Exodus 2:17

2:17 When some ¹  shepherds came and drove them away, ²  Moses came up and defended them ³  and then watered their flock.

Exodus 2:19

2:19 They said, “An Egyptian man rescued us ⁴  from the shepherds, ⁵  and he actually ⁶  drew water for us and watered the flock!”

Exodus 4:27

4:27 The Lord said ⁷  to Aaron, “Go to the wilderness to meet Moses. So he went and met him at the mountain of God ⁸  and greeted him with a kiss. ⁹ 

Exodus 18:7

18:7 Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him; ¹⁰  they each asked about the other’s welfare, and then they went into the tent.

Exodus 32:20

32:20 He took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire, ground it ¹¹  to powder, poured it out on the water, and made the Israelites drink it. ¹² 

[2:17]  ¹ tn The definite article here is the generic use; it simply refers to a group of shepherds.

[2:17]  ² tn The actions of the shepherds are subordinated to the main statement about what Moses did.

[2:17]  ³ sn The verb used here is וַיּוֹשִׁעָן (vayyoshi’an, “and he saved them”). The word means that he came to their rescue and delivered them. By the choice of words the narrator is portraying Moses as the deliverer – he is just not yet ready to deliver Israel from its oppressors.

[2:19]  ⁴ sn Continuing the theme of Moses as the deliverer, the text now uses another word for salvation (נָצַל, natsal, “to deliver, rescue”) in the sense of plucking out or away, snatching out of danger.

[2:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “from the hand of the shepherds” (so NASB); NAB “saved us from the interference of the shepherds.” Most recent English versions translate simply “from the shepherds.”

[2:19]  ⁶ tn The construction is emphatic with the use of the perfect tense and its infinitive absolute: דָלָה דָּלֹה (daloh dalah). B. Jacob says, “They showed their enthusiasm through the use of the infinitive absolute – And think of that, he even drew water for us; a man did this for us girls” (Exodus, 41).

[4:27]  ⁷ tn Heb “And Yahweh said.”

[4:27]  ⁸ tn S. R. Driver considers that this verse is a continuation of vv. 17 and 18 and that Aaron met Moses before Moses started back to Egypt (Exodus, 33). The first verb, then, might have the nuance of a past perfect: Yahweh had said.

[4:27]  ⁹ tn Heb “and kissed him.”

[18:7]  ¹⁰ sn This is more than polite oriental custom. Jethro was Moses’ benefactor, father-in-law, and a priest. He paid much respect to him. Now he could invite Jethro into his home (see B. Jacob, Exodus, 496).

[32:20]  ¹³ tn Here “it” has been supplied.

[32:20]  ¹⁴ tn Here “it” has been supplied.