Exodus 12:31-33

12:31 Pharaoh ¹  summoned Moses and Aaron in the night and said, “Get up, get out ²  from among my people, both you and the Israelites! Go, serve the Lord as you have requested! ³  12:32 Also, take your flocks and your herds, just as you have requested, and leave. But bless me also.” ⁴ 

12:33 The Egyptians were urging ⁵  the people on, in order to send them out of the land quickly, ⁶  for they were saying, “We are all dead!”

[12:31]  ¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Pharaoh) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:31]  ² 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]  ³ tn Heb “as you have said.” The same phrase also occurs in the following verse.

[12:32]  ⁴ 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.

[12:33]  ⁵ tn The verb used here (חָזַק, khazaq) is the same verb used for Pharaoh’s heart being hardened. It conveys the idea of their being resolved or insistent in this – they were not going to change.

[12:33]  ⁶ tn The phrase uses two construct infinitives in a hendiadys, the first infinitive becoming the modifier.