Exodus 11:8

11:8 All these your servants will come down to me and bow down ¹  to me, saying, ‘Go, you and all the people who follow ²  you,’ and after that I will go out.” Then Moses ³  went out from Pharaoh in great anger.

Exodus 12:30-32

12:30 Pharaoh got up ⁴  in the night, ⁵  along with all his servants and all Egypt, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was no house ⁶  in which there was not someone dead. 12:31 Pharaoh ⁷  summoned Moses and Aaron in the night and said, “Get up, get out ⁸  from among my people, both you and the Israelites! Go, serve the Lord as you have requested! ⁹  12:32 Also, take your flocks and your herds, just as you have requested, and leave. But bless me also.” ¹⁰ 

Exodus 12:1

The Institution of the Passover

12:1 ¹¹ The Lord said ¹²  to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, ¹³ 

Exodus 2:1

The Birth of the Deliverer

2:1 ¹⁴ A man from the household ¹⁵  of Levi married ¹⁶  a woman who was a descendant of Levi. ¹⁷ 

Esther 8:17

8:17 Throughout every province and throughout every city where the king’s edict and his law arrived, the Jews experienced happiness and joy, banquets and holidays. Many of the resident peoples ¹⁸  pretended ¹⁹  to be Jews, because the fear of the Jews had overcome them. ²⁰ 

Job 42:8-10

42:8 So now take ²¹  seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job will intercede ²²  for you, and I will respect him, ²³  so that I do not deal with you ²⁴  according to your folly, ²⁵  because you have not spoken about me what is right, as my servant Job has.” ²⁶ 

42:9 So they went, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite, and did just as the Lord had told them; and the Lord had respect for Job. ²⁷ 

42:10 So the Lord ²⁸  restored what Job had lost ²⁹  after he prayed for his friends, ³⁰  and the Lord doubled ³¹  all that had belonged to Job.

Isaiah 49:23

49:23 Kings will be your children’s ³²  guardians;

their princesses will nurse your children. ³³ 

With their faces to the ground they will bow down to you

and they will lick the dirt on ³⁴  your feet.

Then you will recognize that I am the Lord;

those who wait patiently for me are not put to shame.

Isaiah 60:14

60:14 The children of your oppressors will come bowing to you;

all who treated you with disrespect will bow down at your feet.

They will call you, ‘The City of the Lord,

Zion of the Holy One of Israel.’ ³⁵ 

Zechariah 8:20-23

8:20 The Lord who rules over all says, ‘It will someday come to pass that people – residents of many cities – will come. 8:21 The inhabitants of one will go to another and say, “Let’s go up at once to ask the favor of the Lord, to seek the Lord who rules over all. Indeed, I’ll go with you.”’ 8:22 Many peoples and powerful nations will come to Jerusalem to seek the Lord who rules over all and to ask his favor. 8:23 The Lord who rules over all says, ‘In those days ten people from all languages and nations will grasp hold of – indeed, grab – the robe of one Jew and say, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”’” ³⁶ 

Acts 16:37-39

16:37 But Paul said to the police officers, ³⁷  “They had us beaten in public ³⁸  without a proper trial ³⁹  – even though we are Roman citizens ⁴⁰  – and they threw us ⁴¹  in prison. And now they want to send us away ⁴²  secretly? Absolutely not! They ⁴³  themselves must come and escort us out!” ⁴⁴  16:38 The police officers reported these words to the magistrates. They were frightened when they heard Paul and Silas ⁴⁵  were Roman citizens ⁴⁶  16:39 and came ⁴⁷  and apologized to them. After ⁴⁸  they brought them out, they asked them repeatedly ⁴⁹  to leave the city.

[11:8]  ¹ sn Moses’ anger is expressed forcefully. “He had appeared before Pharaoh a dozen times either as God’s emissary or when summoned by Pharaoh, but he would not come again; now they would have to search him out if they needed help” (B. Jacob, Exodus, 289-90).

[11:8]  ² tn Heb “that are at your feet.”

[11:8]  ³ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:30]  ⁴ tn Heb “arose,” the verb קוּם (qum) in this context certainly must describe a less ceremonial act. The entire country woke up in terror because of the deaths.

[12:30]  ⁵ tn The noun is an adverbial accusative of time – “in the night” or “at night.”

[12:30]  ⁶ sn Or so it seemed. One need not push this description to complete literalness. The reference would be limited to houses that actually had firstborn people or animals. In a society in which households might include more than one generation of humans and animals, however, the presence of a firstborn human or animal would be the rule rather than the exception.

[12:31]  ⁷ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Pharaoh) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:31]  ⁸ tn The urgency in Pharaoh’s words is caught by the abrupt use of the imperatives – “get up, go” (קוּמוּ צְּאוּ, qumu tsÿ’u), and “go, serve” (וּלְכוּ עִבְדוּ, ulÿkhu ’ivdu) and “take” and “leave/go” (וָלֵכוּ…קְחוּ, qÿkhu...valekhu).

[12:31]  ⁹ tn Heb “as you have said.” The same phrase also occurs in the following verse.

[12:32]  ¹⁰ tn The form is the Piel perfect with a vav (ו) consecutive (וּבֵרַכְתֶּם, uverakhtem); coming in the sequence of imperatives this perfect tense would be volitional – probably a request rather than a command.

[12:1]  ¹¹ sn Chapter 12 details the culmination of the ten plagues on Egypt and the beginning of the actual deliverance from bondage. Moreover, the celebration of this festival of Passover was to become a central part of the holy calendar of Israel. The contents of this chapter have significance for NT studies as well, since the Passover was a type of the death of Jesus. The structure of this section before the crossing of the sea is as follows: the institution of the Passover (12:1-28), the night of farewell and departure (12:29-42), slaves and strangers (12:43-51), and the laws of the firstborn (13:1-16). In this immediate section there is the institution of the Passover itself (12:1-13), then the Unleavened Bread (12:14-20), and then the report of the response of the people (12:21-28).

[12:1]  ¹² tn Heb “and Yahweh said.”

[12:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “saying.”

[2:1]  ¹⁴ sn The chapter records the exceptional survival of Moses under the decree of death by Pharaoh (vv. 1-10), the flight of Moses from Pharaoh after killing the Egyptian (vv. 11-15), the marriage of Moses (vv. 16-22), and finally a note about the Lord’s hearing the sighing of the people in bondage (vv. 23-25). The first part is the birth. The Bible has several stories about miraculous or special births and deliverances of those destined to lead Israel. Their impact is essentially to authenticate the individual’s ministry. If the person’s beginning was providentially provided and protected by the Lord, then the mission must be of divine origin too. In this chapter the plot works around the decree for the death of the children – a decree undone by the women. The second part of the chapter records Moses’ flight and marriage. Having introduced the deliverer Moses in such an auspicious way, the chapter then records how this deliverer acted presumptuously and had to flee for his life. Any deliverance God desired had to be supernatural, as the chapter’s final note about answering prayer shows.

[2:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “house.” In other words, the tribe of Levi.

[2:1]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “went and took”; NASB “went and married.”

[2:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “a daughter of Levi.” The word “daughter” is used in the sense of “descendant” and connects the new account with Pharaoh’s command in 1:22. The words “a woman who was” are added for clarity in English.

[8:17]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “peoples of the land” (so NASB); NIV “people of other nationalities”; NRSV “peoples of the country.”

[8:17]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “were becoming Jews”; NAB “embraced Judaism.” However, the Hitpael stem of the verb is sometimes used of a feigning action rather than a genuine one (see, e.g., 2 Sam 13:5, 6), which is the way the present translation understands the use of the word here (cf. NEB “professed themselves Jews”; NRSV “professed to be Jews”). This is the only occurrence of this verb in the Hebrew Bible, so there are no exact parallels. However, in the context of v. 17 the motivation of their conversion (Heb “the fear of the Jews had fallen upon them”) should not be overlooked. The LXX apparently understood the conversion described here to be genuine, since it adds the words “they were being circumcised and” before “they became Jews.”

[8:17]  ²⁰ tn Heb “had fallen upon them” (so NRSV); NIV “had seized them.”

[42:8]  ²¹ tn The imperatives in this verse are plural, so all three had to do this together.

[42:8]  ²² tn The verb “pray” is the Hitpael from the root פָּלַל (palal). That root has the main idea of arbitration; so in this stem it means “to seek arbitration [for oneself],” or “to pray,” or “to intercede.”

[42:8]  ²³ tn Heb “I will lift up his face,” meaning, “I will regard him.”

[42:8]  ²⁴ tn This clause is a result clause, using the negated infinitive construct.

[42:8]  ²⁵ tn The word “folly” can also be taken in the sense of “disgrace.” If the latter is chosen, the word serves as the direct object. If the former, then it is an adverbial accusative.

[42:8]  ²⁶ sn The difference between what they said and what Job said, therefore, has to do with truth. Job was honest, spoke the truth, poured out his complaints, but never blasphemed God. For his words God said he told the truth. He did so with incomplete understanding, and with all the impatience and frustration one might expect. Now the friends, however, did not tell what was right about God. They were not honest; rather, they were self-righteous and condescending. They were saying what they thought should be said, but it was wrong.

[42:9]  ²⁷ tn The expression “had respect for Job” means God answered his prayer.

[42:10]  ²⁸ tn The paragraph begins with the disjunctive vav, “Now as for the Lord, he….”

[42:10]  ²⁹ sn The expression here is interesting: “he returned the captivity of Job,” a clause used elsewhere in the Bible of Israel (see e.g., Ps 126). Here it must mean “the fortunes of Job,” i.e., what he had lost. There is a good deal of literature on this; for example, see R. Borger, “Zu sub sb(i)t,” ZAW 25 (1954): 315-16; and E. Baumann, ZAW 6 (1929): 17ff.

[42:10]  ³⁰ tn This is a temporal clause, using the infinitive construct with the subject genitive suffix. By this it seems that this act of Job was also something of a prerequisite for restoration – to pray for them.

[42:10]  ³¹ tn The construction uses the verb “and he added” with the word “repeat” (or “twice”).

[49:23]  ³² tn Heb “your,” but Zion here stands by metonymy for her children (see v. 22b).

[49:23]  ³³ tn Heb “you.” See the preceding note.

[49:23]  ³⁴ tn Or “at your feet” (NAB, NIV); NLT “from your feet.”

[60:14]  ³⁵ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[8:23]  ³⁶ sn This scene of universal and overwhelming attraction of the nations to Israel’s God finds initial fulfillment in the establishment of the church (Acts 2:5-11) but ultimate completion in the messianic age (Isa 45:14, 24; 60:14; Zech 14:16-21).

[16:37]  ³⁷ tn Grk “to them”; the referent (the police officers) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[16:37]  ³⁸ tn Grk “Having us beaten in public.” The participle δείραντες (deirante") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[16:37]  ³⁹ tn Or “in public, uncondemned.” BDAG 35 s.v. ἀκατάκριτος has “uncondemned, without due process” for this usage.

[16:37]  ⁴⁰ tn The participle ὑπάρχοντας (Juparconta") has been translated as a concessive adverbial participle.

[16:37]  ⁴¹ tn The word “us” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context, but must be supplied for the modern English reader.

[16:37]  ⁴² tn L&N 28.71 has “send us away secretly” for this verse.

[16:37]  ⁴³ tn Grk “But they.”

[16:37]  ⁴⁴ sn They themselves must come and escort us out! Paul was asking for the injustice he and Silas suffered to be symbolically righted. It was a way of publicly taking their actions off the record and showing the apostles’ innocence, a major public statement. Note the apology given in v. 39.

[16:38]  ⁴⁵ tn Grk “heard they”; the referents (Paul and Silas) have been specified in the translation for clarity.

[16:38]  ⁴⁶ sn Roman citizens. This fact was disturbing to the officials because due process was a right for a Roman citizen, well established in Roman law. To flog a Roman citizen was considered an abomination. Such punishment was reserved for noncitizens.

[16:39]  ⁴⁷ tn Grk “and coming, they apologized.” The participle ἐλθόντες (elqonte") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[16:39]  ⁴⁸ tn Grk “and after.” Because of the length of the Greek sentence, the conjunction καί (kai) has not been translated here. Instead a new English sentence is begun.

[16:39]  ⁴⁹ tn The verb ἐρώτων (erwtwn) has been translated as an iterative imperfect; the English adverb “repeatedly” brings out the iterative force in the translation.