Exodus 10:26

10:26 Our livestock must ¹  also go with us! Not a hoof is to be left behind! For we must take ²  these animals ³  to serve the Lord our God. Until we arrive there, we do not know what we must use to serve the Lord.” ⁴ 

Exodus 14:5

14:5 When it was reported ⁵  to the king of Egypt that the people had fled, ⁶  the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people, and the king and his servants said, ⁷  “What in the world have we done? ⁸  For we have released the people of Israel ⁹  from serving us!”

Exodus 16:8

16:8 Moses said, “You will know this ¹⁰  when the Lord gives you ¹¹  meat to eat in the evening and bread in the morning to satisfy you, because the Lord has heard your murmurings that you are murmuring against him. As for us, what are we? ¹²  Your murmurings are not against us, ¹³  but against the Lord.”

Exodus 16:15

16:15 When ¹⁴  the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, ¹⁵  “What is it?” because they did not know what it was. ¹⁶  Moses said to them, “It is the bread ¹⁷  that the Lord has given you for food. ¹⁸ 

Exodus 18:14

18:14 When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this ¹⁹  that you are doing for the people? ²⁰  Why are you sitting by yourself, and all the people stand around you from morning until evening?”

Exodus 32:23

32:23 They said to me, ‘Make us gods that will go before us, for as for this fellow Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’

Exodus 33:5

33:5 For ²¹  the Lord had said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. If I went up among you for a moment, ²²  I might destroy you. Now take off your ornaments, ²³  that I may know ²⁴  what I should do to you.’” ²⁵ 

[10:26]  ¹ tn This is the obligatory imperfect nuance. They were obliged to take the animals if they were going to sacrifice, but more than that, since they were not coming back, they had to take everything.

[10:26]  ² tn The same modal nuance applies to this verb.

[10:26]  ³ tn Heb “from it,” referring collectively to the livestock.

[10:26]  ⁴ sn Moses gives an angry but firm reply to Pharaoh’s attempt to control Israel; he makes it clear that he has no intention of leaving any pledge with Pharaoh. When they leave, they will take everything that belongs to them.

[14:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “and it was told.” The present translation uses “reported,” since this involves information given to a superior.

[14:5]  ⁶ tn The verb must be given a past perfect translation because the fleeing occurred before the telling.

[14:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “and they said.” The referent (the king and his servants) is supplied for clarity.

[14:5]  ⁸ tn The question literally is “What is this we have done?” The demonstrative pronoun is used as an enclitic particle for emphasis (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 24, §118).

[14:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “released Israel.” By metonymy the name of the nation is used collectively for the people who constitute it (the Israelites).

[16:8]  ⁹ tn “You will know this” has been added to make the line smooth. Because of the abruptness of the lines in the verse, and the repetition with v. 7, B. S. Childs (Exodus [OTL], 273) thinks that v. 8 is merely a repetition by scribal error – even though the versions render it as the MT has it. But B. Jacob (Exodus, 447) suggests that the contrast with vv. 6 and 7 is important for another reason – there Moses and Aaron speak, and it is smooth and effective, but here only Moses speaks, and it is labored and clumsy. “We should realize that Moses had properly claimed to be no public speaker.”

[16:8]  ¹⁰ tn Here again is an infinitive construct with the preposition forming a temporal clause.

[16:8]  ¹¹ tn The words “as for us” attempt to convey the force of the Hebrew word order, which puts emphasis on the pronoun: “and we – what?” The implied answer to the question is that Moses and Aaron are nothing, merely the messengers.

[16:8]  ¹² tn The word order is “not against us [are] your murmurings.”

[16:15]  ¹³ tn The preterite with vav consecutive is here subordinated to the next verb as a temporal clause. The main point of the verse is what they said.

[16:15]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “a man to his brother.”

[16:15]  ¹⁵ tn The text has: מָן הוּא כִּי לאֹ יָדְעוּ מַה־הוּא (man hu’ ki lo’ yadÿ’u mah hu’). From this statement the name “manna” was given to the substance. מָן for “what” is not found in Hebrew, but appears in Syriac as a contraction of ma den, “what then?” In Aramaic and Arabic man is “what?” The word is used here apparently for the sake of etymology. B. S. Childs (Exodus [OTL], 274) follows the approach that any connections to words that actually meant “what?” are unnecessary, for it is a play on the name (whatever it may have been) and therefore related only by sound to the term being explained. This, however, presumes that a substance was known prior to this account – a point that Deuteronomy does not seem to allow. S. R. Driver says that it is not known how early the contraction came into use, but that this verse seems to reflect it (Exodus, 149). Probably one must simply accept that in the early Israelite period man meant “what?” There seems to be sufficient evidence to support this. See EA 286,5; UT 435; DNWSI 1:157.

[16:15]  ¹⁶ sn B. Jacob (Exodus, 454-55) suggests that Moses was saying to them, “It is not manna. It is the food Yahweh has given you.” He comes to this conclusion based on the strange popular etymology from the interrogative word, noting that people do not call things “what?”

[16:15]  ¹⁷ sn For other views see G. Vermès, “‘He Is the Bread’ Targum Neofiti Ex. 16:15,” SJLA 8 (1975): 139-46; and G. J. Cowling, “Targum Neofiti Ex. 16:15,” AJBA (1974-75): 93-105.

[18:14]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “what is this thing.”

[18:14]  ¹⁸ 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.

[33:5]  ²¹ tn The verse simply begins “And Yahweh said.” But it is clearly meant to be explanatory for the preceding action of the people.

[33:5]  ²² tn The construction is formed with a simple imperfect in the first half and a perfect tense with vav (ו) in the second half. Heb “[in] one moment I will go up in your midst and I will destroy you.” The verse is certainly not intended to say that God was about to destroy them. That, plus the fact that he has announced he will not go in their midst, leads most commentators to take this as a conditional clause: “If I were to do such and such, then….”

[33:5]  ²³ tn The Hebrew text also has “from on you.”

[33:5]  ²⁴ tn The form is the cohortative with a vav (ו) following the imperative; it therefore expresses the purpose or result: “strip off…that I may know.” The call to remove the ornaments must have been perceived as a call to show true repentance for what had happened. If they repented, then God would know how to deal with them.

[33:5]  ²⁵ tn This last clause begins with the interrogative “what,” but it is used here as an indirect interrogative. It introduces a noun clause, the object of the verb “know.”