Exodus 34:30-35
Context34:30 When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face shone; 1 and they were afraid to approach him. 34:31 But Moses called to them, so Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and Moses spoke to them. 34:32 After this all the Israelites approached, and he commanded them all that the Lord had spoken to him on Mount Sinai. 34:33 When Moses finished 2 speaking 3 with them, he would 4 put a veil on his face. 34:34 But when Moses went in 5 before the Lord to speak with him, he would remove the veil until he came out. 6 Then he would come out and tell the Israelites what he had been commanded. 7 34:35 When the Israelites would see 8 the face of Moses, that 9 the skin of Moses’ face shone, Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with the Lord. 10
[34:30] 1 tn This clause is introduced by the deictic particle הִנֵּה (hinneh); it has the force of pointing to something surprising or sudden.
[34:33] 2 tn Heb “and Moses finished”; the clause is subordinated as a temporal clause to the next clause.
[34:33] 3 tn The Piel infinitive construct is the object of the preposition; the whole phrase serves as the direct object of the verb “finished.”
[34:33] 4 tn Throughout this section the actions of Moses and the people are frequentative. The text tells what happened regularly.
[34:34] 5 tn The construction uses a infinitive construct for the temporal clause; it is prefixed with the temporal preposition: “and in the going in of Moses.”
[34:34] 6 tn The temporal clause begins with the temporal preposition “until,” followed by an infinitive construct with the suffixed subjective genitive.
[34:34] 7 tn The form is the Pual imperfect, but since the context demands a past tense here, in fact a past perfect tense, this is probably an old preterite form without a vav consecutive.
[34:35] 8 tn Now the perfect tense with vav consecutive is subordinated to the next clause, “Moses returned the veil….”
[34:35] 9 tn Verbs of seeing often take two accusatives. Here, the second is the noun clause explaining what it was about the face that they saw.
[34:35] 10 tn Heb “with him”; the referent (the