Exodus 3:11

3:11 Moses said ¹  to God, ²  “Who am I, that I should go ³  to Pharaoh, or that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

Exodus 4:2

4:2 The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.” ⁴ 

Exodus 6:5

6:5 I ⁵  have also heard ⁶  the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, ⁷  and I have remembered my covenant. ⁸ 

Exodus 15:6

15:6 Your right hand, O Lord, was majestic ⁹  in power,

your right hand, O Lord, shattered the enemy.

Exodus 21:16

21:16 “Whoever kidnaps someone ¹⁰  and sells him, ¹¹  or is caught still holding him, ¹²  must surely be put to death.

Exodus 24:2

24:2 Moses alone may come ¹³  near the Lord, but the others ¹⁴  must not come near, ¹⁵  nor may the people go up with him.”

Exodus 25:34

25:34 On the lampstand there are to be four cups shaped like almond flowers with buds and blossoms,

Exodus 32:33

32:33 The Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me – that person I will wipe out of my book.

[3:11]  ¹ tn Heb “And Moses said.”

[3:11]  ² sn When he was younger, Moses was confident and impulsive, but now that he is older the greatness of the task makes him unsure. The remainder of this chapter and the next chapter record the four difficulties of Moses and how the Lord answers them (11-12, 13-22; then 4:1-9; and finally 4:10-17).

[3:11]  ³ tn The imperfect tense אֵלֵךְ (’elekh) carries the modal nuance of obligatory imperfect, i.e., “that I should go.” Moses at this point is overwhelmed with the task of representing God, and with his personal insufficiency, and so in honest humility questions the choice.

[4:2]  ⁴ tn Or “rod” (KJV, ASV); NCV, CEV “walking stick”; NLT “shepherd’s staff.”

[6:5]  ⁷ tn The addition of the independent pronoun אֲנִי (’ani, “I”) emphasizes the fact that it was Yahweh himself who heard the cry.

[6:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “And also I have heard.”

[6:5]  ⁹ tn The form is the Hiphil participle מַעֲבִדִים (ma’avidim, “causing to serve”). The participle occurs in a relative clause that modifies “the Israelites.” The clause ends with the accusative “them,” which must be combined with the relative pronoun for a smooth English translation. So “who the Egyptians are enslaving them,” results in the translation “whom the Egyptians are enslaving.”

[6:5]  ¹⁰ tn As in Exod 2:24, this remembering has the significance of God’s beginning to act to fulfill the covenant promises.

[15:6]  ¹⁰ tn The form נֶאְדָּרִי (ne’dari) may be an archaic infinitive with the old ending i, used in place of the verb and meaning “awesome.” Gesenius says that the vowel ending may be an old case ending, especially when a preposition is inserted between the word and its genitive (GKC 253 §90.l), but he suggests a reconstruction of the form.

[21:16]  ¹³ tn Heb “a stealer of a man,” thus “anyone stealing a man.”

[21:16]  ¹⁴ sn The implication is that it would be an Israelite citizen who was kidnapped and sold to a foreign tribe or country (like Joseph). There was always a market for slaves. The crime would be in forcibly taking the individual away from his home and religion and putting him into bondage or death.

[21:16]  ¹⁵ tn Literally “and he is found in his hand” (KJV and ASV both similar), being not yet sold.

[24:2]  ¹⁶ tn The verb is a perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive; it and the preceding perfect tense follow the imperative, and so have either a force of instruction, or, as taken here, are the equivalent of an imperfect tense (of permission).

[24:2]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “they.”

[24:2]  ¹⁸ tn Now the imperfect tense negated is used; here the prohibition would fit (“they will not come near”), or the obligatory (“they must not”) in which the subjects are obliged to act – or not act in this case.