Exodus 34:33

34:33 When Moses finished ¹  speaking ²  with them, he would ³  put a veil on his face.

Exodus 5:13

5:13 The slave masters were pressuring ⁴  them, saying, “Complete ⁵  your work for each day, just like when there was straw!”

Exodus 32:10

32:10 So now, leave me alone ⁶  so that my anger can burn against them and I can destroy them, and I will make from you a great nation.”

Exodus 31:18

31:18 He gave Moses two tablets of testimony when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, tablets of stone written by the finger of God. ⁷ 

Exodus 33:3

33:3 Go up ⁸  to a land flowing with milk and honey. But ⁹  I will not go up among you, for you are a stiff-necked people, and I might destroy you ¹⁰  on the way.”

Exodus 39:32

Moses Inspects the Sanctuary

39:32 ¹¹ So all the work of the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, was completed, and the Israelites did according to all that the Lord had commanded Moses – they did it exactly so.

Exodus 40:33

40:33 And he set up the courtyard around the tabernacle and the altar, and put the curtain at the gate of the courtyard. So Moses finished the work.

Exodus 5:14

5:14 The Israelite foremen whom Pharaoh’s slave masters had set over them were beaten and were asked, ¹²  “Why did you not complete your requirement for brickmaking as in the past – both yesterday and today?” ¹³ 

Exodus 32:12

32:12 Why ¹⁴  should the Egyptians say, ¹⁵  ‘For evil ¹⁶  he led them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy ¹⁷  them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger, and relent ¹⁸  of this evil against your people.

Exodus 33:5

33:5 For ¹⁹  the Lord had said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. If I went up among you for a moment, ²⁰  I might destroy you. Now take off your ornaments, ²¹  that I may know ²²  what I should do to you.’” ²³ 

[34:33]  ¹ tn Heb “and Moses finished”; the clause is subordinated as a temporal clause to the next clause.

[34:33]  ² 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]  ³ tn Throughout this section the actions of Moses and the people are frequentative. The text tells what happened regularly.

[5:13]  ⁴ tn Or “pressed.”

[5:13]  ⁵ tn כַּלּוּ (kallu) is the Piel imperative; the verb means “to finish, complete” in the sense of filling up the quota.

[32:10]  ⁷ tn The imperative, from the word “to rest” (נוּחַ, nuakh), has the sense of “leave me alone, let me be.” It is a directive for Moses not to intercede for the people. B. S. Childs (Exodus [OTL], 567) reflects the Jewish interpretation that there is a profound paradox in God’s words. He vows the severest punishment but then suddenly conditions it on Moses’ agreement. “Let me alone that I may consume them” is the statement, but the effect is that he has left the door open for intercession. He allows himself to be persuaded – that is what a mediator is for. God could have slammed the door (as when Moses wanted to go into the promised land). Moreover, by alluding to the promise to Abraham God gave Moses the strongest reason to intercede.

[31:18]  ¹⁰ sn The expression “the finger of God” has come up before in the book, in the plagues (Exod 8:15) to express that it was a demonstration of the power and authority of God. So here too the commandments given to Moses on stone tablets came from God. It too is a bold anthropomorphism; to attribute such a material action to Yahweh would have been thought provoking to say the least. But by using “God” and by stating it in an obviously figurative way, balance is maintained. Since no one writes with one finger, the expression simply says that the Law came directly from God.

[33:3]  ¹³ tn This verse seems to be a continuation of the command to “go up” since it begins with “to a land….” The intervening clauses are therefore parenthetical or relative. But the translation is made simpler by supplying the verb.

[33:3]  ¹⁴ tn This is a strong adversative here, “but.”

[33:3]  ¹⁵ tn The clause is “lest I consume you.” It would go with the decision not to accompany them: “I will not go up with you…lest I consume (destroy) you in the way.” The verse is saying that because of the people’s bent to rebellion, Yahweh would not remain in their midst as he had formerly said he would do. Their lives would be at risk if he did.

[39:32]  ¹⁶ sn The last sections of the book bring several themes together to a full conclusion. Not only is it the completion of the tabernacle, it is the fulfillment of God’s plan revealed at the beginning of the book, i.e., to reside with his people.

[5:14]  ¹⁹ tn The quotation is introduced with the common word לֵאמֹר (le’mor, “saying”) and no mention of who said the question.

[5:14]  ²⁰ sn The idioms for time here are found also in 3:10 and 5:7-8. This question no doubt represents many accusations shouted at Israelites during the period when it was becoming obvious that, despite all their efforts, they were unable to meet their quotas as before.

[32:12]  ²² tn The question is rhetorical; it really forms an affirmation that is used here as a reason for the request (see GKC 474 §150.e).

[32:12]  ²³ tn Heb “speak, saying.” This is redundant in English and has been simplified in the translation.

[32:12]  ²⁴ tn The word “evil” means any kind of life-threatening or fatal calamity. “Evil” is that which hinders life, interrupts life, causes pain to life, or destroys it. The Egyptians would conclude that such a God would have no good intent in taking his people to the desert if now he destroyed them.

[32:12]  ²⁵ tn The form is a Piel infinitive construct from כָּלָה (kalah, “to complete, finish”) but in this stem, “bring to an end, destroy.” As a purpose infinitive this expresses what the Egyptians would have thought of God’s motive.

[32:12]  ²⁶ tn The verb “repent, relent” when used of God is certainly an anthropomorphism. It expresses the deep pain that one would have over a situation. Earlier God repented that he had made humans (Gen 6:6). Here Moses is asking God to repent/relent over the judgment he was about to bring, meaning that he should be moved by such compassion that there would be no judgment like that. J. P. Hyatt observes that the Bible uses so many anthropomorphisms because the Israelites conceived of God as a dynamic and living person in a vital relationship with people, responding to their needs and attitudes and actions (Exodus [NCBC], 307). See H. V. D. Parunak, “A Semantic Survey of NHM,” Bib 56 (1975): 512-32.

[33:5]  ²⁵ tn The verse simply begins “And Yahweh said.” But it is clearly meant to be explanatory for the preceding action of the people.

[33:5]  ²⁶ tn The construction is formed with a simple imperfect in the first half and a perfect tense with vav (ו) in the second half. Heb “[in] one moment I will go up in your midst and I will destroy you.” The verse is certainly not intended to say that God was about to destroy them. That, plus the fact that he has announced he will not go in their midst, leads most commentators to take this as a conditional clause: “If I were to do such and such, then….”

[33:5]  ²⁷ tn The Hebrew text also has “from on you.”

[33:5]  ²⁸ tn The form is the cohortative with a vav (ו) following the imperative; it therefore expresses the purpose or result: “strip off…that I may know.” The call to remove the ornaments must have been perceived as a call to show true repentance for what had happened. If they repented, then God would know how to deal with them.

[33:5]  ²⁹ tn This last clause begins with the interrogative “what,” but it is used here as an indirect interrogative. It introduces a noun clause, the object of the verb “know.”