Exodus 1:17

1:17 But ¹  the midwives feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them; they let the boys live. ² 

Exodus 2:21

2:21 Moses agreed ³  to stay with the man, and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. ⁴ 

Exodus 8:11

8:11 The frogs will depart from you, your houses, your servants, and your people; they will be left only in the Nile.”

Exodus 16:28

16:28 So the Lord said to Moses, “How long do you refuse ⁵  to obey my commandments and my instructions?

Exodus 17:11

17:11 Whenever Moses would raise his hands, ⁶  then Israel prevailed, but whenever he would rest ⁷  his hands, then Amalek prevailed.

Exodus 18:27

18:27 Then Moses sent his father-in-law on his way, ⁸  and so Jethro ⁹  went ¹⁰  to his own land. ¹¹ 

Exodus 23:1

Justice

23:1 ¹² “You must not give ¹³  a false report. ¹⁴  Do not make common cause ¹⁵  with the wicked ¹⁶  to be a malicious ¹⁷  witness.

Exodus 26:28

26:28 The middle bar in the center of the frames will reach from end to end. ¹⁸ 

Exodus 28:24

28:24 You are to attach the two gold chains to the two rings at the ends of the breastpiece;

Exodus 33:20

33:20 But he added, “You cannot see my face, for no one can ¹⁹  see me and live.” ²⁰ 

Exodus 36:19

36:19 He made a covering for the tent out of ram skins dyed red and over that a covering of fine leather. ²¹ 

Exodus 36:33

36:33 He made the middle bar to reach from end to end in the center of the frames.

Exodus 37:2

37:2 He overlaid it with pure gold, inside and out, and he made a surrounding border ²²  of gold for it.

Exodus 40:36

40:36 But when the cloud was lifted up ²³  from the tabernacle, the Israelites would set out ²⁴  on all their journeys;

[1:17]  ¹ tn Heb “and they [fem. pl.] feared”; the referent (the midwives) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:17]  ² tn The verb is the Piel preterite of חָיָה (khaya, “to live”). The Piel often indicates a factitive nuance with stative verbs, showing the cause of the action. Here it means “let live, cause to live.” The verb is the exact opposite of Pharaoh’s command for them to kill the boys.

[2:21]  ³ tn Or “and Moses was willing” to stay with Reuel. The Talmud understood this to mean that he swore, and so when it came time to leave he had to have a word from God and permission from his father-in-law (Exod 4:18-19).

[2:21]  ⁴ tn The words “in marriage” are implied, and have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[16:28]  ⁵ tn The verb is plural, and so it is addressed to the nation and not to Moses. The perfect tense in this sentence is the characteristic perfect, denoting action characteristic, or typical, of the past and the present.

[17:11]  ⁷ tn The two verbs in the temporal clauses are by וְהָיָה כַּאֲשֶׁר (vÿhaya ka’asher, “as long as” or, “and it was that whenever”). This indicates that the two imperfect tenses should be given a frequentative translation, probably a customary imperfect.

[17:11]  ⁸ tn Or “lower.”

[18:27]  ⁹ tn The verb וַיְשַׁלַּח (vayshallakh) has the same root and same stem used in the passages calling for Pharaoh to “release” Israel. Here, in a peaceful and righteous relationship, Moses sent Jethro to his home.

[18:27]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jethro) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:27]  ¹¹ tn The prepositional phrase included here Gesenius classifies as a pleonastic dativus ethicus to give special emphasis to the significance of the occurrence in question for a particular subject (GKC 381 §119.s).

[18:27]  ¹² sn This chapter makes an excellent message on spiritual leadership of the people of God. Spiritually responsible people are to be selected to help in the work of the ministry (teaching, deciding cases, meeting needs), so that there will be peace, and so that leaders will not be exhausted. Probably capable people are more ready to do that than leaders are ready to relinquish control. But leaders have to be willing to take the risk, to entrust the task to others. Here Moses is the model of humility, receiving correction and counsel from Jethro. And Jethro is the ideal adviser, for he has no intention of remaining there to run the operation.

[23:1]  ¹¹ sn People who claim to worship and serve the righteous judge of the universe must preserve equity and justice in their dealings with others. These verses teach that God’s people must be honest witnesses (1-3); God’s people must be righteous even with enemies (4-5); and God’s people must be fair in dispensing justice (6-9).

[23:1]  ¹² tn Heb “take up, lift, carry” (נָשָׂא, nasa’). This verb was also used in the prohibition against taking “the name of Yahweh in vain.” Sometimes the object of this verb is physical, as in Jonah 1:12 and 15. Used in this prohibition involving speech, it covers both originating and repeating a lie.

[23:1]  ¹³ tn Or “a groundless report” (see Exod 20:7 for the word שָׁוְא, shav’).

[23:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “do not put your hand” (cf. KJV, ASV); NASB “join your hand.”

[23:1]  ¹⁵ tn The word “wicked” (רָשָׁע, rasha’) refers to the guilty criminal, the person who is doing something wrong. In the religious setting it describes the person who is not a member of the covenant and may be involved in all kinds of sin, even though there is the appearance of moral and spiritual stability.

[23:1]  ¹⁶ tn The word חָמָס (khamas) often means “violence” in the sense of social injustices done to other people, usually the poor and needy. A “malicious” witness would do great harm to others. See J. W. McKay, “Exodus 23:1-43, 6-8: A Decalogue for Administration of Justice in the City Gate,” VT 21 (1971): 311-25.

[26:28]  ¹³ sn These bars served as reinforcements to hold the upright frames together. The Hebrew term for these bars is also used of crossbars on gates (Judg 16:3; Neh 3:3).

[33:20]  ¹⁵ tn In view of the use of the verb “can, be able to” in the first clause, this imperfect tense is given a potential nuance.

[33:20]  ¹⁶ tn Gesenius notes that sometimes a negative statement takes the place of a conditional clause; here it is equal to “if a man sees me he does not live” (GKC 498 §159.gg). The other passages that teach this are Gen 32:30; Deut 4:33, 5:24, 26; Judg 6:22, 13:22, and Isa 6:5.

[36:19]  ¹⁷ tn See the note on this phrase in Exod 25:5.

[37:2]  ¹⁹ tn Or “molding.”

[40:36]  ²¹ tn The construction uses the Niphal infinitive construct to form the temporal clause.

[40:36]  ²² tn The imperfect tense in this context describes a customary action.