Exodus 3:17

3:17 and I have promised ¹  that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, ²  to a land flowing with milk and honey.”’

Exodus 6:4

6:4 I also established my covenant with them ³  to give them the land of Canaan, where they were living as resident foreigners. ⁴ 

Exodus 8:24

8:24 The Lord did so; a ⁵  thick ⁶  swarm of flies came into ⁷  Pharaoh’s house and into the houses ⁸  of his servants, and throughout the whole land of Egypt the land was ruined ⁹  because of the swarms of flies.

Exodus 9:9

9:9 It will become fine dust over the whole land of Egypt and will cause boils to break out and fester ¹⁰  on both people and animals in all the land of Egypt.”

Exodus 20:4

20:4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image ¹¹  or any likeness ¹²  of anything ¹³  that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water below. ¹⁴ 

[3:17]  ¹ tn Heb “And I said.”

[3:17]  ² tn See the note on this list in 3:8.

[6:4]  ³ tn The statement refers to the making of the covenant with Abraham (Gen 15 and following) and confirming it with the other patriarchs. The verb הֲקִמֹתִי (haqimoti) means “set up, establish, give effect to, conclude” a covenant agreement. The covenant promised the patriarchs a great nation, a land – Canaan, and divine blessing. They lived with those promises, but now their descendants were in bondage in Egypt. God’s reference to the covenant here is meant to show the new revelation through redemption will start to fulfill the promises and show what the reality of the name Yahweh is to them.

[6:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “the land of their sojournings.” The noun מְגֻרִים (mÿgurim) is a reminder that the patriarchs did not receive the promises. It is also an indication that those living in the age of promise did not experience the full meaning of the name of the covenant God. The “land of their sojournings” is the land of Canaan where the family lived (גּרוּ, garu) as foreigners, without owning property or having the rights of kinship with the surrounding population.

[8:24]  ⁵ tn Heb “and there came a….”

[8:24]  ⁶ tn Heb “heavy,” or “severe.”

[8:24]  ⁷ tn Here, and in the next phrase, the word “house” has to be taken as an adverbial accusative of termination.

[8:24]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew text has the singular here.

[8:24]  ⁹ tc Concerning the connection of “the land was ruined” with the preceding, S. R. Driver (Exodus, 68) suggests reading with the LXX, Smr, and Peshitta; this would call for adding a conjunction before the last clause to make it read, “into the house of Pharaoh, and into his servants’ houses, and into all the land of Egypt; and the land was…”

[9:9]  ⁷ tn The word שְׁחִין (shÿkhin) means “boils.” It may be connected to an Arabic cognate that means “to be hot.” The illness is associated with Job (Job 2:7-8) and Hezekiah (Isa 38:21); it has also been connected with other skin diseases described especially in the Law. The word connected with it is אֲבַעְבֻּעֹת (’ava’bu’ot); this means “blisters, pustules” and is sometimes translated as “festering.” The etymology is debated, whether from a word meaning “to swell up” or “to overflow” (W. C. Kaiser, Jr., “Exodus,” EBC 2:359).

[20:4]  ⁹ tn A פֶּסֶל (pesel) is an image that was carved out of wood or stone. The Law was concerned with a statue that would be made for the purpose of worship, an idol to be venerated, and not any ordinary statue.

[20:4]  ¹⁰ tn The word תְּמוּנָה (tÿmunah) refers to the mental pattern from which the פֶּסֶל (pesel) is constructed; it is a real or imagined resemblance. If this is to stand as a second object to the verb, then the verb itself takes a slightly different nuance here. It would convey “you shall not make an image, neither shall you conceive a form” for worship (B. Jacob, Exodus, 547). Some simply make the second word qualify the first: “you shall not make an idol in the form of…” (NIV).

[20:4]  ¹¹ tn Here the phrase “of anything” has been supplied.

[20:4]  ¹² tn Heb “under the earth” (so KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV).