Exodus 15:16

15:16 Fear and dread ¹  will fall ²  on them;

by the greatness ³  of your arm they will be as still as stone ⁴ 

until ⁵  your people pass by, O Lord,

until the people whom you have bought ⁶  pass by.

Exodus 32:34

32:34 So now go, lead the people to the place I have spoken to you about. See, ⁷  my angel will go before you. But on the day that I punish, I will indeed punish them for their sin.” ⁸ 

[15:16]  ¹ tn The two words can form a nominal hendiadys, “a dreadful fear,” though most English versions retain the two separate terms.

[15:16]  ² tn The form is an imperfect.

[15:16]  ³ tn The adjective is in construct form and governs the noun “arm” (“arm” being the anthropomorphic expression for what God did). See GKC 428 §132.c.

[15:16]  ⁴ sn For a study of the words for fear, see N. Waldman, “A Comparative Note on Exodus 15:14-16,” JQR 66 (1976): 189-92.

[15:16]  ⁵ tn Clauses beginning with עַד (’ad) express a limit that is not absolute, but only relative, beyond which the action continues (GKC 446-47 §138.g).

[15:16]  ⁶ tn The verb קָנָה (qanah) here is the verb “acquire, purchase,” and probably not the homonym “to create, make” (see Gen 4:1; Deut 32:6; and Prov 8:22).

[32:34]  ⁷ tn Heb “behold, look.” Moses should take this fact into consideration.

[32:34]  ⁸ sn The Law said that God would not clear the guilty. But here the punishment is postponed to some future date when he would revisit this matter. Others have taken the line to mean that whenever a reckoning was considered necessary, then this sin would be included (see B. Jacob, Exodus, 957). The repetition of the verb traditionally rendered “visit” in both clauses puts emphasis on the certainty – so “indeed.”