Exodus 7:4

7:4 Pharaoh will not listen to you. ¹  I will reach into ²  Egypt and bring out my regiments, ³  my people the Israelites, from the land of Egypt with great acts of judgment.

Exodus 8:19

8:19 The magicians said ⁴  to Pharaoh, “It is the finger ⁵  of God!” But Pharaoh’s heart remained hard, ⁶  and he did not listen to them, just as the Lord had predicted.

Exodus 8:1

8:1 (7:26) ⁷  Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and tell him, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Release my people in order that they may serve me!

Exodus 5:7

5:7 “You must no longer ⁸  give straw to the people for making bricks ⁹  as before. ¹⁰  Let them go ¹¹  and collect straw for themselves.

Exodus 5:11

5:11 You ¹²  go get straw for yourselves wherever you can ¹³  find it, because there will be no reduction at all in your workload.’”

Exodus 6:9

6:9 ¹⁴ Moses told this ¹⁵  to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him ¹⁶  because of their discouragement ¹⁷  and hard labor.

Psalms 32:4

32:4 For day and night you tormented me; ¹⁸ 

you tried to destroy me ¹⁹  in the intense heat ²⁰  of summer. ²¹  (Selah)

[7:4]  ¹ tn Heb “and Pharaoh will not listen.”

[7:4]  ² tn Heb “put my hand into.” The expression is a strong anthropomorphism to depict God’s severest judgment on Egypt. The point is that neither the speeches of Moses and Aaron nor the signs that God would do will be effective. Consequently, God would deliver the blow that would destroy.

[7:4]  ³ tn See the note on this term in 6:26.

[8:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “and the magicians said.”

[8:19]  ⁵ tn The word “finger” is a bold anthropomorphism (a figure of speech in which God is described using human characteristics).

[8:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “and the heart of Pharaoh became hard.” This phrase translates the Hebrew word חָזַק (khazaq; see S. R. Driver, Exodus, 53). In context this represents the continuation of a prior condition.

[8:1]  ⁷ sn Beginning with 8:1, the verse numbers through 8:32 in English Bibles differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 8:1 ET = 7:26 HT, 8:2 ET = 7:27 HT, 8:3 ET = 7:28 HT, 8:4 ET = 7:29 HT, 8:5 ET = 8:1 HT, etc., through 8:32 ET = 8:28 HT. Thus in English Bibles chapter 8 has 32 verses, while in the Hebrew Bible it has 28 verses, with the four extra verses attached to chapter 7.

[5:7]  ⁸ tn The construction is a verbal hendiadys: לֹא תֹאסִפוּן לָתֵת (lo’ to’sifun latet, “you must not add to give”). The imperfect tense acts adverbially, and the infinitive becomes the main verb of the clause: “you must no longer give.”

[5:7]  ⁹ tn The expression “for making bricks” is made of the infinitive construct followed by its cognate accusative: לִלְבֹּן הַלְּבֵנִים (lilbon hallÿvenim).

[5:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “as yesterday and three days ago” or “as yesterday and before that.” This is idiomatic for “as previously” or “as in the past.”

[5:7]  ¹¹ tn The jussive יֵלְכוּ (yelÿkhu) and its following sequential verb would have the force of decree and not permission or advice. He is telling them to go and find straw or stubble for the bricks.

[5:11]  ¹² tn The independent personal pronoun emphasizes that the people were to get their own straw, and it heightens the contrast with the king. “You – go get.”

[5:11]  ¹³ tn The tense in this section could be translated as having the nuance of possibility: “wherever you may find it,” or the nuance of potential imperfect: “wherever you are able to find any.”

[6:9]  ¹⁴ sn The final part of this section focuses on instructions for Moses. The commission from God is the same – he is to speak to Pharaoh and he is to lead Israel out. It should have been clear to him that God would do this, for he had just been reminded how God was going to lead out, deliver, redeem, take the people as his people, and give them land. It was God’s work of love from beginning to end. Moses simply had his task to perform.

[6:9]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and Moses spoke thus.”

[6:9]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “to Moses.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[6:9]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew מִקֹּצֶּר רוּחַ (miqqotser ruakh) means “because of the shortness of spirit.” This means that they were discouraged, dispirited, and weary – although some have also suggested it might mean impatient. The Israelites were now just not in the frame of mind to listen to Moses.

[32:4]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “your hand was heavy upon me.”

[32:4]  ¹⁹ tc Heb “my [?] was turned.” The meaning of the Hebrew term לְשַׁד (lÿshad) is uncertain. A noun לָשָׁד (lashad, “cake”) is attested in Num 11:8, but it would make no sense to understand that word in this context. It is better to emend the form to לְשֻׁדִּי (lÿshuddiy, “to my destruction”) and understand “your hand” as the subject of the verb “was turned.” In this case the text reads, “[your hand] was turned to my destruction.” In Lam 3:3 the author laments that God’s “hand” was “turned” (הָפַךְ, hafakh) against him in a hostile sense.

[32:4]  ²⁰ tn The translation assumes that the plural form indicates degree. If one understands the form as a true plural, then one might translate, “in the times of drought.”

[32:4]  ²¹ sn Summer. Perhaps the psalmist suffered during the hot season and perceived the very weather as being an instrument of divine judgment. Another option is that he compares his time of suffering to the uncomfortable and oppressive heat of summer.