Exodus 23:5

23:5 If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen under its load, you must not ignore him, ¹  but be sure to help ²  him with it. ³ 

Exodus 2:20

2:20 He said ⁴  to his daughters, “So where is he? ⁵  Why in the world ⁶  did you leave the man? Call him, so that he may eat ⁷  a meal ⁸  with us.”

Exodus 9:21

9:21 but those ⁹  who did not take ¹⁰  the word of the Lord seriously left their servants and their cattle ¹¹  in the field.

[23:5]  ¹ tn The line reads “you will cease to forsake him” – refrain from leaving your enemy without help.

[23:5]  ² tn The law is emphatic here as well, using the infinitive absolute and the imperfect of instruction (or possibly obligation). There is also a wordplay here: two words עָזַב (’azav) are used, one meaning “forsake” and the other possibly meaning “arrange” based on Arabic and Ugaritic evidence (see U. Cassuto, Exodus, 297-98).

[23:5]  ³ sn See H. B. Huffmon, “Exodus 23:4-5: A Comparative Study,” A Light Unto My Path, 271-78.

[2:20]  ⁴ tn Heb “And he said.”

[2:20]  ⁵ tn The conjunction vav (ו) joins Reuel’s question to what the daughters said as logically following with the idea, “If he has done all that you say, why is he not here for me to meet?” (see GKC 485 §154.b).

[2:20]  ⁶ tn This uses the demonstrative pronoun as an enclitic, for emphasis (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 24, §118). The question reads more literally, “Why [is] this [that] you left him?”

[2:20]  ⁷ tn The imperfect tense coming after the imperative indicates purpose.

[2:20]  ⁸ tn Heb “bread,” i.e., “food.”

[9:21]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew text again has the singular.

[9:21]  ⁸ tn Heb “put to his heart.”

[9:21]  ⁹ tn Heb “his servants and his cattle.”