Exodus 12:48

12:48 “When a foreigner lives ¹  with you and wants to observe the Passover to the Lord, all his males must be circumcised, ²  and then he may approach and observe it, and he will be like one who is born in the land ³  – but no uncircumcised person may eat of it.

Exodus 13:19

13:19 Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph ⁴  had made the Israelites solemnly swear, ⁵  “God will surely attend ⁶  to you, and you will carry ⁷  my bones up from this place with you.”

Exodus 17:5

17:5 The Lord said to Moses, “Go over before the people; ⁸  take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand your staff with which you struck the Nile and go.

Exodus 18:22

18:22 They will judge ⁹  the people under normal circumstances, ¹⁰  and every difficult case ¹¹  they will bring to you, but every small case ¹²  they themselves will judge, so that ¹³  you may make it easier for yourself, ¹⁴  and they will bear the burden ¹⁵  with you.

Exodus 27:21--28:1

27:21 In the tent of meeting ¹⁶  outside the curtain that is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons are to arrange it from evening ¹⁷  to morning before the Lord. This is to be a lasting ordinance among the Israelites for generations to come. ¹⁸ 

The Clothing of the Priests

28:1 ¹⁹ “And you, bring near ²⁰  to you your brother Aaron and his sons with him from among the Israelites, so that they may minister as my priests ²¹  – Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron’s sons.

Exodus 31:6

31:6 Moreover, ²²  I have also given him Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, and I have given ability to all the specially skilled, ²³  that they may make ²⁴  everything I have commanded you:

Exodus 34:29

The Radiant Face of Moses

34:29 ²⁵ Now when Moses came down ²⁶  from Mount Sinai with ²⁷  the two tablets of the testimony in his hand ²⁸  – when he came down ²⁹  from the mountain, Moses ³⁰  did not know that the skin of his face shone ³¹  while he talked with him.

Exodus 34:34-35

34:34 But when Moses went in ³²  before the Lord to speak with him, he would remove the veil until he came out. ³³  Then he would come out and tell the Israelites what he had been commanded. ³⁴  34:35 When the Israelites would see ³⁵  the face of Moses, that ³⁶  the skin of Moses’ face shone, Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with the Lord. ³⁷ 

Exodus 35:24

35:24 Everyone making an offering of silver or bronze brought it as ³⁸  an offering to the Lord, and everyone who had acacia wood ³⁹  for any work of the service brought it. ⁴⁰ 

[12:48]  ¹ 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]  ² 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]  ³ 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.

[13:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “solemnly swear, saying” (so NASB). The construction uses the Hiphil infinitive absolute with the Hiphil perfect to stress that Joseph had made them take a solemn oath to carry his bones out of Egypt. “Saying” introduces the content of what Joseph said.

[13:19]  ⁶ sn This verb appears also in 3:16 and 4:31. The repetition here is a reminder that God was doing what he had said he would do and what Joseph had expected.

[13:19]  ⁷ tn The form is a Hiphil perfect with the vav (ו) consecutive; it follows in the sequence of the imperfect tense before it, and so is equal to an imperfect of injunction (because of the solemn oath). Israel took Joseph’s bones with them as a sign of piety toward the past and as a symbol of their previous bond with Canaan (B. Jacob, Exodus, 380).

[17:5]  ⁷ tn “Pass over before” indicates that Moses is the leader who goes first, and the people follow him. In other words, לִפְנֵי (lifney) indicates time and not place here (B. Jacob, Exodus, 477-78).

[18:22]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ tn Heb “in every time,” meaning “in all normal cases” or “under normal circumstances.” The same phrase occurs in v. 26.

[18:22]  ¹² tn Heb “great thing.”

[18:22]  ¹³ tn Heb “thing.”

[18:22]  ¹⁴ tn The vav here shows the result or the purpose of the instructions given.

[18:22]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ tn Here “the burden” has been supplied.

[27:21]  ¹³ tn The LXX has mistakenly rendered this name “the tent of the testimony.”

[27:21]  ¹⁴ sn The lamps were to be removed in the morning so that the wicks could be trimmed and the oil replenished (30:7) and then lit every evening to burn through the night.

[27:21]  ¹⁵ sn This is the first of several sections of priestly duties. The point is a simple one here: those who lead the worship use the offerings of the people to ensure that access to God is illumined regularly. The NT will make much of the symbolism of light.

[28:1]  ¹⁶ sn Some modern scholars find this and the next chapter too elaborate for the wilderness experience. To most of them this reflects the later Zadokite priesthood of the writer’s (P’s) day that was referred to Mosaic legislation for authentication. But there is no compelling reason why this should be late; it is put late because it is assumed to be P, and that is assumed to be late. But both assumptions are unwarranted. This lengthy chapter could be divided this way: instructions for preparing the garments (1-5), details of the apparel (6-39), and a warning against deviating from these (40-43). The subject matter of the first part is that God requires that his chosen ministers reflect his holy nature; the point of the second part is that God requires his ministers to be prepared to fulfill the tasks of the ministry, and the subject matter of the third part is that God warns all his ministers to safeguard the holiness of their service.

[28:1]  ¹⁷ tn The verb is the Hiphil imperative of the root קָרַב (qarav, “to draw near”). In the present stem the word has religious significance, namely, to present something to God, like an offering.

[28:1]  ¹⁸ tn This entire clause is a translation of the Hebrew לְכַהֲנוֹ־לִי (lÿkhahano-li, “that he might be a priest to me”), but the form is unusual. The word means “to be a priest” or “to act as a priest.” The etymology of the word for priest, כֹּהֵן (kohen), is uncertain.

[31:6]  ¹⁹ tn The expression uses the independent personal pronoun (“and I”) with the deictic particle (“behold”) to enforce the subject of the verb – “and I, indeed I have given.”

[31:6]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and in the heart of all that are wise-hearted I have put wisdom.”

[31:6]  ²¹ tn The form is a perfect with vav (ו) consecutive. The form at this place shows the purpose or the result of what has gone before, and so it is rendered “that they may make.”

[34:29]  ²² sn Now, at the culmination of the renewing of the covenant, comes the account of Moses’ shining face. It is important to read this in its context first, holding off on the connection to Paul’s discussion in 2 Corinthians. There is a delicate balance here in Exodus. On the one hand Moses’ shining face served to authenticate the message, but on the other hand Moses prevented the people from seeing more than they could handle. The subject matter in the OT, then, is how to authenticate the message. The section again can be subdivided into three points that develop the whole idea: I. The one who spends time with God reflects his glory (29-30). It will not always be as Moses; rather, the glory of the Lord is reflected differently today, but nonetheless reflected. II. The glory of Yahweh authenticates the message (31-32). III. The authentication of the message must be used cautiously with the weak and immature (33-35).

[34:29]  ²³ tn The temporal clause is composed of the temporal indicator (“and it happened”), followed by the temporal preposition, infinitive construct, and subjective genitive (“Moses”).

[34:29]  ²⁴ tn The second clause begins with “and/now”; it is a circumstantial clause explaining that the tablets were in his hand. It repeats the temporal clause at the end.

[34:29]  ²⁵ tn Heb “in the hand of Moses.”

[34:29]  ²⁶ tn The temporal clause parallels the first temporal clause; it uses the same infinitive construct, but now with a suffix referring to Moses.

[34:29]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and Moses.”

[34:29]  ²⁸ tn The word קָרַן (qaran) is derived from the noun קֶרֶן (qeren) in the sense of a “ray of light” (see Hab 3:4). Something of the divine glory remained with Moses. The Greek translation of Aquila and the Latin Vulgate convey the idea that he had horns, the primary meaning of the word from which this word is derived. Some have tried to defend this, saying that the glory appeared like horns or that Moses covered his face with a mask adorned with horns. But in the text the subject of the verb is the skin of Moses’ face (see U. Cassuto, Exodus, 449).

[34:34]  ²⁵ tn The construction uses a infinitive construct for the temporal clause; it is prefixed with the temporal preposition: “and in the going in of Moses.”

[34:34]  ²⁶ tn The temporal clause begins with the temporal preposition “until,” followed by an infinitive construct with the suffixed subjective genitive.

[34:34]  ²⁷ tn The form is the Pual imperfect, but since the context demands a past tense here, in fact a past perfect tense, this is probably an old preterite form without a vav consecutive.

[34:35]  ²⁸ tn Now the perfect tense with vav consecutive is subordinated to the next clause, “Moses returned the veil….”

[34:35]  ²⁹ tn Verbs of seeing often take two accusatives. Here, the second is the noun clause explaining what it was about the face that they saw.

[34:35]  ³⁰ tn Heb “with him”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[35:24]  ³¹ 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]  ³² 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]  ³³ tn Here “it” has been supplied.