Exodus 18:11

18:11 Now I know that the Lord is greater than all the gods, for in the thing in which they dealt proudly against them he has destroyed them.” ¹ 

Exodus 32:10

32:10 So now, leave me alone ²  so that my anger can burn against them and I can destroy them, and I will make from you a great nation.”

Exodus 3:3

3:3 So Moses thought, ³  “I will turn aside to see ⁴  this amazing ⁵  sight. Why does the bush not burn up?” ⁶ 

Exodus 11:6

11:6 There will be a great cry throughout the whole land of Egypt, such as there has never been, ⁷  nor ever will be again. ⁸ 

Exodus 14:31

14:31 When Israel saw ⁹  the great power ¹⁰  that the Lord had exercised ¹¹  over the Egyptians, they ¹²  feared the Lord, and they believed in ¹³  the Lord and in his servant Moses. ¹⁴ 

Exodus 15:16

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

by the greatness ¹⁷  of your arm they will be as still as stone ¹⁸ 

until ¹⁹  your people pass by, O Lord,

until the people whom you have bought ²⁰  pass by.

Exodus 32:21

32:21 Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you, that you have brought on them so great a sin?”

Exodus 32:30-31

32:30 The next day Moses said to the people, ²¹  “You have committed a very serious sin, ²²  but now I will go up to the Lord – perhaps I can make atonement ²³  on behalf of your sin.”

32:31 So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Alas, this people has committed a very serious sin, ²⁴  and they have made for themselves gods of gold.

Exodus 6:6

6:6 Therefore, tell the Israelites, ‘I am the Lord. I will bring you out ²⁵  from your enslavement to ²⁶  the Egyptians, I will rescue you from the hard labor they impose, ²⁷  and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.

Exodus 7:4

7:4 Pharaoh will not listen to you. ²⁸  I will reach into ²⁹  Egypt and bring out my regiments, ³⁰  my people the Israelites, from the land of Egypt with great acts of judgment.

Exodus 11:3

11:3 (Now the Lord granted the people favor with ³¹  the Egyptians. Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, respected by Pharaoh’s servants and by the Egyptian people.) ³² 

Exodus 12:30

12:30 Pharaoh got up ³³  in the night, ³⁴  along with all his servants and all Egypt, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was no house ³⁵  in which there was not someone dead.

Exodus 18:22

18:22 They will judge ³⁶  the people under normal circumstances, ³⁷  and every difficult case ³⁸  they will bring to you, but every small case ³⁹  they themselves will judge, so that ⁴⁰  you may make it easier for yourself, ⁴¹  and they will bear the burden ⁴²  with you.

Exodus 32:11

32:11 But Moses sought the favor ⁴³  of the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your anger burn against your people, whom you have brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?

[18:11]  ¹ tn The end of this sentence seems not to have been finished, or it is very elliptical. In the present translation the phrase “he has destroyed them” is supplied. Others take the last prepositional phrase to be the completion and supply only a verb: “[he was] above them.” U. Cassuto (Exodus, 216) takes the word “gods” to be the subject of the verb “act proudly,” giving the sense of “precisely (כִּי, ki) in respect of these things of which the gods of Egypt boasted – He is greater than they (עֲלֵיהֶם, ‘alehem).” He suggests rendering the clause, “excelling them in the very things to which they laid claim.”

[32:10]  ² tn The imperative, from the word “to rest” (נוּחַ, nuakh), has the sense of “leave me alone, let me be.” It is a directive for Moses not to intercede for the people. B. S. Childs (Exodus [OTL], 567) reflects the Jewish interpretation that there is a profound paradox in God’s words. He vows the severest punishment but then suddenly conditions it on Moses’ agreement. “Let me alone that I may consume them” is the statement, but the effect is that he has left the door open for intercession. He allows himself to be persuaded – that is what a mediator is for. God could have slammed the door (as when Moses wanted to go into the promised land). Moreover, by alluding to the promise to Abraham God gave Moses the strongest reason to intercede.

[3:3]  ³ tn Heb “And Moses said.” The implication is that Moses said this to himself.

[3:3]  ⁴ tn The construction uses the cohortative אָסֻרָה־נָּא (’asura-nna’) followed by an imperfect with vav (וְאֶרְאֶה, vÿ’er’eh) to express the purpose or result (logical sequence): “I will turn aside in order that I may see.”

[3:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “great.” The word means something extraordinary here. In using this term Moses revealed his reaction to the strange sight and his anticipation that something special was about to happen. So he turned away from the flock to investigate.

[3:3]  ⁶ tn The verb is an imperfect. Here it has the progressive nuance – the bush is not burning up.

[11:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “which like it there has never been.”

[11:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “and like it it will not add.”

[14:31]  ⁵ tn The preterite with the vav (ו) consecutive introduces a clause that is subordinate to the main points that the verse is making.

[14:31]  ⁶ tn Heb “the great hand,” with “hand” being a metonymy for work or power. The word play using “hand” contrasts the Lord’s hand/power at work on behalf of the Israelites with the hand/power of Egypt that would have killed them.

[14:31]  ⁷ tn Heb “did, made.”

[14:31]  ⁸ tn Heb “and the people feared.”

[14:31]  ⁹ tn The verb is the Hiphil preterite of אָמַן (’aman).

[14:31]  ¹⁰ sn Here the title of “servant” is given to Moses. This is the highest title a mortal can have in the OT – the “servant of Yahweh.” It signifies more than a believer; it describes the individual as acting on behalf of God. For example, when Moses stretched out his hand, God used it as his own (Isa 63:12). Moses was God’s personal representative. The chapter records both a message of salvation and of judgment. Like the earlier account of deliverance at the Passover, this chapter can be a lesson on deliverance from present troubles – if God could do this for Israel, there is no trouble too great for him to overcome. The passage can also be understood as a picture (at least) of the deliverance at the final judgment on the world. But the Israelites used this account for a paradigm of the power of God: namely, God is able to deliver his people from danger because he is the sovereign Lord of creation. His people must learn to trust him, even in desperate situations; they must fear him and not the situation. God can bring any threat to an end by bringing his power to bear in judgment on the wicked.

[15:16]  ⁶ tn The two words can form a nominal hendiadys, “a dreadful fear,” though most English versions retain the two separate terms.

[15:16]  ⁷ tn The form is an imperfect.

[15:16]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ 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).

[32:30]  ⁷ tn Heb “and it was on the morrow and Moses said to the people.”

[32:30]  ⁸ tn The text uses a cognate accusative: “you have sinned a great sin.”

[32:30]  ⁹ tn The form אֲכַפְּרָה (’akhappÿrah) is a Piel cohortative/imperfect. Here with only a possibility of being successful, a potential imperfect nuance works best.

[32:31]  ⁸ tn As before, the cognate accusative is used; it would literally be “this people has sinned a great sin.”

[6:6]  ⁹ sn The verb וְהוֹצֵאתִי (vÿhotse’ti) is a perfect tense with the vav (ו) consecutive, and so it receives a future translation – part of God’s promises. The word will be used later to begin the Decalogue and other covenant passages – “I am Yahweh who brought you out….”

[6:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “from under the burdens of” (so KJV, NASB); NIV “from under the yoke of.”

[6:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “from labor of them.” The antecedent of the pronoun is the Egyptians who have imposed slave labor on the Hebrews.

[7:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and Pharaoh will not listen.”

[7:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “put my hand into.” The expression is a strong anthropomorphism to depict God’s severest judgment on Egypt. The point is that neither the speeches of Moses and Aaron nor the signs that God would do will be effective. Consequently, God would deliver the blow that would destroy.

[7:4]  ¹² tn See the note on this term in 6:26.

[11:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

[11:3]  ¹² tn Heb “in the eyes of the servants of Pharaoh and in the eyes of the people.” In the translation the word “Egyptian” has been supplied to clarify that the Egyptians and not the Israelites are meant here.

[12:30]  ¹² tn Heb “arose,” the verb קוּם (qum) in this context certainly must describe a less ceremonial act. The entire country woke up in terror because of the deaths.

[12:30]  ¹³ tn The noun is an adverbial accusative of time – “in the night” or “at night.”

[12:30]  ¹⁴ sn Or so it seemed. One need not push this description to complete literalness. The reference would be limited to houses that actually had firstborn people or animals. In a society in which households might include more than one generation of humans and animals, however, the presence of a firstborn human or animal would be the rule rather than the exception.

[18:22]  ¹³ tn The form is the perfect tense with the vav (ו) consecutive, making it equivalent to the imperfect of instruction in the preceding verse.

[18:22]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “in every time,” meaning “in all normal cases” or “under normal circumstances.” The same phrase occurs in v. 26.

[18:22]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “great thing.”

[18:22]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “thing.”

[18:22]  ¹⁷ tn The vav here shows the result or the purpose of the instructions given.

[18:22]  ¹⁸ tn The expression וְהָקֵל מֵעָלֶיךָ (vÿhaqel me’aleykha) means literally “and make it light off yourself.” The word plays against the word for “heavy” used earlier – since it was a heavy or burdensome task, Moses must lighten the load.

[18:22]  ¹⁹ tn Here “the burden” has been supplied.

[32:11]  ¹⁴ tn S. R. Driver (Exodus, 351) draws on Arabic to show that the meaning of this verb (חָלָה, khalah) was properly “make sweet the face” or “stroke the face”; so here “to entreat, seek to conciliate.” In this prayer, Driver adds, Moses urges four motives for mercy: 1) Israel is Yahweh’s people, 2) Israel’s deliverance has demanded great power, 3) the Egyptians would mock if the people now perished, and 4) the oath God made to the fathers.