Exodus 3:1

3:1 Now Moses ¹  was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert ²  and came to the mountain of God, to Horeb. ³ 

Exodus 8:17

8:17 They did so; Aaron extended his hand with his staff, he struck the dust of the ground, and it became gnats on people ⁴  and on animals. All the dust of the ground became gnats throughout all the land of Egypt.

Exodus 10:13-14

10:13 So Moses extended his staff over the land of Egypt, and then the Lord ⁵  brought ⁶  an east wind on the land all that day and all night. ⁷  The morning came, ⁸  and the east wind had brought up ⁹  the locusts! 10:14 The locusts went up over all the land of Egypt and settled down in all the territory ¹⁰  of Egypt. It was very severe; ¹¹  there had been no locusts like them before, nor will there be such ever again. ¹² 

Exodus 32:23

32:23 They said to me, ‘Make us gods that will go before us, for as for this fellow Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’

[3:1]  ¹ sn The vav (ו) disjunctive with the name “Moses” introduces a new and important starting point. The Lord’s dealing with Moses will fill the next two chapters.

[3:1]  ² tn Or “west of the desert,” taking אַחַר (’akhar, “behind”) as the opposite of עַל־פְּנֵי (’al-pÿne, “on the face of, east of”; cf. Gen 16:12; 25:18).

[3:1]  ³ sn “Horeb” is another name for Mount Sinai. There is a good deal of foreshadowing in this verse, for later Moses would shepherd the people of Israel and lead them to Mount Sinai to receive the Law. See D. Skinner, “Some Major Themes of Exodus,” Mid-America Theological Journal 1 (1977): 31-42.

[8:17]  ⁴ tn Heb “man,” but in the generic sense of “humans” or “people” (also in v. 18).

[10:13]  ⁷ tn The clause begins וַיהוָה (va’adonay [vayhvah], “Now Yahweh….”). In contrast to a normal sequence, this beginning focuses attention on Yahweh as the subject of the verb.

[10:13]  ⁸ tn The verb נָהַג (nahag) means “drive, conduct.” It is elsewhere used for driving sheep, leading armies, or leading in processions.

[10:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “and all the night.”

[10:13]  ¹⁰ tn The text does not here use ordinary circumstantial clause constructions; rather, Heb “the morning was, and the east wind carried the locusts.” It clearly means “when it was morning,” but the style chosen gives a more abrupt beginning to the plague, as if the reader is in the experience – and at morning, the locusts are there!

[10:13]  ¹¹ tn The verb here is a past perfect, indicting that the locusts had arrived before the day came.

[10:14]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “border.”

[10:14]  ¹¹ tn This is an interpretive translation. The clause simply has כָּבֵד מְאֹד (kaved mÿ’od), the stative verb with the adverb – “it was very heavy.” The description prepares for the following statement about the uniqueness of this locust infestation.

[10:14]  ¹² tn Heb “after them.”