Exodus 12:6

12:6 You must care for it ¹  until the fourteenth day of this month, and then the whole community ²  of Israel will kill it around sundown. ³ 

Exodus 16:33

16:33 Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar and put in it an omer full of manna, and place it before the Lord to be kept for generations to come.”

Exodus 18:5

18:5 Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, together with Moses’ ⁴  sons and his wife, came to Moses in the desert where he was camping by ⁵  the mountain of God. ⁶ 

Exodus 19:1

Israel at Sinai

19:1 ⁷ In the third month after the Israelites went out ⁸  from the land of Egypt, on the very day, ⁹  they came to the Desert of Sinai.

Exodus 21:18

21:18 “If men fight, and one strikes his neighbor with a stone or with his fist and he does not die, but must remain in bed, ¹⁰ 

Exodus 26:27

26:27 and five bars for the frames on the second side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the frames on the back of the tabernacle on the west.

Exodus 30:8

30:8 When Aaron sets up the lamps around sundown he is to burn incense on it; it is to be a regular incense offering before the Lord throughout your generations.

Exodus 38:15

38:15 and for the second side of the gate of the courtyard, just like the other, ¹¹  the hangings were twenty-two and a half feet long, with their three posts and their three bases.

Exodus 39:6

39:6 They set the onyx stones in gold filigree settings, engraved as with the engravings of a seal ¹²  with the names of the sons of Israel. ¹³ 

[12:6]  ¹ tn The text has וְהָיָה לָכֶם לְמִשְׁמֶרֶת (vÿhaya lakem lÿmishmeret, “and it will be for you for a keeping”). This noun stresses the activity of watching over or caring for something, probably to keep it in its proper condition for its designated use (see 16:23, 32-34).

[12:6]  ² tn Heb “all the assembly of the community.” This expression is a pleonasm. The verse means that everyone will kill the lamb, i.e., each family unit among the Israelites will kill its animal.

[12:6]  ³ tn Heb “between the two evenings” or “between the two settings” (בֵּין הָעַרְבָּיִם, ben ha’arbayim). This expression has had a good deal of discussion. (1) Tg. Onq. says “between the two suns,” which the Talmud explains as the time between the sunset and the time the stars become visible. More technically, the first “evening” would be the time between sunset and the appearance of the crescent moon, and the second “evening” the next hour, or from the appearance of the crescent moon to full darkness (see Deut 16:6 – “at the going down of the sun”). (2) Saadia, Rashi, and Kimchi say the first evening is when the sun begins to decline in the west and cast its shadows, and the second evening is the beginning of night. (3) The view adopted by the Pharisees and the Talmudists (b. Pesahim 61a) is that the first evening is when the heat of the sun begins to decrease, and the second evening begins at sunset, or, roughly from 3-5 p.m. The Mishnah (m. Pesahim 5:1) indicates the lamb was killed about 2:30 p.m. – anything before noon was not valid. S. R. Driver concludes from this survey that the first view is probably the best, although the last view was the traditionally accepted one (Exodus, 89-90). Late afternoon or early evening seems to be intended, the time of twilight perhaps.

[18:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

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

[18:5]  ⁶ 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).

[19:1]  ⁷ sn This chapter is essentially about mediation. The people are getting ready to meet with God, receive the Law from him, and enter into a covenant with him. All of this required mediation and preparation. Through it all, Israel will become God’s unique possession, a kingdom of priests on earth – if they comply with his Law. The chapter can be divided as follows: vv. 1-8 tell how God, Israel’s great deliverer promised to make them a kingdom of priests; this is followed by God’s declaration that Moses would be the mediator (v. 9); vv. 10-22 record instructions for Israel to prepare themselves to worship Yahweh and an account of the manifestation of Yahweh with all the phenomena; and the chapter closes with the mediation of Moses on behalf of the people (vv. 23-25). Having been redeemed from Egypt, the people will now be granted a covenant with God. See also R. E. Bee, “A Statistical Study of the Sinai Pericope,” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society 135 (1972): 406-21.

[19:1]  ⁸ tn The construction uses the infinitive construct followed by the subjective genitive to form a temporal clause.

[19:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “on this day.”

[21:18]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “falls to bed.”

[38:15]  ¹³ tn Heb “from this and from this” (cf, 17:12; 25:19; 26:13; 32:15; Josh 8:22, 33; 1 Kgs 10:19-20; Ezek 45:7).

[39:6]  ¹⁶ tn Or “as seals are engraved.”

[39:6]  ¹⁷ sn The twelve names were those of Israel’s sons. The idea was not the remembrance of the twelve sons as such, but the twelve tribes that bore their names.