Exodus 18:16

18:16 When they have a dispute, ¹  it comes to me and I decide ²  between a man and his neighbor, and I make known the decrees of God and his laws.” ³ 

Exodus 25:20

25:20 The cherubim are to be spreading their wings upward, overshadowing ⁴  the atonement lid with their wings, and the cherubim are to face each other, ⁵  looking ⁶  toward the atonement lid.

Exodus 36:29

36:29 At the two corners ⁷  they were doubled at the lower end and ⁸  finished together at the top in one ring. So he did for both.

Exodus 37:17

The Making of the Lampstand

37:17 He made the lampstand of pure gold. He made the lampstand of hammered metal; its base and its shaft, its cups, its buds, and its blossoms were from the same piece. ⁹ 

[18:16]  ¹ tn Or “thing,” “matter,” “issue.”

[18:16]  ² tn The verb שָׁפַט (shafat) means “to judge”; more specifically, it means to make a decision as an arbiter or umpire. When people brought issues to him, Moses decided between them. In the section of laws in Exodus after the Ten Commandments come the decisions, the מִשְׁפָּטִים (mishppatim).

[18:16]  ³ tn The “decrees” or “statutes” were definite rules, stereotyped and permanent; the “laws” were directives or pronouncements given when situations arose. S. R. Driver suggests this is another reason why this event might have taken place after Yahweh had given laws on the mountain (Exodus, 165).

[25:20]  ⁴ tn The verb means “overshadowing, screening” in the sense of guarding (see 1 Kgs 8:7; 1 Chr 28:18; see also the account in Gen 3:24). The cherubim then signify two things here: by their outstretched wings they form the throne of God who sits above the ark (with the Law under his feet), and by their overshadowing and guarding they signify this as the place of atonement where people must find propitiation to commune with God. Until then they are barred from his presence. See U. Cassuto, Exodus, 330-35.

[25:20]  ⁵ tn Heb “their faces a man to his brother.”

[25:20]  ⁶ tn Heb “the faces of the cherubim will be” (“the cherubim” was moved to the preceding clause for smoother English).

[36:29]  ⁷ tn This is the last phrase of the verse, moved forward for clarity.

[36:29]  ⁸ tn This difficult verse uses the perfect tense at the beginning, and the second clause parallels it with יִהְיוּ (yihyu), which has to be taken here as a preterite without the consecutive vav (ו). The predicate “finished” or “completed” is the word תָּמִּים (tammim); it normally means “complete, sound, whole,” and related words describe the sacrifices as without blemish.

[37:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “from it”; the referent (“the same piece” of wrought metal) has been specified in the translation for clarity.