Exodus 10:13

10:13 So Moses extended his staff over the land of Egypt, and then the Lord ¹  brought ²  an east wind on the land all that day and all night. ³  The morning came, ⁴  and the east wind had brought up ⁵  the locusts!

Exodus 11:5

11:5 and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh ⁶  who sits on his throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle.

Exodus 11:8

11:8 All these your servants will come down to me and bow down ⁷  to me, saying, ‘Go, you and all the people who follow ⁸  you,’ and after that I will go out.” Then Moses ⁹  went out from Pharaoh in great anger.

Exodus 12:29

The Deliverance from Egypt

12:29 ¹⁰ It happened ¹¹  at midnight – the Lord attacked all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the prison, and all the firstborn of the cattle.

Exodus 12:48

12:48 “When a foreigner lives ¹²  with you and wants to observe the Passover to the Lord, all his males must be circumcised, ¹³  and then he may approach and observe it, and he will be like one who is born in the land ¹⁴  – but no uncircumcised person may eat of it.

Exodus 13:15

13:15 When Pharaoh stubbornly refused ¹⁵  to release us, the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of people to the firstborn of animals. ¹⁶  That is why I am sacrificing ¹⁷  to the Lord the first male offspring of every womb, but all my firstborn sons I redeem.’

Exodus 18:12

18:12 Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought ¹⁸  a burnt offering and sacrifices for God, ¹⁹  and Aaron and all the elders of Israel came to eat food ²⁰  with the father-in-law of Moses before God.

Exodus 18:14

18:14 When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this ²¹  that you are doing for the people? ²²  Why are you sitting by yourself, and all the people stand around you from morning until evening?”

Exodus 18:22

18:22 They will judge ²³  the people under normal circumstances, ²⁴  and every difficult case ²⁵  they will bring to you, but every small case ²⁶  they themselves will judge, so that ²⁷  you may make it easier for yourself, ²⁸  and they will bear the burden ²⁹  with you.

Exodus 22:10

22:10 If a man gives his neighbor a donkey or an ox or a sheep or any beast to keep, and it dies or is hurt ³⁰  or is carried away ³¹  without anyone seeing it, ³² 

Exodus 32:13

32:13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel your servants, to whom you swore by yourself and told them, ‘I will multiply your descendants ³³  like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken about ³⁴  I will give to your descendants, ³⁵  and they will inherit it forever.’”

Exodus 35:21-22

35:21 Everyone ³⁶  whose heart stirred him to action ³⁷  and everyone whose spirit was willing ³⁸  came and brought the offering for the Lord for the work of the tent of meeting, for all its service, and for the holy garments. ³⁹  35:22 They came, men and women alike, ⁴⁰  all who had willing hearts. They brought brooches, earrings, rings and ornaments, all kinds of gold jewelry, ⁴¹  and everyone came who waved ⁴²  a wave offering of gold to the Lord.

Exodus 35:24

35:24 Everyone making an offering of silver or bronze brought it as ⁴³  an offering to the Lord, and everyone who had acacia wood ⁴⁴  for any work of the service brought it. ⁴⁵ 

Exodus 36:1

36:1 So Bezalel and Oholiab and every skilled person ⁴⁶  in whom the Lord has put skill ⁴⁷  and ability ⁴⁸  to know how ⁴⁹  to do all the work for the service ⁵⁰  of the sanctuary are to do the work ⁵¹  according to all that the Lord has commanded.”

[10:13]  ¹ tn The clause begins וַיהוָה (va’adonay [vayhvah], “Now Yahweh….”). In contrast to a normal sequence, this beginning focuses attention on Yahweh as the subject of the verb.

[10:13]  ² tn The verb נָהַג (nahag) means “drive, conduct.” It is elsewhere used for driving sheep, leading armies, or leading in processions.

[10:13]  ³ tn Heb “and all the night.”

[10:13]  ⁴ tn The text does not here use ordinary circumstantial clause constructions; rather, Heb “the morning was, and the east wind carried the locusts.” It clearly means “when it was morning,” but the style chosen gives a more abrupt beginning to the plague, as if the reader is in the experience – and at morning, the locusts are there!

[10:13]  ⁵ tn The verb here is a past perfect, indicting that the locusts had arrived before the day came.

[11:5]  ⁶ sn The firstborn in Egyptian and Israelite cultures was significant, but the firstborn of Pharaoh was most important. Pharaoh was considered a god, the son of Re, the sun god, for the specific purpose of ruling over Re’s chief concern, the land of Egypt. For the purpose of re-creation, the supreme god assumed the form of the living king and gave seed which was to become the next king and the next “son of Re.” Moreover, the Pharaoh was the incarnation of the god Horus, a falcon god whose province was the heavens. Horus represented the living king who succeeded the dead king Osiris. Every living king was Horus, every dead king Osiris (see J. A. Wilson, “Egypt,” Before Philosophy, 83-84). To strike any firstborn was to destroy the heir, who embodied the hopes and aspirations of the Egyptians, but to strike the firstborn son of Pharaoh was to destroy this cardinal doctrine of the divine kingship of Egypt. Such a blow would be enough for Pharaoh, for then he would drive the Israelites out.

[11:8]  ¹¹ sn Moses’ anger is expressed forcefully. “He had appeared before Pharaoh a dozen times either as God’s emissary or when summoned by Pharaoh, but he would not come again; now they would have to search him out if they needed help” (B. Jacob, Exodus, 289-90).

[11:8]  ¹² tn Heb “that are at your feet.”

[11:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:29]  ¹⁶ sn The next section records the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, and so becomes the turning point of the book. Verses 28 and 29 could be included in the exposition of the previous section as the culmination of that part. The message might highlight God’s requirement for deliverance from bondage through the application of the blood of the sacrifice, God’s instruction for the memorial of deliverance through the purging of corruption, and the compliance of those who believed the message. But these verses also form the beginning of this next section (and so could be used transitionally). This unit includes the judgment on Egypt (29-30), the exodus from Egypt (31-39) and the historical summation and report (40-42).

[12:29]  ¹⁷ tn The verse begins with the temporal indicator וַיְהִי (vayÿhi), often translated “and it came to pass.” Here it could be left untranslated: “In the middle of the night Yahweh attacked.” The word order of the next and main clause furthers the emphasis by means of the vav disjunctive on the divine name preceding the verb. The combination of these initial and disjunctive elements helps to convey the suddenness of the attack, while its thoroughness is stressed by the repetition of “firstborn” in the rest of the verse, the merism (“from the firstborn of Pharaoh…to the firstborn of the captive”), and the mention of cattle.

[12:48]  ²¹ tn Both the participle “foreigner” and the verb “lives” are from the verb גּוּר (gur), which means “to sojourn, to dwell as an alien.” This reference is to a foreigner who settles in the land. He is the protected foreigner; when he comes to another area where he does not have his clan to protect him, he must come under the protection of the Law, or the people. If the “resident alien” is circumcised, he may participate in the Passover (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 104).

[12:48]  ²² tn The infinitive absolute functions as the finite verb here, and “every male” could be either the object or the subject (see GKC 347 §113.gg and 387 §121.a).

[12:48]  ²³ tn אֶזְרָח (’ezrakh) refers to the native-born individual, the native Israelite as opposed to the “stranger, alien” (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 104); see also W. F. Albright, Archaeology and the Religion of Israel, 127, 210.

[13:15]  ²⁶ tn Heb “dealt hardly in letting us go” or “made it hard to let us go” (see S. R. Driver, Exodus, 110). The verb is the simple Hiphil perfect הִקְשָׁה (hiqshah, “he made hard”); the infinitive construct לְשַׁלְּחֵנוּ (lÿshallÿkhenu, “to release us”) could be taken epexegetically, meaning “he made releasing us hard.” But the infinitive more likely gives the purpose or the result after the verb “hardened himself.” The verb is figurative for “be stubborn” or “stubbornly refuse.”

[13:15]  ²⁷ tn The text uses “man” and “beast.”

[13:15]  ²⁸ tn The form is the active participle.

[18:12]  ³¹ tn The verb is “and he took” (cf. KJV, ASV, NASB). It must have the sense of getting the animals for the sacrifice. The Syriac, Targum, and Vulgate have “offered.” But Cody argues because of the precise wording in the text Jethro did not offer the sacrifices but received them (A. Cody, “Exodus 18,12: Jethro Accepts a Covenant with the Israelites,” Bib 49 [1968]: 159-61).

[18:12]  ³² sn Jethro brought offerings as if he were the one who had been delivered. The “burnt offering” is singular, to honor God first. The other sacrifices were intended for the invited guests to eat (a forerunner of the peace offering). See B. Jacob, Exodus, 498.

[18:12]  ³³ tn The word לֶחֶם (lekhem) here means the sacrifice and all the foods that were offered with it. The eating before God was part of covenantal ritual, for it signified that they were in communion with the Deity, and with one another.

[18:14]  ³⁶ tn Heb “what is this thing.”

[18:14]  ³⁷ sn This question, “what are you doing for the people,” is qualified by the next question. Sitting alone all day and the people standing around all day showed that Moses was exhibiting too much care for the people – he could not do this.

[18:22]  ⁴¹ tn The form is the perfect tense with the vav (ו) consecutive, making it equivalent to the imperfect of instruction in the preceding verse.

[18:22]  ⁴² tn Heb “in every time,” meaning “in all normal cases” or “under normal circumstances.” The same phrase occurs in v. 26.

[18:22]  ⁴³ tn Heb “great thing.”

[18:22]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “thing.”

[18:22]  ⁴⁵ tn The vav here shows the result or the purpose of the instructions given.

[18:22]  ⁴⁶ tn The expression וְהָקֵל מֵעָלֶיךָ (vÿhaqel me’aleykha) means literally “and make it light off yourself.” The word plays against the word for “heavy” used earlier – since it was a heavy or burdensome task, Moses must lighten the load.

[18:22]  ⁴⁷ tn Here “the burden” has been supplied.

[22:10]  ⁴⁶ tn The form is a Niphal participle from the verb “to break” – “is broken,” which means harmed, maimed, or hurt in any way.

[22:10]  ⁴⁷ tn This verb is frequently used with the meaning “to take captive.” The idea here then is that raiders or robbers have carried off the animal.

[22:10]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “there is no one seeing.”

[32:13]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “your seed.”

[32:13]  ⁵² tn “about” has been supplied.

[32:13]  ⁵³ tn Heb “seed.”

[35:21]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “man.”

[35:21]  ⁵⁷ tn The verb means “lift up, bear, carry.” Here the subject is “heart” or will, and so the expression describes one moved within to act.

[35:21]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “his spirit made him willing.” The verb is used in Scripture for the freewill offering that people brought (Lev 7).

[35:21]  ⁵⁹ tn Literally “the garments of holiness,” the genitive is the attributive genitive, marking out what type of garments these were.

[35:22]  ⁶¹ tn The expression in Hebrew is “men on/after the women,” meaning men with women, to ensure that it was clear that the preceding verse did not mean only men. B. Jacob takes it further, saying that the men came after the women because the latter had taken the initiative (Exodus, 1017).

[35:22]  ⁶² tn Heb “all gold utensils.”

[35:22]  ⁶³ tn The verb could be translated “offered,” but it is cognate with the following noun that is the wave offering. This sentence underscores the freewill nature of the offerings people made. The word “came” is supplied from v. 21 and v. 22.

[35:24]  ⁶⁶ tn This translation takes “offering” as an adverbial accusative explaining the form or purpose of their bringing things. It could also be rendered as the direct object, but that would seem to repeat without much difference what had just been said.

[35:24]  ⁶⁷ sn U. Cassuto notes that the expression “with whom was found” does not rule out the idea that these folks went out and cut down acacia trees (Exodus, 458). It is unlikely that they had much wood in their tents.

[35:24]  ⁶⁸ tn Here “it” has been supplied.

[36:1]  ⁷¹ tn Heb “wise of [in] heart.”

[36:1]  ⁷² tn Heb “wisdom.”

[36:1]  ⁷³ tn Heb “understanding, discernment.”

[36:1]  ⁷⁴ tn The relative clause includes this infinitive clause that expresses either the purpose or the result of God’s giving wisdom and understanding to these folk.

[36:1]  ⁷⁵ tn This noun is usually given an interpretive translation. B. Jacob renders the bound relationship as “the holy task” or “the sacred task” (Exodus, 1019). The NIV makes it “constructing,” so read “the work of constructing the sanctuary.”

[36:1]  ⁷⁶ tn The first word of the verse is a perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive; it is singular because it agrees with the first of the compound subject. The sentence is a little cumbersome because of the extended relative clause in the middle.