Exodus 3:16

3:16 “Go and bring together ¹  the elders of Israel and tell them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, ²  appeared ³  to me – the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – saying, “I have attended carefully ⁴  to you and to what has been done ⁵  to you in Egypt,

Exodus 16:32

16:32 Moses said, “This is what ⁶  the Lord has commanded: ‘Fill an omer with it to be kept ⁷  for generations to come, ⁸  so that they may see ⁹  the food I fed you in the desert when I brought you out from the land of Egypt.’”

Exodus 32:8

32:8 They have quickly turned aside ¹⁰  from the way that I commanded them – they have made for themselves a molten calf and have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt.’”

Exodus 34:20

34:20 Now the firstling ¹¹  of a donkey you may redeem with a lamb, but if you do not redeem it, then break its neck. ¹²  You must redeem all the firstborn of your sons.

“No one will appear before me empty-handed. ¹³ 

[3:16]  ¹ tn The form is the perfect tense with the sequential vav (ו) linking the nuance to the imperative that precedes it. Since the imperative calls for immediate action, this form either carries the same emphasis, or instructs action that immediately follows it. This applies likewise to “say,” which follows.

[3:16]  ² sn “The God of your fathers” is in simple apposition to the name “the Lord” (Heb “Yahweh”) as a recognizable identification. If the holy name were a new one to the Israelites, an explanation would have been needed. Meanwhile, the title “God of my/your/our father(s)” was widely used in the ancient Near East and also in Genesis (26:24; 28:13; 31:5, 29; 46:1, 3; N. M. Sarna, Exodus [JPSTC], 268).

[3:16]  ³ tn The form is the Niphal perfect of the verb “to see.” See the note on “appeared” in 3:2.

[3:16]  ⁴ tn The verb פָּקַד (paqad) has traditionally been rendered “to visit.” This only partially communicates the point of the word. When God “visited” someone, it meant that he intervened in their lives to change their circumstances or their destiny. When he visited the Amalekites, he destroyed them (1 Sam 15:2). When he visited Sarah, he provided the long awaited child (Gen 21:1). It refers to God’s active involvement in human affairs for blessing or for cursing. Here it would mean that God had begun to act to deliver the Israelites from bondage and give them the blessings of the covenant. The form is joined here with the infinitive absolute to underscore the certainty – “I have indeed visited you.” Some translate it “remember”; others say “watch over.” These do not capture the idea of intervention to bless, and often with the idea of vengeance or judgment on the oppressors. If God were to visit what the Egyptians did, he would stop the oppression and also bring retribution for it. The nuance of the perfect tense could be a perfect of resolve (“I have decided to visit”), or an instantaneous perfect ( “I hereby visit”), or a prophetic perfect (“I have visited” = “I will visit”). The infinitive absolute reinforces the statement (so “carefully”), the rendering “attended to” attempts to convey the ideas of personal presence, mental awareness, and action, as when a nurse or physician “attends” a patient.

[3:16]  ⁵ tn The second object for the verb is the passive participle הֶעָשׂוּי (he’asuy). To say that God has visited the oppression (or “attended to” it) affirms that God has decided to judge the oppressing people as he blesses Israel.

[16:32]  ⁶ tn Heb “This is the thing that.”

[16:32]  ⁷ tn Heb “for keeping.”

[16:32]  ⁸ tn Heb “according to your generations” (see Exod 12:14).

[16:32]  ⁹ tn In this construction after the particle expressing purpose or result, the imperfect tense has the nuance of final imperfect, equal to a subjunctive in the classical languages.

[32:8]  ¹¹ tn The verb is a perfect tense, reflecting the present perfect nuance: “they have turned aside” and are still disobedient. But the verb is modified with the adverb “quickly” (actually a Piel infinitive absolute). It has been only a matter of weeks since they heard the voice of God prohibiting this.

[34:20]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and the one that opens [the womb of] the donkey.”

[34:20]  ¹⁷ sn See G. Brin, “The Firstling of Unclean Animals,” JQR 68 (1971): 1-15.

[34:20]  ¹⁸ tn The form is the adverb “empty.”