Exodus 16:16

16:16 “This is what ¹  the Lord has commanded: ²  ‘Each person is to gather ³  from it what he can eat, an omer ⁴  per person ⁵  according to the number ⁶  of your people; ⁷  each one will pick it up ⁸  for whoever lives ⁹  in his tent.’”

Exodus 34:1

The New Tablets of the Covenant

34:1 ¹⁰ The Lord said to Moses, “Cut out ¹¹  two tablets of stone like the first, and I will write ¹²  on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you smashed.

Exodus 34:4

34:4 So Moses ¹³  cut out two tablets of stone like the first; ¹⁴  early in the morning he went up ¹⁵  to Mount Sinai, just as the Lord had commanded him, and he took in his hand the two tablets of stone.

Exodus 34:24

34:24 For I will drive out ¹⁶  the nations before you and enlarge your borders; no one will covet ¹⁷  your land when you go up ¹⁸  to appear before the Lord your God three times ¹⁹  in the year.

[16:16]  ¹ tn Heb “the thing that.”

[16:16]  ² tn The perfect tense could be taken as a definite past with Moses now reporting it. In this case a very recent past. But in declaring the word from Yahweh it could be instantaneous, and receive a present tense translation – “here and now he commands you.”

[16:16]  ³ tn The form is the plural imperative: “Gather [you] each man according to his eating.”

[16:16]  ⁴ sn The omer is an amount mentioned only in this chapter, and its size is unknown, except by comparison with the ephah (v. 36). A number of recent English versions approximate the omer as “two quarts” (cf. NCV, CEV, NLT); TEV “two litres.”

[16:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “for a head.”

[16:16]  ⁶ tn The word “number” is an accusative that defines more precisely how much was to be gathered (see GKC 374 §118.h).

[16:16]  ⁷ tn Traditionally “souls.”

[16:16]  ⁸ tn Heb “will take.”

[16:16]  ⁹ tn “lives” has been supplied.

[34:1]  ¹⁰ sn The restoration of the faltering community continues in this chapter. First, Moses is instructed to make new tablets and take them to the mountain (1-4). Then, through the promised theophany God proclaims his moral character (5-8). Moses responds with the reiteration of the intercession (8), and God responds with the renewal of the covenant (10-28). To put these into expository form, as principles, the chapter would run as follows: I. God provides for spiritual renewal (1-4), II. God reminds people of his moral standard (5-9), III. God renews his covenant promises and stipulations (10-28).

[34:1]  ¹¹ tn The imperative is followed by the preposition with a suffix expressing the ethical dative; it strengthens the instruction for Moses. Interestingly, the verb “cut out, chisel, hew,” is the same verb from which the word for a “graven image” is derived – פָּסַל (pasal).

[34:1]  ¹² tn The perfect tense with vav consecutive makes the value of this verb equal to an imperfect tense, probably a simple future here.

[34:4]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “he”; the referent has been specified here and the name “Moses,” which occurs later in this verse, has been replaced with the pronoun (“he”), both for stylistic reasons.

[34:4]  ²⁰ sn Deuteronomy says that Moses was also to make an ark of acacia wood before the tablets, apparently to put the tablets in until the sanctuary was built. But this ark may not have been the ark built later; or, it might be the wood box, but Bezalel still had to do all the golden work with it.

[34:4]  ²¹ tn The line reads “and Moses got up early in the morning and went up.” These verbs likely form a verbal hendiadys, the first one with its prepositional phrase serving in an adverbial sense.

[34:24]  ²⁸ tn The verb is a Hiphil imperfect of יָרַשׁ (yarash), which means “to possess.” In the causative stem it can mean “dispossess” or “drive out.”

[34:24]  ²⁹ sn The verb “covet” means more than desire; it means that some action will be taken to try to acquire the land that is being coveted. It is one thing to envy someone for their land; it is another to be consumed by the desire that stops at nothing to get it (it, not something like it).

[34:24]  ³⁰ tn The construction uses the infinitive construct with a preposition and a suffixed subject to form the temporal clause.

[34:24]  ³¹ tn The expression “three times” is an adverbial accusative of time.