Exodus 15:24

15:24 So the people murmured ¹  against Moses, saying, “What can ²  we drink?”

Exodus 20:3

20:3 “You shall have no ³  other gods before me. ⁴ 

Exodus 25:30

25:30 You are to set the Bread of the Presence ⁵  on the table before me continually.

Exodus 26:34

26:34 You are to put the atonement lid on the ark of the testimony in the Most Holy Place.

Exodus 32:14

32:14 Then the Lord relented over the evil that he had said he would do to his people.

Exodus 33:21

33:21 The Lord said, “Here ⁶  is a place by me; you will station yourself ⁷  on a rock.

Exodus 34:33

34:33 When Moses finished ⁸  speaking ⁹  with them, he would ¹⁰  put a veil on his face.

Exodus 39:4

39:4 They made shoulder pieces for it, attached to two of its corners, so it could be joined together.

[15:24]  ¹ tn The verb וַיִּלֹנוּ (vayyillonu) from לוּן (lun) is a much stronger word than “to grumble” or “to complain.” It is used almost exclusively in the wilderness wandering stories, to describe the rebellion of the Israelites against God (see also Ps 59:14-15). They were not merely complaining – they were questioning God’s abilities and motives. The action is something like a parliamentary vote of no confidence.

[15:24]  ² tn The imperfect tense here should be given a potential nuance: “What can we drink?” since the previous verse reports that they were not able to drink the water.

[20:3]  ³ tn The possession is expressed here by the use of the lamed (ל) preposition and the verb “to be”: לֹא־יִהְיֶה לְךָ (lo’ yihyeh lÿkha, “there will not be to you”). The negative with the imperfect expresses the emphatic prohibition; it is best reflected with “you will not” and has the strongest expectation of obedience (see GKC 317 §107.o). As an additional way of looking at this line, U. Cassuto suggests that the verb is in the singular in order to say that they could not have even one other god, and the word “gods” is plural to include any gods (Exodus, 241).

[20:3]  ⁴ tn The expression עַל־פָּנָי (’al-panay) has several possible interpretations. S. R. Driver suggests “in front of me,” meaning obliging me to behold them, and also giving a prominence above me (Exodus, 193-94). W. F. Albright rendered it “You shall not prefer other gods to me” (From the Stone Age to Christianity, 297, n. 29). B. Jacob (Exodus, 546) illustrates it with marriage: the wife could belong to only one man while every other man was “another man.” They continued to exist but were not available to her. The point is clear from the Law, regardless of the specific way the prepositional phrase is rendered. God demands absolute allegiance, to the exclusion of all other deities. The preposition may imply some antagonism, for false gods would be opposed to Yahweh. U. Cassuto adds that God was in effect saying that anytime Israel turned to a false god they had to know that the Lord was there – it is always in his presence, or before him (Exodus, 241).

[25:30]  ⁵ sn The name basically means that the bread is to be set out in the presence of Yahweh. The custom of presenting bread on a table as a thank offering is common in other cultures as well. The bread here would be placed on the table as a symbol of the divine provision for the twelve tribes – continually, because they were to express their thanksgiving continually. Priests could eat the bread after certain times. Fresh bread would be put there regularly.

[33:21]  ⁷ tn The deictic particle is used here simply to call attention to a place of God’s knowing and choosing.

[33:21]  ⁸ tn Heb “and you will,” or interpretively, “where you will.”

[34:33]  ⁹ tn Heb “and Moses finished”; the clause is subordinated as a temporal clause to the next clause.

[34:33]  ¹⁰ tn The Piel infinitive construct is the object of the preposition; the whole phrase serves as the direct object of the verb “finished.”

[34:33]  ¹¹ tn Throughout this section the actions of Moses and the people are frequentative. The text tells what happened regularly.