Exodus 26:3

26:3 Five curtains are to be joined, ¹  one to another, ²  and the other ³  five curtains are to be joined, one to another.

Exodus 19:15

19:15 He said to the people, “Be ready for the third day. Do not go near your wives.” ⁴ 

Exodus 21:3

21:3 If he came ⁵  in by himself ⁶  he will go out by himself; if he had ⁷  a wife when he came in, then his wife will go out with him.

Exodus 2:7

2:7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get ⁸  a nursing woman ⁹  for you from the Hebrews, so that she may nurse ¹⁰  the child for you?”

Exodus 3:22

3:22 Every ¹¹  woman will ask her neighbor and the one who happens to be staying ¹²  in her house for items of silver and gold ¹³  and for clothing. You will put these articles on your sons and daughters – thus you will plunder Egypt!” ¹⁴ 

Exodus 21:4

21:4 If his master gave ¹⁵  him a wife, and she bore sons or daughters, the wife and the children will belong to her master, and he will go out by himself.

Exodus 26:5-6

26:5 You are to make fifty loops on the one curtain, and you are to make fifty loops on the end curtain which is on the second set, so that the loops are opposite one to another. ¹⁶  26:6 You are to make fifty gold clasps and join the curtains together with the clasps, so that the tabernacle is a unit. ¹⁷ 

Exodus 26:17

26:17 with two projections ¹⁸  per frame parallel one to another. ¹⁹  You are to make all the frames of the tabernacle in this way.

Exodus 29:18

29:18 and burn ²⁰  the whole ram on the altar. It is a burnt offering ²¹  to the Lord, a soothing aroma; it is an offering made by fire ²²  to the Lord. ²³ 

Exodus 29:25

29:25 Then you are to take them from their hands and burn ²⁴  them ²⁵  on the altar for a burnt offering, for a soothing aroma before the Lord. It is an offering made by fire to the Lord.

Exodus 29:41

29:41 The second lamb you are to offer around sundown; you are to prepare for it the same meal offering as for the morning and the same drink offering, for a soothing aroma, an offering made by fire to the Lord.

Exodus 30:20

30:20 When they enter ²⁶  the tent of meeting, they must wash with ²⁷  water so that they do not die. ²⁸  Also, when they approach ²⁹  the altar to minister by burning incense ³⁰  as an offering made by fire ³¹  to the Lord,

Exodus 35:25

35:25 Every woman who was skilled ³²  spun with her hands and brought what she had spun, blue, purple, or scarlet yarn, or fine linen,

Exodus 21:22

21:22 “If men fight and hit a pregnant woman and her child is born prematurely, ³³  but there is no serious injury, he will surely be punished in accordance with what the woman’s husband demands of him, and he will pay what the court decides. ³⁴ 

Exodus 21:28-29

Laws about Animals

21:28 ³⁵ “If an ox ³⁶  gores a man or a woman so that either dies, ³⁷  then the ox must surely ³⁸  be stoned and its flesh must not be eaten, but the owner of the ox will be acquitted. 21:29 But if the ox had the habit of goring, and its owner was warned, ³⁹  and he did not take the necessary precautions, ⁴⁰  and then it killed a man or a woman, the ox must be stoned and the man must be put to death.

[26:3]  ¹ tn This is the active participle, not the passive. It would normally be rendered “joining together.” The Bible uses the active because it has the result of the sewing in mind, namely, that every curtain accompanies another (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 348).

[26:3]  ² tn Heb “a woman to her sister,” this form of using nouns to express “one to another” is selected because “curtains” is a feminine noun (see GKC 448 §139.e).

[26:3]  ³ tn The phrase “the other” has been supplied.

[19:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “do not go near a woman”; NIV “Abstain from sexual relations.”

[21:3]  ⁷ tn The tense is imperfect, but in the conditional clause it clearly refers to action that is anterior to the action in the next clause. Heb “if he comes in single, he goes out single,” that is, “if he came in single, he will go out single.”

[21:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “with his back” meaning “alone.”

[21:3]  ⁹ tn The phrase says, “if he was the possessor of a wife”; the noun בַּעַל (ba’al) can mean “possessor” or “husband.” If there was a wife, she shared his fortunes or his servitude; if he entered with her, she would accompany him when he left.

[2:7]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² 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.”

[3:22]  ¹³ tn Heb “a woman,” one representing all.

[3:22]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “from the sojourner.” Both the “neighbor” and the “sojourner” (“one who happens to be staying in her house”) are feminine. The difference between them seems to be primarily that the second is temporary, “a lodger” perhaps or “visitor,” while the first has permanent residence.

[3:22]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “vessels of silver and vessels of gold.” These phrases both use genitives of material, telling what the vessels are made of.

[3:22]  ¹⁶ sn It is clear that God intended the Israelites to plunder the Egyptians, as they might a defeated enemy in war. They will not go out “empty.” They will “plunder” Egypt. This verb (וְנִצַּלְתֶּם [vÿnitsaltem] from נָצַל [natsal]) usually means “rescue, deliver,” as if plucking out of danger. But in this stem it carries the idea of plunder. So when the text says that they will ask (וְשָׁאֲלָה, vÿsha’alah) their neighbors for things, it implies that they will be making many demands, and the Egyptians will respond like a defeated nation before victors. The spoils that Israel takes are to be regarded as back wages or compensation for the oppression (see also Deut 15:13). See further B. Jacob, “The Gifts of the Egyptians, a Critical Commentary,” Journal of Reformed Judaism 27 (1980): 59-69; and T. C. Vriezen, “A Reinterpretation of Exodus 3:21-22 and Related Texts,” Ex Oriente Lux 23 (1975): 389-401.

[21:4]  ¹⁶ sn The slave would not have the right or the means to acquire a wife. Thus, the idea of the master’s “giving” him a wife is clear – the master would have to pay the bride price and make the provision. In this case, the wife and the children are actually the possession of the master unless the slave were to pay the bride price – but he is a slave because he got into debt. The law assumes that the master was better able to provide for this woman than the freed slave and that it was most important to keep the children with the mother.

[26:5]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “a woman to her sister.”

[26:6]  ²² tn Heb “one”; KJV “it shall be one tabernacle”; NRSV “that the tabernacle may be one whole”; NLT “a single unit.”

[26:17]  ²⁵ sn Heb “hands,” the reference is probably to projections that served as stays or supports. They may have been tenons, or pegs, projecting from the bottom of the frames to hold the frames in their sockets (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 286).

[26:17]  ²⁶ tn Or “being joined each to the other.”

[29:18]  ²⁸ tn Heb “turn to sweet smoke.”

[29:18]  ²⁹ sn According to Lev 1 the burnt offering (often called whole burnt offering, except that the skins were usually given to the priests for income) was an atoning sacrifice. By consuming the entire animal, God was indicating that he had completely accepted the worshiper, and as it was a sweet smelling fire sacrifice, he was indicating that he was pleased to accept it. By offering the entire animal, the worshiper was indicating on his part a complete surrender to God.

[29:18]  ³⁰ tn The word אִשֶּׁה (’isheh) has traditionally been translated “an offering made with fire” or the like, because it appears so obviously connected with fire. But further evidence from Ugaritic suggests that it might only mean “a gift” (see Milgrom, Leviticus 1-16, 161).

[29:18]  ³¹ sn These sections show that the priest had to be purified or cleansed from defilement of sin and also be atoned for and accepted by the Lord through the blood of the sacrifice. The principles from these two sacrifices should be basic to anyone seeking to serve God.

[29:25]  ³¹ tn “turn to sweet smoke.”

[29:25]  ³² tn “them” has been supplied.

[30:20]  ³⁴ tn The form is an infinitive construct with the temporal preposition bet (ב), and a suffixed subjective genitive: “in their going in,” or, whenever they enter.

[30:20]  ³⁵ tn “Water” is an adverbial accusative of means, and so is translated “with water.” Gesenius classifies this with verbs of “covering with something.” But he prefers to emend the text with a preposition (see GKC 369 §117.y, n. 1).

[30:20]  ³⁶ tn The verb is a Qal imperfect with a nuance of final imperfect. The purpose/result clause here is indicated only with the conjunction: “and they do not die.” But clearly from the context this is the intended result of their washing – it is in order that they not die.

[30:20]  ³⁷ tn Here, too, the infinitive is used in a temporal clause construction. The verb נָגַשׁ (nagash) is the common verb used for drawing near to the altar to make offerings – the official duties of the priest.

[30:20]  ³⁸ tn The text uses two infinitives construct: “to minister to burn incense”; the first is the general term and expresses the purpose of the drawing near, and the second infinitive is epexegetical, explaining the first infinitive.

[30:20]  ³⁹ tn The translation “as an offering made by fire” is a standard rendering of the one word in the text that appears to refer to “fire.” Milgrom and others contend that it simply means a “gift” (Leviticus 1-16, 161).

[35:25]  ³⁷ tn Heb “wisdom of heart,” which means that they were skilled and could make all the right choices about the work.

[21:22]  ⁴⁰ tn This line has occasioned a good deal of discussion. It may indicate that the child was killed, as in a miscarriage; or it may mean that there was a premature birth. The latter view is taken here because of the way the whole section is written: (1) “her children come out” reflects a birth and not the loss of children, (2) there is no serious damage, and (3) payment is to be set for any remuneration. The word אָסוֹן (’ason) is translated “serious damage.” The word was taken in Mekilta to mean “death.” U. Cassuto says the point of the phrase is that neither the woman or the children that are born die (Exodus, 275). But see among the literature on this: M. G. Kline, “Lex Talionis and the Human Fetus,” JETS 20 (1977): 193-201; W. House, “Miscarriage or Premature Birth: Additional Thoughts on Exodus 21:22-25,” WTJ 41 (1978): 108-23; S. E. Loewenstamm, “Exodus XXI 22-25,” VT 27 (1977): 352-60.

[21:22]  ⁴¹ tn The word בִּפְלִלִים (biflilim) means “with arbitrators.” The point then seems to be that the amount of remuneration for damages that was fixed by the husband had to be approved by the courts. S. R. Driver mentions an alternative to this unusual reading presented by Budde, reading בנפלים as “untimely birth” (Exodus, 219). See also E. A. Speiser, “The Stem PLL in Hebrew,” JBL 82 (1963): 301-6.

[21:28]  ⁴³ sn The point that this section of the laws makes is that one must ensure the safety of others by controlling the circumstances.

[21:28]  ⁴⁴ tn Traditionally “ox,” but “bull” would also be suitable. The term may refer to one of any variety of large cattle.

[21:28]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “and he dies”; KJV “that they die”; NAB, NASB “to death.”

[21:28]  ⁴⁶ tn The text uses סָקוֹל יִסָּקֵל (saqol yissaqel), a Qal infinitive absolute with a Niphal imperfect. The infinitive intensifies the imperfect, which here has an obligatory nuance or is a future of instruction.

[21:29]  ⁴⁶ tn The Hophal perfect has the idea of “attested, testified against.”

[21:29]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “he was not keeping it” or perhaps guarding or watching it (referring to the ox).