Discovery BoxExodus 16:17-18
Context16:17 The Israelites did so, and they gathered – some more, some less. 16:18 When 1 they measured with an omer, the one who gathered much had nothing left over, and the one who gathered little lacked nothing; each one had gathered what he could eat.
Exodus 30:15
Context30:15 The rich are not to increase it, 2 and the poor are not to pay less than the half shekel when giving 3 the offering of the Lord, to make atonement 4 for your lives.
Exodus 12:4
Context12:4 If any household is too small 5 for a lamb, 6 the man 7 and his next-door neighbor 8 are to take 9 a lamb according to the number of people – you will make your count for the lamb according to how much each one can eat. 10
[16:18] 1 tn The preterite with the vav (ו) consecutive is subordinated here as a temporal clause.
[30:15] 2 tn The form is לָתֵת (latet), the Qal infinitive construct with the lamed preposition. The infinitive here is explaining the preceding verbs. They are not to increase or diminish the amount “in paying the offering.” The construction approximates a temporal clause.
[30:15] 3 tn This infinitive construct (לְכַפֵּר, lÿkhapper) provides the purpose of the giving the offering – to atone.
[12:4] 1 sn Later Judaism ruled that “too small” meant fewer than ten (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 88).
[12:4] 2 tn The clause uses the comparative min (מִן) construction: יִמְעַט הַבַּיִת מִהְיֹת מִשֶּׂה (yim’at habbayit mihyot miseh, “the house is small from being from a lamb,” or “too small for a lamb”). It clearly means that if there were not enough people in the household to have a lamb by themselves, they should join with another family. For the use of the comparative, see GKC 430 §133.c.
[12:4] 3 tn Heb “he and his neighbor”; the referent (the man) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[12:4] 4 tn Heb “who is near to his house.”
[12:4] 5 tn The construction uses a perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive after a conditional clause: “if the household is too small…then he and his neighbor will take.”
