Exodus 20:25

20:25 If you make me an altar of stone, you must not build it ¹  of stones shaped with tools, ²  for if you use your tool on it you have defiled it. ³ 

Exodus 31:14

31:14 So you must keep the Sabbath, for it is holy for you. Everyone who defiles it ⁴  must surely be put to death; indeed, ⁵  if anyone does ⁶  any ⁷  work on it, then that person will be cut off from among his ⁸  people.

[20:25]  ¹ tn Heb “them” referring to the stones.

[20:25]  ² tn Heb “of hewn stones.” Gesenius classifies this as an adverbial accusative – “you shall not build them (the stones of the altar) as hewn stones.” The remoter accusative is in apposition to the nearer (GKC 372 §117.kk).

[20:25]  ³ tn The verb is a preterite with vav (ו) consecutive. It forms the apodosis in a conditional clause: “if you lift up your tool on it…you have defiled it.”

[31:14]  ⁴ tn This clause is all from one word, a Piel plural participle with a third, feminine suffix: מְחַלְלֶיהָ (mÿkhalleha, “defilers of it”). This form serves as the subject of the sentence. The word חָלַל (khalal) is the antonym of קָדַשׁ (qadash, “to be holy”). It means “common, profane,” and in the Piel stem “make common, profane” or “defile.” Treating the Sabbath like an ordinary day would profane it, make it common.

[31:14]  ⁵ tn This is the asseverative use of כִּי (ki) meaning “surely, indeed,” for it restates the point just made (see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 73, §449).

[31:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “the one who does.”

[31:14]  ⁷ tn “any” has been supplied.

[31:14]  ⁸ tn Literally “her” (a feminine pronoun agreeing with “soul/life,” which is grammatically feminine).