Exodus 2:7

2:7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get ¹  a nursing woman ²  for you from the Hebrews, so that she may nurse ³  the child for you?”

Exodus 2:9

2:9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child ⁴  and nurse him for me, and I will pay your ⁵  wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him.

Exodus 3:11

3:11 Moses said ⁶  to God, ⁷  “Who am I, that I should go ⁸  to Pharaoh, or that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

Exodus 4:19

4:19 The Lord said to Moses in Midian, “Go back ⁹  to Egypt, because all the men who were seeking your life are dead.” ¹⁰ 

Exodus 5:4

5:4 The king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you cause the people to refrain from their work? ¹¹  Return to your labor!”

Exodus 5:7

5:7 “You must no longer ¹²  give straw to the people for making bricks ¹³  as before. ¹⁴  Let them go ¹⁵  and collect straw for themselves.

Exodus 7:15

7:15 Go to Pharaoh in the morning when ¹⁶  he goes out to the water. Position yourself ¹⁷  to meet him by the edge of the Nile, ¹⁸  and take ¹⁹  in your hand the staff ²⁰  that was turned into a snake.

Exodus 8:28

8:28 Pharaoh said, “I will release you ²¹  so that you may sacrifice ²²  to the Lord your God in the desert. Only you must not go very far. ²³  Do ²⁴  pray for me.”

Exodus 10:11

10:11 No! ²⁵  Go, you men ²⁶  only, and serve the Lord, for that ²⁷  is what you want.” ²⁸  Then Moses and Aaron ²⁹  were driven ³⁰  out of Pharaoh’s presence.

Exodus 10:28

10:28 Pharaoh said to him, “Go from me! ³¹  Watch out for yourself! Do not appear before me again, ³²  for when ³³  you see my face you will die!”

Exodus 15:22

The Bitter Water

15:22 ³⁴ Then Moses led Israel to journey ³⁵  away from the Red Sea. They went out to the Desert of Shur, walked for three days ³⁶  into the desert, and found no water.

Exodus 18:20

18:20 warn ³⁷  them of the statutes and the laws, and make known to them the way in which they must walk ³⁸  and the work they must do. ³⁹ 

Exodus 21:19

21:19 and then ⁴⁰  if he gets up and walks about ⁴¹  outside on his staff, then the one who struck him is innocent, except he must pay ⁴²  for the injured person’s ⁴³  loss of time ⁴⁴  and see to it that he is fully healed.

Exodus 23:23

23:23 For my angel will go before you and bring you to the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I will destroy them completely. ⁴⁵ 

Exodus 32:7

32:7 The Lord spoke to Moses: “Go quickly, descend, ⁴⁶  because your ⁴⁷  people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have acted corruptly.

[2:7]  ¹ sn The text uses קָרָא (qara’), meaning “to call” or “summon.” Pharaoh himself will “summon” Moses many times in the plague narratives. Here the word is used for the daughter summoning the child’s mother to take care of him. The narratives in the first part of the book of Exodus include a good deal of foreshadowing of events that occur in later sections of the book (see M. Fishbane, Biblical Text and Texture).

[2:7]  ² tn The object of the verb “get/summon” is “a woman.” But מֵינֶקֶת (meneqet, “nursing”), the Hiphil participle of the verb יָנַק (yanaq, “to suck”), is in apposition to it, clarifying what kind of woman should be found – a woman, a nursing one. Of course Moses’ mother was ready for the task.

[2:7]  ³ tn The form וְתֵינִק (vÿteniq) is the Hiphil imperfect/jussive, third feminine singular, of the same root as the word for “nursing.” It is here subordinated to the preceding imperfect (“shall I go”) and perfect with vav (ו) consecutive (“and summon”) to express the purpose: “in order that she may.”

[2:9]  ⁴ tn The verb is the Hiphil imperative of the verb הָלַךְ (halakh), and so is properly rendered “cause to go” or “take away.”

[2:9]  ⁵ tn The possessive pronoun on the noun “wage” expresses the indirect object: “I will pay wages to you.”

[3:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “And Moses said.”

[3:11]  ⁸ sn When he was younger, Moses was confident and impulsive, but now that he is older the greatness of the task makes him unsure. The remainder of this chapter and the next chapter record the four difficulties of Moses and how the Lord answers them (11-12, 13-22; then 4:1-9; and finally 4:10-17).

[3:11]  ⁹ tn The imperfect tense אֵלֵךְ (’elekh) carries the modal nuance of obligatory imperfect, i.e., “that I should go.” Moses at this point is overwhelmed with the task of representing God, and with his personal insufficiency, and so in honest humility questions the choice.

[4:19]  ¹⁰ tn The text has two imperatives, “Go, return”; if these are interpreted as a hendiadys (as in the translation), then the second is adverbial.

[4:19]  ¹¹ sn The text clearly stated that Pharaoh sought to kill Moses; so this seems to be a reference to Pharaoh’s death shortly before Moses’ return. Moses was forty years in Midian. In the 18th dynasty, only Pharaoh Thutmose III had a reign of the right length (1504-1450 b.c.) to fit this period of Moses’ life. This would place Moses’ returning to Egypt near 1450 b.c., in the beginning of the reign of Amenhotep II, whom most conservatives identify as the pharaoh of the exodus. Rameses II, of course, had a very long reign (1304-1236). But if he were the one from whom Moses fled, then he could not be the pharaoh of the exodus, but his son would be – and that puts the date of the exodus after 1236, a date too late for anyone. See E. H. Merrill, Kingdom of Priests, 62.

[5:4]  ¹³ sn The clause is a rhetorical question. Pharaoh is not asking them why they do this, but rather is accusing them of doing it. He suspects their request is an attempt to get people time away from their labor. In Pharaoh’s opinion, Moses and Aaron were “removing the restraint” (פָּרַע, para’) of the people in an effort to give them rest. Ironically, under the Law the people would be expected to cease their labor when they went to appear before God. He would give them the rest that Pharaoh refused to give. It should be noted also that it was not Israel who doubted that Yahweh had sent Moses, as Moses had feared – but rather Pharaoh.

[5:7]  ¹⁶ tn The construction is a verbal hendiadys: לֹא תֹאסִפוּן לָתֵת (lo’ to’sifun latet, “you must not add to give”). The imperfect tense acts adverbially, and the infinitive becomes the main verb of the clause: “you must no longer give.”

[5:7]  ¹⁷ tn The expression “for making bricks” is made of the infinitive construct followed by its cognate accusative: לִלְבֹּן הַלְּבֵנִים (lilbon hallÿvenim).

[5:7]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “as yesterday and three days ago” or “as yesterday and before that.” This is idiomatic for “as previously” or “as in the past.”

[5:7]  ¹⁹ tn The jussive יֵלְכוּ (yelÿkhu) and its following sequential verb would have the force of decree and not permission or advice. He is telling them to go and find straw or stubble for the bricks.

[7:15]  ¹⁹ tn The clause begins with הִנֵּה (hinneh); here it provides the circumstances for the instruction for Moses – he is going out to the water so go meet him. A temporal clause translation captures the connection between the clauses.

[7:15]  ²⁰ tn The instruction to Moses continues with this perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive following the imperative. The verb means “to take a stand, station oneself.” It seems that Pharaoh’s going out to the water was a regular feature of his day and that Moses could be there waiting to meet him.

[7:15]  ²¹ sn The Nile, the source of fertility for the country, was deified by the Egyptians. There were religious festivals held to the god of the Nile, especially when the Nile was flooding. The Talmud suggests that Pharaoh in this passage went out to the Nile to make observations as a magician about its level. Others suggest he went out simply to bathe or to check the water level – but that would not change the view of the Nile that was prevalent in the land.

[7:15]  ²² tn The verb תִּקַּח (tiqqakh), the Qal imperfect of לָקַח (laqakh), functions here as the imperfect of instruction, or injunction perhaps, given the word order of the clause.

[7:15]  ²³ tn The final clause begins with the noun and vav disjunctive, which singles this instruction out for special attention – “now the staff…you are to take.”

[8:28]  ²² sn By changing from “the people” to “you” (plural) the speech of Pharaoh was becoming more personal.

[8:28]  ²³ tn This form, a perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive, is equivalent to the imperfect tense that precedes it. However, it must be subordinate to the preceding verb to express the purpose. He is not saying “I will release…and you will sacrifice,” but rather “I will release…that you may sacrifice” or even “to sacrifice.”

[8:28]  ²⁴ tn The construction is very emphatic. First, it uses a verbal hendiadys with a Hiphil imperfect and the Qal infinitive construct: לֹא־תַרְחִיקוּ לָלֶכֶת (lo’ tarkhiqu lalekhet, “you will not make far to go”), meaning “you will not go far.” But this prohibition is then emphasized with the additional infinitive absolute הַרְחֵק (harkheq) – “you will in no wise go too far.” The point is very strong to safeguard the concession.

[8:28]  ²⁵ tn “Do” has been supplied here to convey that this somewhat unexpected command is tacked onto Pharaoh’s instructions as his ultimate concern, which Moses seems to understand as such, since he speaks about it immediately (v. 29).

[10:11]  ²⁵ tn Heb “not thus.”

[10:11]  ²⁶ tn The word is הַגְּבָרִים (haggÿvarim, “the strong men”), a word different from the more general one that Pharaoh’s servants used (v. 7). Pharaoh appears to be conceding, but he is holding hostages. The word “only” has been supplied in the translation to indicate this.

[10:11]  ²⁷ tn The suffix on the sign of the accusative refers in a general sense to the idea contained in the preceding clause (see GKC 440-41 §135.p).

[10:11]  ²⁸ tn Heb “you are seeking.”

[10:11]  ²⁹ tn Heb “they”; the referent (Moses and Aaron) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:11]  ³⁰ tn The verb is the Piel preterite, third person masculine singular, meaning “and he drove them out.” But “Pharaoh” cannot be the subject of the sentence, for “Pharaoh” is the object of the preposition. The subject is not specified, and so the verb can be treated as passive.

[10:28]  ²⁸ tn The expression is לֵךְ מֵעָלָי (lekh me’alay, “go from on me”) with the adversative use of the preposition, meaning from being a trouble or a burden to me (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 84; R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 51, §288).

[10:28]  ²⁹ tn Heb “add to see my face.” The construction uses a verbal hendiadys: “do not add to see” (אַל־תֹּסֶף רְאוֹת, ’al-toseph rÿ’ot), meaning “do not see again.” The phrase “see my face” means “come before me” or “appear before me.”

[10:28]  ³⁰ tn The construction is בְּיוֹם רְאֹתְךָ (bÿyom rÿ’otÿkha), an adverbial clause of time made up of the prepositional phrase, the infinitive construct, and the suffixed subjective genitive. “In the day of your seeing” is “when you see.”

[15:22]  ³¹ sn The first event of the Israelites’ desert experience is a failure, for they murmur against Yahweh and are given a stern warning – and the provision of sweet water. The event teaches that God is able to turn bitter water into sweet water for his people, and he promises to do such things if they obey. He can provide for them in the desert – he did not bring them into the desert to let them die. But there is a deeper level to this story – the healing of the water is incidental to the healing of the people, their lack of trust. The passage is arranged in a neat chiasm, starting with a journey (A), ending with the culmination of the journey (A'); developing to bitter water (B), resolving to sweet water (B'); complaints by the people (C), leading to to the instructions for the people (C'); and the central turning point is the wonder miracle (D).

[15:22]  ³² tn The verb form is unusual; the normal expression is with the Qal, which expresses that they journeyed. But here the Hiphil is used to underscore that Moses caused them to journey – and he is following God. So the point is that God was leading Israel to the bitter water.

[15:22]  ³³ sn The mention that they travelled for three days into the desert is deliberately intended to recall Moses’ demand that they go three days into the wilderness to worship. Here, three days in, they find bitter water and complain – not worship.

[18:20]  ³⁴ tn The perfect tense with the vav (ו) continues the sequence of instruction for Moses. He alone was to be the mediator, to guide them in the religious and moral instruction.

[18:20]  ³⁵ tn The verb and its following prepositional phrase form a relative clause, modifying “the way.” The imperfect tense should be given the nuance of obligatory imperfect – it is the way they must walk.

[18:20]  ³⁶ tn This last part is parallel to the preceding: “work” is also a direct object of the verb “make known,” and the relative clause that qualifies it also uses an obligatory imperfect.

[21:19]  ³⁷ tn “and then” has been supplied.

[21:19]  ³⁸ tn The verb is a Hitpael perfect with vav (ו) consecutive; it follows the sequence of the imperfect before it – “if he gets up and walks about.” This is proof of recovery.

[21:19]  ³⁹ tn The imperfect tense carries a nuance of obligatory imperfect because this is binding on the one who hit him.

[21:19]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “his”; the referent (the injured person) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:19]  ⁴¹ tn The word appears to be the infinitive from the verb “to sit” with a meaning of “his sitting down”; some suggest it is from the verb “to rest” with a meaning “cease.” In either case the point in the context must mean compensation is due for the time he was down.

[23:23]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “will cut them off” (so KJV, ASV).

[32:7]  ⁴³ tn The two imperatives could also express one idea: “get down there.” In other words, “Make haste to get down.”

[32:7]  ⁴⁴ sn By giving the people to Moses in this way, God is saying that they have no longer any right to claim him as their God, since they have shared his honor with another. This is God’s talionic response to their “These are your gods who brought you up.” The use of these pronoun changes also would form an appeal to Moses to respond, since Moses knew that God had brought them up from Egypt.