Exodus 17:4-5

17:4 Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What will I do with ¹  this people? – a little more ²  and they will stone me!” ³  17:5 The Lord said to Moses, “Go over before the people; ⁴  take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand your staff with which you struck the Nile and go.

[17:4]  ¹ tn The preposition lamed (ל) is here specification, meaning “with respect to” (see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 49, §273).

[17:4]  ² tn Or “they are almost ready to stone me.”

[17:4]  ³ tn The perfect tense with the vav (ו) consecutive almost develops an independent force; this is true in sentences where it follows an expression of time, as here (see GKC 334 §112.x).

[17:5]  ⁴ tn “Pass over before” indicates that Moses is the leader who goes first, and the people follow him. In other words, לִפְנֵי (lifney) indicates time and not place here (B. Jacob, Exodus, 477-78).