Deuteronomy 4:34

4:34 Or has God ¹  ever before tried to deliver ²  a nation from the middle of another nation, accompanied by judgments, ³  signs, wonders, war, strength, power, ⁴  and other very terrifying things like the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?

Deuteronomy 11:2-4

11:2 Bear in mind today that I am not speaking ⁵  to your children who have not personally experienced the judgments ⁶  of the Lord your God, which revealed ⁷  his greatness, strength, and power. ⁸  11:3 They did not see ⁹  the awesome deeds he performed ¹⁰  in the midst of Egypt against Pharaoh king of Egypt and his whole land, 11:4 or what he did to the army of Egypt, including their horses and chariots, when he made the waters of the Red Sea ¹¹  overwhelm them while they were pursuing you and he ¹²  annihilated them. ¹³ 

Deuteronomy 29:3

29:3 Your eyes have seen the great judgments, ¹⁴  those signs and mighty wonders.

Nehemiah 9:10-11

9:10 You performed awesome signs ¹⁵  against Pharaoh, against his servants, and against all the people of his land, for you knew that the Egyptians ¹⁶  had acted presumptuously ¹⁷  against them. You made for yourself a name that is celebrated to this day. 9:11 You split the sea before them, and they crossed through ¹⁸  the sea on dry ground! But you threw their pursuers ¹⁹  into the depths, like a stone into surging ²⁰  waters.

Jeremiah 32:20-21

32:20 You did miracles and amazing deeds in the land of Egypt which have had lasting effect. By this means you gained both in Israel and among humankind a renown that lasts to this day. ²¹  32:21 You used your mighty power and your great strength to perform miracles and amazing deeds and to bring great terror on the Egyptians. By this means you brought your people Israel out of the land of Egypt. ²² 

Ezekiel 20:6-9

20:6 On that day I swore ²³  to bring them out of the land of Egypt to a land which I had picked out ²⁴  for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, ²⁵  the most beautiful of all lands. 20:7 I said to them, “Each of you must get rid of the detestable idols you keep before you, ²⁶  and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.” 20:8 But they rebelled against me, and refused to listen to me; no one got rid of their detestable idols, ²⁷  nor did they abandon the idols of Egypt. Then I decided to pour out ²⁸  my rage on them and fully vent my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt. 20:9 I acted for the sake of my reputation, ²⁹  so that I would not be profaned before the nations among whom they lived, ³⁰  before whom I revealed myself by bringing them out of the land of Egypt. ³¹ 

[4:34]  ¹ tn The translation assumes the reference is to Israel’s God in which case the point is this: God’s intervention in Israel’s experience is unique in the sense that he has never intervened in such power for any other people on earth. The focus is on the uniqueness of Israel’s experience. Some understand the divine name here in a generic sense, “a god,” or “any god.” In this case God’s incomparability is the focus (cf. v. 35, where this theme is expressed).

[4:34]  ² tn Heb “tried to go to take for himself.”

[4:34]  ³ tn Heb “by testings.” The reference here is the judgments upon Pharaoh in the form of plagues. See Deut 7:19 (cf. v. 18) and 29:3 (cf. v. 2).

[4:34]  ⁴ tn Heb “by strong hand and by outstretched arm.”

[11:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “that not.” The words “I am speaking” have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[11:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “who have not known and who have not seen the discipline of the Lord.” The collocation of the verbs “know” and “see” indicates that personal experience (knowing by seeing) is in view. The term translated “discipline” (KJV, ASV “chastisement”) may also be rendered “instruction,” but vv. 2b-6 indicate that the referent of the term is the various acts of divine judgment the Israelites had witnessed.

[11:2]  ⁷ tn The words “which revealed” have been supplied in the translation to show the logical relationship between the terms that follow and the divine judgments. In the Hebrew text the former are in apposition to the latter.

[11:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “his strong hand and his stretched-out arm.”

[11:3]  ⁹ tn In the Hebrew text vv. 2-7 are one long sentence. For stylistic reasons the English translation divides the passage into three sentences. To facilitate this stylistic decision the words “They did not see” are supplied at the beginning of both v. 3 and v. 5, and “I am speaking” at the beginning of v. 7.

[11:3]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “his signs and his deeds which he did” (NRSV similar). The collocation of “signs” and “deeds” indicates that these acts were intended to make an impression on observers and reveal something about God’s power (cf. v. 2b). The word “awesome” has been employed to bring out the force of the word “signs” in this context.

[11:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Reed Sea.” “Reed Sea” (or “Sea of Reeds”) is a more accurate rendering of the Hebrew expression יָם סוּף (yam suf), traditionally translated “Red Sea.” See note on the term “Red Sea” in Exod 13:18.

[11:4]  ¹² tn Heb “the Lord.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[11:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “and the Lord destroyed them to this day” (cf. NRSV); NLT “he has kept them devastated to this very day.” The translation uses the verb “annihilated” to indicate the permanency of the action.

[29:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “testings.” This is a reference to the plagues; see note at 4:34.

[9:10]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “signs and wonders.” This phrase is a hendiadys. The second noun functions adjectivally, while the first noun retains its full nominal sense: “awesome signs” or “miraculous signs.”

[9:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Egyptians) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[9:10]  ¹⁷ tn Or “arrogantly” (so NASB); NRSV “insolently.”

[9:11]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “in the midst of.”

[9:11]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “those who pursued them.”

[9:11]  ²⁰ tn Heb “mighty.”

[32:20]  ²¹ tn Or “You did miracles and amazing deeds in the land of Egypt. And you continue to do them until this day both in Israel and among mankind. By this mean you have gained a renown…” The translation here follows the syntactical understanding reflected also in NJPS. The Hebrew text reads: “you did miracles and marvelous acts in the land of Egypt until this day and in Israel and in mankind and you made for yourself a name as this day.” The majority of English versions and commentaries understand the phrases “until this day and in Israel and in mankind” to be an elliptical sentence with the preceding verb and objects supplied as reflected in the alternate translation. However, the emphasis on the miraculous deeds in Egypt in this section both before and after this elliptical phrase and the dominant usage of the terms “signs and wonders” to refer to the plagues and other miraculous signs in Egypt calls this interpretation into question. The key here is understanding “both in Israel and in mankind” as an example of a casus pendens construction (a dangling subject, object, or other modifier) before a conjunction introducing the main clause (cf. GKC 327 §111.h and 458 §143.d and compare the usage in Jer 6:19; 33:24; 1 Kgs 15:13). This verse is the topic sentence which is developed further in v. 21 and initiates a narrative history of the distant past that continues until v. 22b where reference is made to the long history of disobedience which has led to the present crisis.

[32:21]  ²² tn Heb “You brought your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders and with a mighty hand and with outstretched arm and with great terror.” For the figurative expressions involved here see the marginal notes on 27:5. The sentence has been broken down to better conform to contemporary English style.

[20:6]  ²³ tn Heb “I lifted up my hand to them.”

[20:6]  ²⁴ tn Or “searched out.” The Hebrew word is used to describe the activity of the spies in “spying out” the land of Canaan (Num 13-14); cf. KJV “I had espied for them.”

[20:6]  ²⁵ sn The phrase “a land flowing with milk and honey,” a figure of speech describing the land’s abundant fertility, occurs in v. 15 as well as Exod 3:8, 17; 13:5; 33:3; Lev 20:24; Num 13:27; Deut 6:3; 11:9; 26:9; 27:3; Josh 5:6; Jer 11:5; 32:23 (see also Deut 1:25; 8:7-9).

[20:7]  ²⁶ tn Heb “each one, the detestable things of his eyes, throw away.” The Pentateuch does not refer to the Israelites worshiping idols in Egypt, but Josh 24:14 appears to suggest that they did so.

[20:8]  ²⁷ tn Heb “each one, the detestable things of their eyes did not throw away.”

[20:8]  ²⁸ tn Heb “and I said/thought to pour out.”

[20:9]  ²⁹ tn Heb “for the sake of my name.”

[20:9]  ³⁰ tn Heb “before the eyes of the nations in whose midst they were.”

[20:9]  ³¹ tn Heb “to whom I made myself known before their eyes to bring them out from the land of Egypt.” The translation understands the infinitive construct (“to bring them out”) as indicating manner. God’s deliverance of his people from Egypt was an act of self-revelation in that it displayed his power and his commitment to his promises.