Exodus 24:5

24:5 He sent young Israelite men, ¹  and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls for peace offerings ²  to the Lord.

Exodus 2:6

2:6 opened it, ³  and saw the child ⁴  – a boy, ⁵  crying! ⁶  – and she felt compassion ⁷  for him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.”

Exodus 10:9

10:9 Moses said, “We will go with our young and our old, with our sons and our daughters, and with our sheep and our cattle we will go, because we are to hold ⁸  a pilgrim feast for the Lord.”

Exodus 33:11

33:11 The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, ⁹  the way a person speaks ¹⁰  to a friend. Then Moses ¹¹  would return to the camp, but his servant, Joshua son of Nun, a young man, did not leave the tent. ¹² 

[24:5]  ¹ tn The construct has “young men of the Israelites,” and so “Israelite” is a genitive that describes them.

[24:5]  ² tn The verbs and their respective accusatives are cognates. First, they offered up burnt offerings (see Lev 1), which is וַיַּעֲלוּ עֹלֹת (vayya’alu ’olot); then they sacrificed young bulls as peace sacrifices (Lev 3), which is in Hebrew וַיִּזְבְּחוּ זְבָחִים (vayyizbÿkhu zÿvakhim). In the first case the cognate accusative is the direct object; in the second it is an adverbial accusative of product. See on this covenant ritual H. M. Kamsler, “The Blood Covenant in the Bible,” Dor le Dor 6 (1977): 94-98; E. W. Nicholson, “The Covenant Ritual in Exodus 24:3-8,” VT 32 (1982): 74-86.

[2:6]  ³ tn Heb “and she opened.”

[2:6]  ⁴ tn The grammatical construction has a pronominal suffix on the verb as the direct object along with the expressed object: “and she saw him, the child.” The second object defines the previous pronominal object to avoid misunderstanding (see GKC 425 §131.m).

[2:6]  ⁵ tn The text has נַעַר (na’ar, “lad, boy, young man”), which in this context would mean a baby boy.

[2:6]  ⁶ tn This clause is introduced with a disjunctive vav and the deictic particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “behold” in the KJV). The particle in this kind of clause introduces the unexpected – what Pharaoh’s daughter saw when she opened the basket: “and look, there was a baby boy crying.” The clause provides a parenthetical description of the child as she saw him when she opened the basket and does not advance the narrative. It is an important addition, however, for it puts readers in the position of looking with her into the basket and explains her compassion.

[2:6]  ⁷ tn The verb could be given a more colloquial translation such as “she felt sorry for him.” But the verb is stronger than that; it means “to have compassion, to pity, to spare.” What she felt for the baby was strong enough to prompt her to spare the child from the fate decreed for Hebrew boys. Here is part of the irony of the passage: What was perceived by many to be a womanly weakness – compassion for a baby – is a strong enough emotion to prompt the woman to defy the orders of Pharaoh. The ruler had thought sparing women was safe, but the midwives, the Hebrew mother, the daughter of Pharaoh, and Miriam, all work together to spare one child – Moses (cf. 1 Cor 1:27-29).

[10:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “we have a pilgrim feast (חַג, khag) to Yahweh.”

[33:11]  ⁷ tn “Face to face” is circumstantial to the action of the verb, explaining how they spoke (see GKC 489-90 §156.c). The point of this note of friendly relationship with Moses is that Moses was “at home” in this tent speaking with God. Moses would derive courage from this when he interceded for the people (B. Jacob, Exodus, 966).

[33:11]  ⁸ tn The verb in this clause is a progressive imperfect.

[33:11]  ⁹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[33:11]  ¹⁰ sn Moses did not live in the tent. But Joshua remained there most of the time to guard the tent, it seems, lest any of the people approach it out of curiosity.