Exodus 14:16-17

14:16 And as for you, ¹  lift up your staff and extend your hand toward the sea and divide it, so that ²  the Israelites may go through the middle of the sea on dry ground. 14:17 And as for me, I am going to harden ³  the hearts of the Egyptians so that ⁴  they will come after them, that I may be honored ⁵  because ⁶  of Pharaoh and his army and his chariots and his horsemen.

Exodus 15:23

15:23 Then they came to Marah, ⁷  but they were not able to drink ⁸  the waters of Marah, because ⁹  they were bitter. ¹⁰  (That is ¹¹  why its name was ¹²  Marah.)

Exodus 15:27

15:27 Then they came to Elim, ¹³  where there were twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees, and they camped there by the water.

Exodus 16:22

16:22 And ¹⁴  on the sixth day they gathered twice as much food, two omers ¹⁵  per person; ¹⁶  and all the leaders ¹⁷  of the community ¹⁸  came and told ¹⁹  Moses.

Exodus 18:7

18:7 Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him; ²⁰  they each asked about the other’s welfare, and then they went into the tent.

Exodus 36:4

36:4 So all the skilled people who were doing all the work on the sanctuary came from the work ²¹  they were doing

[14:16]  ¹ tn The conjunction plus pronoun (“and you”) is emphatic – “and as for you” – before the imperative “lift up.” In contrast, v. 17 begins with “and as for me, I….”

[14:16]  ² tn The imperfect (or jussive) with the vav (ו) is sequential, coming after the series of imperatives instructing Moses to divide the sea; the form then gives the purpose (or result) of the activity – “that they may go.”

[14:17]  ³ tn הִנְנִי (hinni) before the participle gives it the force of a futur instans participle, meaning “I am about to harden” or “I am going to harden” their heart.

[14:17]  ⁴ tn The form again is the imperfect tense with vav (ו) to express the purpose or the result of the hardening. The repetition of the verb translated “come” is interesting: Moses is to divide the sea in order that the people may cross, but God will harden the Egyptians’ hearts in order that they may follow.

[14:17]  ⁵ tn For the comments on this verb see the discussion in v. 4. God would get glory by defeating Egypt.

[14:17]  ⁶ tn Or “I will get glory over.”

[15:23]  ⁵ sn The Hebrew word “Marah” means “bitter.” This motif will be repeated four times in this passage to mark the central problem. Earlier in the book the word had been used for the “bitter herbs” in the Passover, recalling the bitter labor in bondage. So there may be a double reference here – to the bitter waters and to Egypt itself – God can deliver from either.

[15:23]  ⁶ tn The infinitive construct here provides the direct object for the verb “to be able,” answering the question of what they were not able to do.

[15:23]  ⁷ tn The causal clause here provides the reason for their being unable to drink the water, as well as a clear motivation for the name.

[15:23]  ⁸ sn Many scholars have attempted to explain these things with natural phenomena. Here Marah is identified with Ain Hawarah. It is said that the waters of this well are notoriously salty and brackish; Robinson said it was six to eight feet in diameter and the water about two feet deep; the water is unpleasant, salty, and somewhat bitter. As a result the Arabs say it is the worst tasting water in the area (W. C. Kaiser, Jr., “Exodus,” EBC 2:398). But that would not be a sufficient amount of water for the number of Israelites in the first place, and in the second, they could not drink it at all. But third, how did Moses change it?

[15:23]  ⁹ tn The עַל־כֵּן (’al-ken) formula in the Pentateuch serves to explain to the reader the reason for the way things were. It does not necessarily mean here that Israel named the place – but they certainly could have.

[15:23]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “one called its name,” the expression can be translated as a passive verb if the subject is not expressed.

[15:27]  ⁷ sn Judging from the way the story is told they were not far from the oasis. But God had other plans for them, to see if they would trust him wholeheartedly and obey. They did not do very well this first time, and they will have to learn how to obey. The lesson is clear: God uses adversity to test his people’s loyalty. The response to adversity must be prayer to God, for he can turn the bitter into the sweet, the bad into the good, and the prospect of death into life.

[16:22]  ⁹ tn Heb “and it happened/was.”

[16:22]  ¹⁰ tn This construction is an exception to the normal rule for the numbers 2 through 10 taking the object numbered in the plural. Here it is “two of the omer” or “the double of the omer” (see GKC 433 §134.e).

[16:22]  ¹¹ tn Heb “for one.”

[16:22]  ¹² tn The word suggests “the ones lifted up” above others, and therefore the rulers or the chiefs of the people.

[16:22]  ¹³ tn Or “congregation” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV).

[16:22]  ¹⁴ sn The meaning here is probably that these leaders, the natural heads of the families in the clans, saw that people were gathering twice as much and they reported this to Moses, perhaps afraid it would stink again (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 197).

[18:7]  ¹¹ sn This is more than polite oriental custom. Jethro was Moses’ benefactor, father-in-law, and a priest. He paid much respect to him. Now he could invite Jethro into his home (see B. Jacob, Exodus, 496).

[36:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “a man, a man from his work”; or “each one from his work.”