Exodus 3:3

3:3 So Moses thought, ¹  “I will turn aside to see ²  this amazing ³  sight. Why does the bush not burn up?” ⁴ 

Exodus 11:6

11:6 There will be a great cry throughout the whole land of Egypt, such as there has never been, ⁵  nor ever will be again. ⁶ 

Exodus 14:31

14:31 When Israel saw ⁷  the great power ⁸  that the Lord had exercised ⁹  over the Egyptians, they ¹⁰  feared the Lord, and they believed in ¹¹  the Lord and in his servant Moses. ¹² 

Exodus 15:16

15:16 Fear and dread ¹³  will fall ¹⁴  on them;

by the greatness ¹⁵  of your arm they will be as still as stone ¹⁶ 

until ¹⁷  your people pass by, O Lord,

until the people whom you have bought ¹⁸  pass by.

Exodus 32:21

32:21 Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you, that you have brought on them so great a sin?”

Exodus 32:30-31

32:30 The next day Moses said to the people, ¹⁹  “You have committed a very serious sin, ²⁰  but now I will go up to the Lord – perhaps I can make atonement ²¹  on behalf of your sin.”

32:31 So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Alas, this people has committed a very serious sin, ²²  and they have made for themselves gods of gold.

[3:3]  ¹ tn Heb “And Moses said.” The implication is that Moses said this to himself.

[3:3]  ² tn The construction uses the cohortative אָסֻרָה־נָּא (’asura-nna’) followed by an imperfect with vav (וְאֶרְאֶה, vÿ’er’eh) to express the purpose or result (logical sequence): “I will turn aside in order that I may see.”

[3:3]  ³ tn Heb “great.” The word means something extraordinary here. In using this term Moses revealed his reaction to the strange sight and his anticipation that something special was about to happen. So he turned away from the flock to investigate.

[3:3]  ⁴ tn The verb is an imperfect. Here it has the progressive nuance – the bush is not burning up.

[11:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “which like it there has never been.”

[11:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “and like it it will not add.”

[14:31]  ⁹ tn The preterite with the vav (ו) consecutive introduces a clause that is subordinate to the main points that the verse is making.

[14:31]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the great hand,” with “hand” being a metonymy for work or power. The word play using “hand” contrasts the Lord’s hand/power at work on behalf of the Israelites with the hand/power of Egypt that would have killed them.

[14:31]  ¹¹ tn Heb “did, made.”

[14:31]  ¹² tn Heb “and the people feared.”

[14:31]  ¹³ tn The verb is the Hiphil preterite of אָמַן (’aman).

[14:31]  ¹⁴ sn Here the title of “servant” is given to Moses. This is the highest title a mortal can have in the OT – the “servant of Yahweh.” It signifies more than a believer; it describes the individual as acting on behalf of God. For example, when Moses stretched out his hand, God used it as his own (Isa 63:12). Moses was God’s personal representative. The chapter records both a message of salvation and of judgment. Like the earlier account of deliverance at the Passover, this chapter can be a lesson on deliverance from present troubles – if God could do this for Israel, there is no trouble too great for him to overcome. The passage can also be understood as a picture (at least) of the deliverance at the final judgment on the world. But the Israelites used this account for a paradigm of the power of God: namely, God is able to deliver his people from danger because he is the sovereign Lord of creation. His people must learn to trust him, even in desperate situations; they must fear him and not the situation. God can bring any threat to an end by bringing his power to bear in judgment on the wicked.

[15:16]  ¹³ tn The two words can form a nominal hendiadys, “a dreadful fear,” though most English versions retain the two separate terms.

[15:16]  ¹⁴ tn The form is an imperfect.

[15:16]  ¹⁵ tn The adjective is in construct form and governs the noun “arm” (“arm” being the anthropomorphic expression for what God did). See GKC 428 §132.c.

[15:16]  ¹⁶ sn For a study of the words for fear, see N. Waldman, “A Comparative Note on Exodus 15:14-16,” JQR 66 (1976): 189-92.

[15:16]  ¹⁷ tn Clauses beginning with עַד (’ad) express a limit that is not absolute, but only relative, beyond which the action continues (GKC 446-47 §138.g).

[15:16]  ¹⁸ tn The verb קָנָה (qanah) here is the verb “acquire, purchase,” and probably not the homonym “to create, make” (see Gen 4:1; Deut 32:6; and Prov 8:22).

[32:30]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and it was on the morrow and Moses said to the people.”

[32:30]  ¹⁸ tn The text uses a cognate accusative: “you have sinned a great sin.”

[32:30]  ¹⁹ tn The form אֲכַפְּרָה (’akhappÿrah) is a Piel cohortative/imperfect. Here with only a possibility of being successful, a potential imperfect nuance works best.

[32:31]  ²¹ tn As before, the cognate accusative is used; it would literally be “this people has sinned a great sin.”