Exodus 32:12

32:12 Why ¹  should the Egyptians say, ²  ‘For evil ³  he led them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy ⁴  them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger, and relent ⁵  of this evil against your people.

Deuteronomy 9:26-28

9:26 I prayed to him: ⁶  O, Lord God, ⁷  do not destroy your people, your valued property ⁸  that you have powerfully redeemed, ⁹  whom you brought out of Egypt by your strength. ¹⁰  9:27 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; ignore the stubbornness, wickedness, and sin of these people. 9:28 Otherwise the people of the land ¹¹  from which you brought us will say, “The Lord was unable to bring them to the land he promised them, and because of his hatred for them he has brought them out to kill them in the desert.” ¹² 

Deuteronomy 32:27

32:27 But I fear the reaction ¹³  of their enemies,

for ¹⁴  their adversaries would misunderstand

and say, “Our power is great, ¹⁵ 

and the Lord has not done all this!”’

Joshua 7:8-9

7:8 If only we had been satisfied to live on the other side of the Jordan! O Lord, what can I say now that Israel has retreated ¹⁶  before its enemies? 7:9 When the Canaanites and all who live in the land hear about this, they will turn against us and destroy the very memory of us ¹⁷  from the earth. What will you do to protect your great reputation?” ¹⁸ 

Psalms 106:23

106:23 He threatened ¹⁹  to destroy them,

but ²⁰  Moses, his chosen one, interceded with him ²¹ 

and turned back his destructive anger. ²² 

Ezekiel 20:9

20:9 I acted for the sake of my reputation, ²³  so that I would not be profaned before the nations among whom they lived, ²⁴  before whom I revealed myself by bringing them out of the land of Egypt. ²⁵ 

Ezekiel 20:14

20:14 I acted for the sake of my reputation, so that I would not be profaned before the nations in whose sight I had brought them out.

[32:12]  ¹ tn The question is rhetorical; it really forms an affirmation that is used here as a reason for the request (see GKC 474 §150.e).

[32:12]  ² tn Heb “speak, saying.” This is redundant in English and has been simplified in the translation.

[32:12]  ³ tn The word “evil” means any kind of life-threatening or fatal calamity. “Evil” is that which hinders life, interrupts life, causes pain to life, or destroys it. The Egyptians would conclude that such a God would have no good intent in taking his people to the desert if now he destroyed them.

[32:12]  ⁴ tn The form is a Piel infinitive construct from כָּלָה (kalah, “to complete, finish”) but in this stem, “bring to an end, destroy.” As a purpose infinitive this expresses what the Egyptians would have thought of God’s motive.

[32:12]  ⁵ tn The verb “repent, relent” when used of God is certainly an anthropomorphism. It expresses the deep pain that one would have over a situation. Earlier God repented that he had made humans (Gen 6:6). Here Moses is asking God to repent/relent over the judgment he was about to bring, meaning that he should be moved by such compassion that there would be no judgment like that. J. P. Hyatt observes that the Bible uses so many anthropomorphisms because the Israelites conceived of God as a dynamic and living person in a vital relationship with people, responding to their needs and attitudes and actions (Exodus [NCBC], 307). See H. V. D. Parunak, “A Semantic Survey of NHM,” Bib 56 (1975): 512-32.

[9:26]  ⁶ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 9:3.

[9:26]  ⁷ tn Heb “Lord Lord” (אֲדֹנָי יְהוִה, ’adonay yÿhvih). The phrase is customarily rendered by Jewish tradition as “Lord God” (אֲדֹנָי אֱלֹהִים, ’adonay ’elohim). See also the note on the phrase “Lord God” in Deut 3:24.

[9:26]  ⁸ tn Heb “your inheritance”; NLT “your special (very own NRSV) possession.” Israel is compared to landed property that one would inherit from his ancestors and pass on to his descendants.

[9:26]  ⁹ tn Heb “you have redeemed in your greatness.”

[9:26]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “by your strong hand.”

[9:28]  ¹¹ tc The MT reads only “the land.” Smr supplies עַם (’am, “people”) and LXX and its dependents supply “the inhabitants of the land.” The truncated form found in the MT is adequate to communicate the intended meaning; the words “the people of” are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[9:28]  ¹² tn Or “wilderness” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV, NLT).

[32:27]  ¹³ tn Heb “anger.”

[32:27]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “lest.”

[32:27]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Our hand is high.” Cf. NAB “Our own hand won the victory.”

[7:8]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “turned [the] back.”

[7:9]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and cut off our name.”

[7:9]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “What will you do for your great name?”

[106:23]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and he said.”

[106:23]  ²⁰ tn Heb “if not,” that is, “[and would have] if [Moses] had not.”

[106:23]  ²¹ tn Heb “stood in the gap before him.”

[106:23]  ²² tn Heb “to turn back his anger from destroying.”

[20:9]  ²³ tn Heb “for the sake of my name.”

[20:9]  ²⁴ tn Heb “before the eyes of the nations in whose midst they were.”

[20:9]  ²⁵ 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.