them (11-12, 13-22; then 4:1-9; and finally 4:10-17).

[3:11]  ⁹ tn The imperfect tense אֵלֵךְ (’elekh) carries the modal nuance of obligatory imperfect, i.e., “that I should go.” Moses at this point is overwhelmed with the task of representing God, and with his personal insufficiency, and so in honest humility questions the choice.

[3:2]  ¹⁰ sn The designation “the angel of the Lord” (Heb “the angel of Yahweh”) occurred in Genesis already (16:7-13; 21:17; 22:11-18). There is some ambiguity in the expression, but it seems often to be interchangeable with God’s name itself, indicating that it refers to the Lord.

[3:2]  ¹¹ tn The verb וַיֵּרָא (vayyera’) is the Niphal preterite of the verb “to see.” For similar examples of רָאָה (ra’ah) in Niphal where the subject “appears,” that is, allows himself to be seen, or presents himself, see Gen 12:7; 35:9; 46:29; Exod 6:3; and 23:17. B. Jacob notes that God appears in this way only to individuals and never to masses of people; it is his glory that appears to the masses (Exodus, 49).

[3:2]  ¹² tn Gesenius rightly classifies this as a bet (ב) essentiae (GKC 379 §119.i); it would then indicate that Yahweh appeared to Moses “as a flame.”

[3:2]  ¹³ sn Fire frequently accompanies the revelation of Yahweh in Exodus as he delivers Israel, guides her, and purifies her. The description here is unique, calling attention to the manifestation as a flame of fire from within the bush. Philo was the first to interpret the bush as Israel, suffering under the persecution of Egypt but never consumed. The Bible leaves the interpretation open. However, in this revelation the fire is coming from within the bush, not from outside, and it represents the Lord who will deliver his people from persecution. See further E. Levine, “The Evolving Symbolism of the Burning Bush,” Dor le Dor 8 (1979): 185-93.

[3:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “And he saw.”

[3:2]  ¹⁵ tn The text again uses the deictic particle with vav, וְהִנֵּה (vÿhinneh), traditionally rendered “and behold.” The particle goes with the intense gaze, the outstretched arm, the raised eyebrow – excitement and intense interest: “look, over there.” It draws the reader into the immediate experience of the subject.

[3:2]  ¹⁶ tn The construction uses the suffixed negative אֵינֶנּוּ (’enennu) to convey the subject of the passive verb: “It was not” consumed. This was the amazing thing, for nothing would burn faster in the desert than a thornbush on fire.

[7:18]  ¹⁷ tn The definite article here has the generic use, indicating the class – “fish” (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 19, §92).

[7:18]  ¹⁸ tn The verb לָאָה (la’a), here in the Niphal perfect with a vav consecutive, means “be weary, impatient.” The Niphal meaning is “make oneself weary” in doing something, or “weary (strenuously exert) oneself.” It seems always to indicate exhausted patience (see BDB 521 s.v.). The term seems to imply that the Egyptians were not able to drink the red, contaminated water, and so would expend all their energy looking for water to drink – in frustration of course.

[7:1]  ¹⁹ tn The word “like” is added for clarity, making explicit the implied comparison in the statement “I have made you God to Pharaoh.” The word אֱלֹהִים (’elohim) is used a few times in the Bible for humans (e.g., Pss 45:6; 82:1), and always clearly in the sense of a subordinate to GOD – they are his representatives on earth. The explanation here goes back to 4:16. If Moses is like God in that Aaron is his prophet, then Moses is certainly like God to Pharaoh. Only Moses, then, is able to speak to Pharaoh with such authority, giving him commands.

[7:1]  ²⁰ tn The word נְבִיאֶךָ (nÿvi’ekha, “your prophet”) recalls 4:16. Moses was to be like God to Aaron, and Aaron was to speak for him. This indicates that the idea of a “prophet” was of one who spoke for God, an idea with which Moses and Aaron and the readers of Exodus are assumed to be familiar.

[29:14]  ²¹ tn Heb “burn with fire.”

[29:14]  ²² sn This is to be done because there is no priesthood yet. Once they are installed, then the sin/purification offering is to be eaten by the officiating priests as a sign that the offering was received. But priests could not consume their own sin offering.

[29:14]  ²³ sn There were two kinds of “purification offering,” those made with confession for sin and those made without. The title needs to cover both of them, and if it is called in the traditional way “the sin offering,” that will convey that when people offered it for skin diseases, menstruation, or having babies, they had sinned. That was not the case. Moreover, it is usual to translate the names of the sacrifices by what they do more than what they cover – so peace offering, reparation offering, and purification offering.

[29:2]  ²⁴ sn This will be for the minkhah (מִנְחָה) offering (Lev 2), which was to accompany the animal sacrifices.

[29:2]  ²⁵ tn Or “anointed” (KJV, ASV).

[29:2]  ²⁶ tn The “fine flour” is here an adverbial accusative, explaining the material from which these items were made. The flour is to be finely sifted, and from the wheat, not the barley, which was often the material used by the poor. Fine flour, no leaven, and perfect animals, without blemishes, were to be gathered for this service.

[3:8]  ²⁷ sn In Pauline writings saints means any true believer. Thus for Paul to view himself as less than the least of all the saints is to view himself as the most unworthy object of Christ’s redemption.

[3:8]  ²⁸ sn The parallel phrases to proclaim and to enlighten which follow indicate why God’s grace was manifested to Paul. Grace was not something just to be received, but to be shared with others (cf. Acts 13:47).