Exodus 12:29-30

The Deliverance from Egypt

12:29 ¹ It happened ²  at midnight – the Lord attacked all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the prison, and all the firstborn of the cattle. 12:30 Pharaoh got up ³  in the night, ⁴  along with all his servants and all Egypt, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was no house ⁵  in which there was not someone dead.

Joshua 10:11

10:11 As they fled from Israel on the slope leading down from ⁶  Beth Horon, the Lord threw down on them large hailstones from the sky, ⁷  all the way to Azekah. They died – in fact, more died from the hailstones than the Israelites killed with the sword.

Joshua 10:24

10:24 When they brought the kings out to Joshua, he ⁸  summoned all the men of Israel and said to the commanders of the troops who accompanied him, “Come here ⁹  and put your feet on the necks of these kings.” So they came up ¹⁰  and put their feet on their necks.

Joshua 10:42

10:42 Joshua captured in one campaign ¹¹  all these kings and their lands, for the Lord God of Israel fought for Israel.

Joshua 11:8

11:8 The Lord handed them over to Israel and they struck them down and chased them all the way to Greater Sidon, ¹²  Misrephoth Maim, ¹³  and the Mizpah Valley to the east. They struck them down until no survivors remained.

Joshua 11:12

11:12 Joshua captured all these royal cities and all their kings and annihilated them with the sword, ¹⁴  as Moses the Lord’s servant had commanded.

Psalms 18:37-45

18:37 I chase my enemies and catch ¹⁵  them;

I do not turn back until I wipe them out.

18:38 I beat them ¹⁶  to death; ¹⁷ 

they fall at my feet. ¹⁸ 

18:39 You give me strength ¹⁹  for battle;

you make my foes kneel before me. ²⁰ 

18:40 You make my enemies retreat; ²¹ 

I destroy those who hate me. ²² 

18:41 They cry out, but there is no one to help them; ²³ 

they cry out to the Lord, ²⁴  but he does not answer them.

18:42 I grind them as fine windblown dust; ²⁵ 

I beat them underfoot ²⁶  like clay ²⁷  in the streets.

18:43 You rescue me from a hostile army; ²⁸ 

you make me ²⁹  a leader of nations;

people over whom I had no authority are now my subjects. ³⁰ 

18:44 When they hear of my exploits, they submit to me. ³¹ 

Foreigners are powerless ³²  before me;

18:45 foreigners lose their courage; ³³ 

they shake with fear ³⁴  as they leave ³⁵  their strongholds. ³⁶ 

Psalms 68:21

68:21 Indeed God strikes the heads of his enemies,

the hairy foreheads of those who persist in rebellion. ³⁷ 

Psalms 74:13-14

74:13 You destroyed ³⁸  the sea by your strength;

you shattered the heads of the sea monster ³⁹  in the water.

74:14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan; ⁴⁰ 

you fed ⁴¹  him to the people who live along the coast. ⁴² 

Psalms 110:6

110:6 He executes judgment ⁴³  against ⁴⁴  the nations;

he fills the valleys with corpses; ⁴⁵ 

he shatters their heads over the vast battlefield. ⁴⁶ 

[12:29]  ¹ sn The next section records the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, and so becomes the turning point of the book. Verses 28 and 29 could be included in the exposition of the previous section as the culmination of that part. The message might highlight God’s requirement for deliverance from bondage through the application of the blood of the sacrifice, God’s instruction for the memorial of deliverance through the purging of corruption, and the compliance of those who believed the message. But these verses also form the beginning of this next section (and so could be used transitionally). This unit includes the judgment on Egypt (29-30), the exodus from Egypt (31-39) and the historical summation and report (40-42).

[12:29]  ² tn The verse begins with the temporal indicator וַיְהִי (vayÿhi), often translated “and it came to pass.” Here it could be left untranslated: “In the middle of the night Yahweh attacked.” The word order of the next and main clause furthers the emphasis by means of the vav disjunctive on the divine name preceding the verb. The combination of these initial and disjunctive elements helps to convey the suddenness of the attack, while its thoroughness is stressed by the repetition of “firstborn” in the rest of the verse, the merism (“from the firstborn of Pharaoh…to the firstborn of the captive”), and the mention of cattle.

[12:30]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn The noun is an adverbial accusative of time – “in the night” or “at night.”

[12:30]  ⁵ 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.

[10:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “on the descent of.”

[10:11]  ⁷ tn Or “heaven” (also in v. 13). The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[10:24]  ⁸ tn Heb “Joshua.” The translation has replaced the proper name with the pronoun (“he”) because a repetition of the proper name here would be redundant according to English style.

[10:24]  ⁹ tn Or “Draw near.”

[10:24]  ¹⁰ tn Or “drew near.”

[10:42]  ¹¹ tn Heb “at one time.”

[11:8]  ¹² map For location see Map1 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.

[11:8]  ¹³ tn The meaning of the Hebrew name “Misrephoth Maim” is perhaps “lime-kilns by the water” (see HALOT 2:641).

[11:12]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and he struck them down with the edge of the sword, he annihilated them.”

[18:37]  ¹⁵ tn 2 Sam 22:38 reads “destroy.”

[18:38]  ¹⁶ tn Or “smash them.” 2 Sam 22:39 reads, “and I wiped them out and smashed them.”

[18:38]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “until they are unable to rise.” 2 Sam 22:39 reads, “until they do not rise.”

[18:38]  ¹⁸ sn They fall at my feet. For ancient Near Eastern parallels, see O. Keel, The Symbolism of the Biblical World, 294-97.

[18:39]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “clothed me.” See v. 32.

[18:39]  ²⁰ tn Heb “you make those who rise against me kneel beneath me.”

[18:40]  ²¹ tn Heb “and [as for] my enemies, you give to me [the] back [or “neck”].” The idiom “give [the] back” means “to cause [one] to turn the back and run away.” Cf. Exod 23:27.

[18:40]  ²² sn Those who hate me. See v. 17, where it is the Lord who delivered the psalmist from those who hated him.

[18:41]  ²³ tn Heb “but there is no deliverer.”

[18:41]  ²⁴ tn Heb “to the Lord.” The words “they cry out” are supplied in the translation because they are understood by ellipsis (see the preceding line).

[18:42]  ²⁵ tn Heb “I pulverize them like dust upon the face of the wind.” The phrase “upon the face of” here means “before.” 2 Sam 22:43 reads, “like dust of the earth.”

[18:42]  ²⁶ tc Ps 18:42 reads, “I empty them out” (Hiphil of ריק), while 2 Sam 22:43 reads, “I crush them, I stomp on them” (juxtaposing the synonyms דקק and רקע). It is likely that the latter is a conflation of variants. One, but not both, of the verbs in 2 Sam 22:43 is probably original; “empty out” does not form as good a parallel with “grind, pulverize” in the parallel line.

[18:42]  ²⁷ tn Or “mud.”

[18:43]  ²⁸ tn Heb “from the strivings of a people.” In this context the Hebrew term רִיב (riv, “striving”) probably has a militaristic sense (as in Judg 12:2; Isa 41:11), and עָם (’am, “people”) probably refers more specifically to an army (for other examples, see the verses listed in BDB 766 s.v. I עַם, עָם 2.d). Some understand the phrase as referring to attacks by the psalmist’s own countrymen, the “nation” being Israel. However, foreign enemies appear to be in view; note the reference to “nations” in the following line.

[18:43]  ²⁹ tn 2 Sam 22:44 reads, “you keep me.”

[18:43]  ³⁰ tn Heb “a people whom I did not know serve me.” In this context “know” (יָדַע, yada’) probably refers to formal recognition by treaty. People who were once not under the psalmist’s authority now willingly submit to his rulership to avoid being conquered militarily (see vv. 44-45). The language may recall the events recorded in 2 Sam 8:9-10 and 10:19.

[18:44]  ³¹ tn Heb “at a report of an ear they submit to me.” The report of the psalmist’s exploits is so impressive that those who hear it submit to his rulership without putting up a fight.

[18:44]  ³² tn For the meaning “be weak, powerless” for כָּחַשׁ (kakhash), see Ps 109:24. The next line (see v. 45a), in which “foreigners” are also mentioned, favors this interpretation. Another option is to translate “cower in fear” (see Deut 33:29; Pss 66:3; 81:15; cf. NIV “cringe”; NRSV “came cringing”).

[18:45]  ³³ tn Heb “wither, wear out.”

[18:45]  ³⁴ tn The meaning of חָרַג (kharag, “shake”) is established on the basis of cognates in Arabic and Aramaic. 2 Sam 22:46 reads חָגַר (khagar), which might mean here, “[they] come limping” (on the basis of a cognate in postbiblical Hebrew). The normal meaning for חָגַר (“gird”) makes little sense here.

[18:45]  ³⁵ tn Heb “from.”

[18:45]  ³⁶ tn Heb “their prisons.” The besieged cities of the foreigners are compared to prisons.

[68:21]  ³⁷ tn Heb “the hairy forehead of the one who walks about in his guilt.” The singular is representative.

[74:13]  ³⁸ tn The derivation and meaning of the Polel verb form פּוֹרַרְתָּ (porarta) are uncertain. The form may be related to an Akkadian cognate meaning “break, shatter,” though the biblical Hebrew cognate of this verb always appears in the Hiphil or Hophal stem. BDB 830 s.v. II פָּרַר suggests a homonym here, meaning “to split; to divide.” A Hitpolel form of a root פָּרַר (parar) appears in Isa 24:19 with the meaning “to shake violently.”

[74:13]  ³⁹ tn The Hebrew text has the plural form, “sea monsters” (cf. NRSV “dragons”), but it is likely that an original enclitic mem has been misunderstood as a plural ending. The imagery of the mythological sea monster is utilized here. See the note on “Leviathan” in v. 14.

[74:14]  ⁴⁰ sn You crushed the heads of Leviathan. The imagery of vv. 13-14 originates in West Semitic mythology. The description of Leviathan should be compared with the following excerpts from Ugaritic mythological texts: (1) “Was not the dragon [Ugaritic tnn, cognate with Hebrew תַּנִין (tanin), translated “sea monster” in v. 13] vanquished and captured? I did destroy the wriggling [Ugaritic ’qltn, cognate to Hebrew עֲקַלָּתוֹן (’aqallaton), translated “squirming” in Isa 27:1] serpent, the tyrant with seven heads” (note the use of the plural “heads” here and in v. 13). (See CTA 3.iii.38-39 in G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 50.) (2) “For all that you smote Leviathan the slippery [Ugaritic brh, cognate to Hebrew בָּרִחַ (bariakh), translated “fast moving” in Isa 27:1] serpent, [and] made an end of the wriggling serpent, the tyrant with seven heads” (See CTA 5.i.1-3 in G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 68.) In the myths Leviathan is a sea creature that symbolizes the destructive water of the sea and, in turn, the forces of chaos that threaten the established order. In the OT, the battle with the sea motif is applied to Yahweh’s victories over the forces of chaos at creation and in history (see Pss 74:13-14; 77:16-20; 89:9-10; Isa 51:9-10). Yahweh’s subjugation of the waters of chaos is related to his kingship (see Pss 29:3, 10; 93:3-4). Isa 27:1 applies imagery from Canaanite mythology to Yahweh’s eschatological victory over his enemies. Apocalyptic literature employs the imagery as well. The beasts of Dan 7 emerge from the sea, while Rev 13 speaks of a seven-headed beast coming from the sea. Here in Ps 74:13-14 the primary referent is unclear. The psalmist may be describing God’s creation of the world (note vv. 16-17 and see Ps 89:9-12), when he brought order out of a watery mass, or the exodus (see Isa 51:9-10), when he created Israel by destroying the Egyptians in the waters of the sea.

[74:14]  ⁴¹ tn The prefixed verbal form is understood as a preterite in this narrational context.

[74:14]  ⁴² sn You fed him to the people. This pictures the fragments of Leviathan’s dead corpse washing up on shore and being devoured by those who find them. If the exodus is in view, then it may allude to the bodies of the dead Egyptians which washed up on the shore of the Red Sea (see Exod 14:30).

[110:6]  ⁴³ tn The imperfect verbal forms in vv. 6-7 are understood here as descriptive-dramatic or as generalizing, though they could be taken as future.

[110:6]  ⁴⁴ tn Or “among.”

[110:6]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “he fills [with] corpses,” but one expects a double accusative here. The translation assumes an emendation to גְוִיּוֹת גֵאָיוֹת(בִּ) מִלֵּא or מִלֵּא גֵאָיוֹת גְּוִיוֹת (for a similar construction see Ezek 32:5). In the former case גֵאָיוֹת(ge’ayot) has accidentally dropped from the text due to homoioteleuton; in the latter case it has dropped out due to homoioarcton.

[110:6]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “he strikes [the verb is מָחַץ (makhats), translated “strikes down” in v. 5] head[s] over a great land.” The Hebrew term רַבָּה (rabbah, “great”) is here used of distance or spatial measurement (see 1 Sam 26:13).