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 3:6

3:6 He added, “I am the God of your father, ³  the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Then Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look ⁴  at God.

Exodus 3:11

3:11 Moses said ⁵  to God, ⁶  “Who am I, that I should go ⁷  to Pharaoh, or that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

Exodus 4:20

4:20 Then Moses took ⁸  his wife and sons ⁹  and put them on a donkey and headed back ¹⁰  to the land of Egypt, and Moses took the staff of God in his hand.

Exodus 4:27

4:27 The Lord said ¹¹  to Aaron, “Go to the wilderness to meet Moses. So he went and met him at the mountain of God ¹²  and greeted him with a kiss. ¹³ 

Exodus 14:19

14:19 The angel of God, who was going before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them, and the pillar ¹⁴  of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them.

Exodus 18:5

18:5 Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, together with Moses’ ¹⁵  sons and his wife, came to Moses in the desert where he was camping by ¹⁶  the mountain of God. ¹⁷ 

Exodus 18:16

18:16 When they have a dispute, ¹⁸  it comes to me and I decide ¹⁹  between a man and his neighbor, and I make known the decrees of God and his laws.” ²⁰ 

Exodus 19:3

19:3 Moses ²¹  went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, “Thus you will tell the house of Jacob, and declare to the people ²²  of Israel:

Exodus 21:6

21:6 then his master must bring him to the judges, ²³  and he will bring him to the door or the doorposts, and his master will pierce his ear with an awl, and he shall serve him forever. ²⁴ 

Exodus 22:8

22:8 If the thief is not caught, ²⁵  then the owner of the house will be brought before the judges ²⁶  to see ²⁷  whether he has laid ²⁸  his hand on his neighbor’s goods.

[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.

[3:6]  ³ sn This self-revelation by Yahweh prepares for the revelation of the holy name. While no verb is used here, the pronoun and the predicate nominative are a construction used throughout scripture to convey the “I am” disclosures – “I [am] the God of….” But the significant point here is the naming of the patriarchs, for this God is the covenant God, who will fulfill his promises.

[3:6]  ⁴ tn The clause uses the Hiphil infinitive construct with a preposition after the perfect tense: יָרֵא מֵהַבִּיט (yare’ mehabbit, “he was afraid from gazing”) meaning “he was afraid to gaze.” The preposition min (מִן) is used before infinitives after verbs like the one to complete the verb (see BDB 583 s.v. 7b).

[3:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “And Moses said.”

[3:11]  ⁶ sn When he was younger, Moses was confident and impulsive, but now that he is older the greatness of the task makes him unsure. The remainder of this chapter and the next chapter record the four difficulties of Moses and how the Lord answers them (11-12, 13-22; then 4:1-9; and finally 4:10-17).

[3:11]  ⁷ tn The imperfect tense אֵלֵךְ (’elekh) carries the modal nuance of obligatory imperfect, i.e., “that I should go.” Moses at this point is overwhelmed with the task of representing God, and with his personal insufficiency, and so in honest humility questions the choice.

[4:20]  ⁷ tn Heb “And Moses took.”

[4:20]  ⁸ sn Only Gershom has been mentioned so far. The other son’s name will be explained in chapter 18. The explanation of Gershom’s name was important to Moses’ sojourn in Midian. The explanation of the name Eliezer fits better in the later chapter (18:2-4).

[4:20]  ⁹ tn The verb would literally be rendered “and returned”; however, the narrative will record other happenings before he arrived in Egypt, so an ingressive nuance fits here – he began to return, or started back.

[4:27]  ⁹ tn Heb “And Yahweh said.”

[4:27]  ¹⁰ tn S. R. Driver considers that this verse is a continuation of vv. 17 and 18 and that Aaron met Moses before Moses started back to Egypt (Exodus, 33). The first verb, then, might have the nuance of a past perfect: Yahweh had said.

[4:27]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and kissed him.”

[14:19]  ¹¹ sn B. Jacob (Exodus, 400-401) makes a good case that there may have been only one pillar, one cloud; it would have been a dark cloud behind it, but in front of it, shining the way, a pillar of fire. He compares the manifestation on Sinai, when the mountain was on fire but veiled by a dark cloud (Deut 4:11; 5:22). See also Exod 13:21; Num 14:14; Deut 1:33; Neh 9:12, 19; Josh 24:7; Pss 78:14; 105:39.

[18:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:5]  ¹⁴ tn This is an adverbial accusative that defines the place (see GKC 373-74 §118.g).

[18:5]  ¹⁵ sn The mountain of God is Horeb, and so the desert here must be the Sinai desert by it. But chap. 19 suggests that they left Rephidim to go the 24 miles to Sinai. It may be that this chapter fits in chronologically after the move to Sinai, but was placed here thematically. W. C. Kaiser defends the present location of the story by responding to other reasons for the change given by Lightfoot, but does not deal with the travel locations (W. C. Kaiser, Jr., “Exodus,” EBC 2:411).

[18:16]  ¹⁵ tn Or “thing,” “matter,” “issue.”

[18:16]  ¹⁶ tn The verb שָׁפַט (shafat) means “to judge”; more specifically, it means to make a decision as an arbiter or umpire. When people brought issues to him, Moses decided between them. In the section of laws in Exodus after the Ten Commandments come the decisions, the מִשְׁפָּטִים (mishppatim).

[18:16]  ¹⁷ tn The “decrees” or “statutes” were definite rules, stereotyped and permanent; the “laws” were directives or pronouncements given when situations arose. S. R. Driver suggests this is another reason why this event might have taken place after Yahweh had given laws on the mountain (Exodus, 165).

[19:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and Moses went up.”

[19:3]  ¹⁸ tn This expression is normally translated as “Israelites” in this translation, but because in this place it is parallel to “the house of Jacob” it seemed better to offer a fuller rendering.

[21:6]  ¹⁹ tn The word is הָאֱלֹהִים (ha’elohim). S. R. Driver (Exodus, 211) says the phrase means “to God,” namely the nearest sanctuary in order that the oath and the ritual might be made solemn, although he does say that it would be done by human judges. That the reference is to Yahweh God is the view also of F. C. Fensham, “New Light on Exodus 21:7 and 22:7 from the Laws of Eshnunna,” JBL 78 (1959): 160-61. Cf. also ASV, NAB, NASB, NCV, NRSV, NLT. Others have made a stronger case that it refers to judges who acted on behalf of God; see C. Gordon, “אלהים in its Reputed Meaning of Rulers, Judges,” JBL 54 (1935): 134-44; and A. E. Draffkorn, “Ilani/Elohim,” JBL 76 (1957): 216-24; cf. KJV, NIV.

[21:6]  ²⁰ tn Or “till his life’s end” (as in the idiom: “serve him for good”).

[22:8]  ²¹ tn Heb “found.”

[22:8]  ²² tn Here again the word used is “the gods,” meaning the judges who made the assessments and decisions. In addition to other works, see J. R. Vannoy, “The Use of the Word ha’elohim in Exodus 21:6 and 22:7,8,” The Law and the Prophets, 225-41.

[22:8]  ²³ tn The phrase “to see” has been supplied.

[22:8]  ²⁴ tn The line says “if he has not stretched out his hand.” This could be the oath formula, but the construction here would be unusual, or it could be taken as “whether” (see W. C. Kaiser, Jr., “Exodus,” EBC 2:438). U. Cassuto (Exodus, 286) does not think the wording can possibly fit an oath; nevertheless, an oath would be involved before God (as he takes it instead of “judges”) – if the man swore, his word would be accepted, but if he would not swear, he would be guilty.