Exodus 3:5

3:5 God ¹  said, “Do not approach any closer! ²  Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ³  ground.” ⁴ 

Exodus 13:2

13:2 “Set apart ⁵  to me every firstborn male – the first offspring of every womb ⁶  among the Israelites, whether human or animal; it is mine.” ⁷ 

Exodus 22:31

22:31 “You will be holy ⁸  people to me; you must not eat any meat torn by animals in the field. ⁹  You must throw it to the dogs.

Exodus 29:33-34

29:33 They are to eat those things by which atonement was made ¹⁰  to consecrate and to set them apart, but no one else ¹¹  may eat them, for they are holy. 29:34 If any of the meat from the consecration offerings ¹²  or any of the bread is left over ¹³  until morning, then you are to burn up ¹⁴  what is left over. It must not be eaten, ¹⁵  because it is holy.

Exodus 29:37

29:37 For seven days ¹⁶  you are to make atonement for the altar and set it apart as holy. Then the altar will be most holy. ¹⁷  Anything that touches the altar will be holy. ¹⁸ 

Exodus 30:10

30:10 Aaron is to make atonement on its horns once in the year with some of the blood of the sin offering for atonement; ¹⁹  once in the year ²⁰  he is to make atonement on it throughout your generations. It is most holy to the Lord.” ²¹ 

Exodus 30:36

30:36 You are to beat some of it very fine and put some of it before the ark of the testimony in the tent of meeting where I will meet with you; it is to be most holy to you.

Exodus 31:15

31:15 Six days ²²  work may be done, ²³  but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of complete rest, ²⁴  holy to the Lord; anyone who does work on the Sabbath day must surely be put to death.

Exodus 35:2

35:2 In six days ²⁵  work may be done, but on the seventh day there must be a holy day ²⁶  for you, a Sabbath of complete rest to the Lord. ²⁷  Anyone who does work on it will be put to death.

Exodus 39:30

39:30 They made a plate, the holy diadem, of pure gold and wrote on it an inscription, as on the engravings of a seal, “Holiness to the Lord.”

Exodus 40:9-10

40:9 And take ²⁸  the anointing oil, and anoint ²⁹  the tabernacle and all that is in it, and sanctify ³⁰  it and all its furnishings, and it will be holy. 40:10 Then you are to anoint the altar for the burnt offering with ³¹  all its utensils; you are to sanctify the altar, and it will be the most holy altar.

[3:5]  ¹ tn Heb “And he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:5]  ² sn Even though the Lord was drawing near to Moses, Moses could not casually approach him. There still was a barrier between God and human, and God had to remind Moses of this with instructions. The removal of sandals was, and still is in the East, a sign of humility and reverence in the presence of the Holy One. It was a way of excluding the dust and dirt of the world. But it also took away personal comfort and convenience and brought the person more closely in contact with the earth.

[3:5]  ³ sn The word קֹדֶשׁ (qodesh, “holy”) indicates “set apart, distinct, unique.” What made a mountain or other place holy was the fact that God chose that place to reveal himself or to reside among his people. Because God was in this place, the ground was different – it was holy.

[3:5]  ⁴ tn The causal clause includes within it a typical relative clause, which is made up of the relative pronoun, then the independent personal pronoun with the participle, and then the preposition with the resumptive pronoun. It would literally be “which you are standing on it,” but the relative pronoun and the resumptive pronoun are combined and rendered, “on which you are standing.”

[13:2]  ⁵ tn The verb “sanctify” is the Piel imperative of קָדַשׁ (qadash). In the Qal stem it means “be holy, be set apart, be distinct,” and in this stem “sanctify, set apart.”

[13:2]  ⁶ tn The word פֶּטֶּר (petter) means “that which opens”; this construction literally says, “that which opens every womb,” which means “the first offspring of every womb.” Verses 12 and 15 further indicate male offspring.

[13:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “to me it.” The preposition here expresses possession; the construction is simply “it [is, belongs] to me.”

[22:31]  ⁹ sn The use of this word here has to do with the laws of the sanctuary and not some advanced view of holiness. The ritual holiness at the sanctuary would prohibit eating anything torn to pieces.

[22:31]  ¹⁰ tn Or “by wild animals.”

[29:33]  ¹³ tn The clause is a relative clause modifying “those things,” the direct object of the verb “eat.” The relative clause has a resumptive pronoun: “which atonement was made by them” becomes “by which atonement was made.” The verb is a Pual perfect of כִּפֵּר (kipper, “to expiate, atone, pacify”).

[29:33]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew word is “stranger, alien” (זָר, zar). But in this context it means anyone who is not a priest (see S. R. Driver, Exodus, 324).

[29:34]  ¹⁷ tn Or “ordination offerings” (Heb “fillings”).

[29:34]  ¹⁸ tn The verb in the conditional clause is a Niphal imperfect of יָתַר (yatar); this verb is repeated in the next clause (as a Niphal participle) as the direct object of the verb “you will burn” (a Qal perfect with a vav [ו] consecutive to form the instruction).

[29:34]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “burn with fire.”

[29:34]  ²⁰ tn The verb is a Niphal imperfect negated. It expresses the prohibition against eating this, but in the passive voice: “it will not be eaten,” or stronger, “it must not be eaten.”

[29:37]  ²¹ tn Once again this is an adverbial accusative of time. Each day for seven days the ritual at the altar is to be followed.

[29:37]  ²² tn The construction is the superlative genitive: “holy of holies,” or “most holy.”

[29:37]  ²³ sn This line states an unusual principle, meant to preserve the sanctity of the altar. S. R. Driver explains it this way (Exodus, 325): If anything comes in contact with the altar, it becomes holy and must remain in the sanctuary for Yahweh’s use. If a person touches the altar, he likewise becomes holy and cannot return to the profane regions. He will be given over to God to be dealt with as God pleases. Anyone who was not qualified to touch the altar did not dare approach it, for contact would have meant that he was no longer free to leave but was God’s holy possession – and might pay for it with his life (see Exod 30:29; Lev 6:18b, 27; and Ezek 46:20).

[30:10]  ²⁵ tn The word “atonements” (plural in Hebrew) is a genitive showing the result or product of the sacrifice made.

[30:10]  ²⁶ sn This ruling presupposes that the instruction for the Day of Atonement has been given, or at the very least, is to be given shortly. That is the one day of the year that all sin and all ritual impurity would be removed.

[30:10]  ²⁷ sn The phrase “most holy to the Lord” means that the altar cannot be used for any other purpose than what is stated here.

[31:15]  ²⁹ tn This is an adverbial accusative of time, indicating that work may be done for six days out of the week.

[31:15]  ³⁰ tn The form is a Niphal imperfect; it has the nuance of permission in this sentence, for the sentence is simply saying that the six days are work days – that is when work may be done.

[31:15]  ³¹ tn The expression is שַׁבַּת שַׁבָּתוֹן (shabbat shabbaton), “a Sabbath of entire rest,” or better, “a sabbath of complete desisting” (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 404). The second noun, the modifying genitive, is an abstract noun. The repetition provides the superlative idea that complete rest is the order of the day.

[35:2]  ³³ tn This is an adverbial accusative of time.

[35:2]  ³⁴ tn The word is קֹדֶשׁ (qodesh, “holiness”). S. R. Driver suggests that the word was transposed, and the line should read: “a sabbath of entire rest, holy to Jehovah” (Exodus, 379). But the word may simply be taken as a substitution for “holy day.”

[35:2]  ³⁵ sn See on this H. Routtenberg, “The Laws of the Sabbath: Biblical Sources,” Dor le Dor 6 (1977): 41-43, 99-101, 153-55, 204-6; G. Robinson, “The Idea of Rest in the Old Testament and the Search for the Basic Character of Sabbath,” ZAW 92 (1980): 32-43.

[40:9]  ³⁷ tn Heb “you will take” (perfect with vav, ו).

[40:9]  ³⁸ tn Heb “and you will anoint” (perfect with vav, ו).

[40:9]  ³⁹ tn Heb “and you will sanctify” (perfect with vav, ו).

[40:10]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “and.”