Exodus 4:14

4:14 Then the Lord became angry with ¹  Moses, and he said, “What about ²  your brother Aaron the Levite? ³  I know that he can speak very well. ⁴  Moreover, he is coming ⁵  to meet you, and when he sees you he will be glad in his heart. ⁶ 

Exodus 4:21

4:21 The Lord said ⁷  to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, ⁸  see that you ⁹  do before Pharaoh all the wonders I have put under your control. ¹⁰  But I will harden ¹¹  his heart ¹²  and ¹³  he will not let the people go.

Exodus 9:14

9:14 For this time I will send all my plagues ¹⁴  on your very self ¹⁵  and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth.

Exodus 11:10

11:10 So Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not release the Israelites from his land.

Exodus 35:21-22

35:21 Everyone ¹⁶  whose heart stirred him to action ¹⁷  and everyone whose spirit was willing ¹⁸  came and brought the offering for the Lord for the work of the tent of meeting, for all its service, and for the holy garments. ¹⁹  35:22 They came, men and women alike, ²⁰  all who had willing hearts. They brought brooches, earrings, rings and ornaments, all kinds of gold jewelry, ²¹  and everyone came who waved ²²  a wave offering of gold to the Lord.

Exodus 35:29

35:29 The Israelites brought a freewill offering to the Lord, every man and woman whose heart was willing to bring materials for all the work that the Lord through ²³  Moses had commanded them ²⁴  to do.

Exodus 35:35--36:1

35:35 He has filled them with skill ²⁵  to do all kinds of work ²⁶  as craftsmen, as designers, as embroiderers in blue, purple, and scarlet yarn and in fine linen, and as weavers. They are ²⁷  craftsmen in all the work ²⁸  and artistic designers. ²⁹  36:1 So Bezalel and Oholiab and every skilled person ³⁰  in whom the Lord has put skill ³¹  and ability ³²  to know how ³³  to do all the work for the service ³⁴  of the sanctuary are to do the work ³⁵  according to all that the Lord has commanded.”

Exodus 36:8

The Building of the Tabernacle

36:8 All the skilled among those who were doing the work made the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twisted linen and blue and purple and scarlet; they were made with cherubim that were the work of an artistic designer.

[4:14]  ¹ tn Heb “and the anger of Yahweh burned against.”

[4:14]  ² tn Heb “Is not” or perhaps “Is [there] not.”

[4:14]  ³ sn S. R. Driver (Exodus, 29) suggests that the term “Levite” may refer to a profession rather than ancestry here, because both Moses and Aaron were from the tribe of Levi and there would be little point in noting that ancestry for Aaron. In thinking through the difficult problem of the identity of Levites, he cites McNeile as saying “the Levite” referred to one who had had official training as a priest (cf. Judg 17:7, where a member of the tribe of Judah was a Levite). If it was the duty of the priest to give “torah” – to teach – then some training in the power of language would have been in order.

[4:14]  ⁴ tn The construction uses the Piel infinitive absolute and the Piel imperfect to express the idea that he spoke very well: דַבֵּר יְדַבֵּר (dabber yÿdabber).

[4:14]  ⁵ tn The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) with the participle points to the imminent future; it means “he is about to come” or “here he is coming.”

[4:14]  ⁶ sn It is unlikely that this simply means that as a brother he will be pleased to see Moses, for the narrative has no time for that kind of comment. It is interested in more significant things. The implication is that Aaron will rejoice because of the revelation of God to Moses and the plan to deliver Israel from bondage (see B. Jacob, Exodus, 93).

[4:21]  ⁷ tn Heb “And Yahweh said.”

[4:21]  ⁸ tn The construction may involve a verbal hendiadys using the two infinitive forms: “when you go to return” (בְּלֶכְתְּךָ לָשׁוּב, bÿlekhtÿkha lashuv). The clause is temporal, subordinated to the instruction to do the signs. Therefore, its focus cannot be on going to return, i.e., preparing or beginning to return.

[4:21]  ⁹ tn The two verb forms in this section are the imperative (רְאֵה, rÿ’eh) followed by the perfect with the vav (וַעֲשִׂיתָם, va’asitam). The second could be coordinated and function as a second command: “see…and [then] do”; or it could be subordinated logically: “see…so that you do.” Some commentators who take the first option suggest that Moses was supposed to contemplate these wonders before doing them before Pharaoh. That does not seem as likely as the second interpretation reflected in the translation.

[4:21]  ¹⁰ tn Or “in your power”; Heb “in your hand.”

[4:21]  ¹¹ tn Heb “strengthen” (in the sense of making stubborn or obstinate). The text has the expression וַאֲנִי אֲחַזֵּק אֶת־לִבּוֹ (va’ani ’akhazzeq ’et-libbo), “I will make strong his will,” or “I will strengthen his resolve,” recognizing the “heart” as the location of decision making (see Prov 16:1, 9).

[4:21]  ¹² sn Here is the first mention of the hardening of the heart of Pharaoh. God first tells Moses he must do the miracles, but he also announces that he will harden Pharaoh’s heart, as if working against Moses. It will help Moses to know that God is bringing about the resistance in order to bring a greater victory with greater glory. There is a great deal of literature on this, but see among the resources F. W. Danker, “Hardness of Heart: A Study in Biblical Thematic,” CTM 44 (1973): 89-100; R. R. Wilson, “The Hardening of Pharaoh’s Heart,” CBQ 41 (1979): 18-36; and R. B. Chisholm Jr., “Divine Hardening in the Old Testament,” BSac 153 (1996): 410-34.

[4:21]  ¹³ tn Or “so that.”

[9:14]  ¹³ tn The expression “all my plagues” points to the rest of the plagues and anticipates the proper outcome. Another view is to take the expression to mean the full brunt of the attack on the Egyptian people.

[9:14]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “to your heart.” The expression is unusual, but it may be an allusion to the hard heartedness of Pharaoh – his stubbornness and blindness (B. Jacob, Exodus, 274).

[35:21]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “man.”

[35:21]  ²⁰ tn The verb means “lift up, bear, carry.” Here the subject is “heart” or will, and so the expression describes one moved within to act.

[35:21]  ²¹ tn Heb “his spirit made him willing.” The verb is used in Scripture for the freewill offering that people brought (Lev 7).

[35:21]  ²² tn Literally “the garments of holiness,” the genitive is the attributive genitive, marking out what type of garments these were.

[35:22]  ²⁵ tn The expression in Hebrew is “men on/after the women,” meaning men with women, to ensure that it was clear that the preceding verse did not mean only men. B. Jacob takes it further, saying that the men came after the women because the latter had taken the initiative (Exodus, 1017).

[35:22]  ²⁶ tn Heb “all gold utensils.”

[35:22]  ²⁷ tn The verb could be translated “offered,” but it is cognate with the following noun that is the wave offering. This sentence underscores the freewill nature of the offerings people made. The word “came” is supplied from v. 21 and v. 22.

[35:29]  ³¹ tn Heb “by the hand of.”

[35:29]  ³² tn Here “them” has been supplied.

[35:35]  ³⁷ tn The expression “wisdom of heart,” or “wisdom in heart,” means artistic skill. The decisions and plans they make are skilled. The expression forms a second accusative after the verb of filling.

[35:35]  ³⁸ tn The expression “all the work” means “all kinds of work.”

[35:35]  ³⁹ tn Here “They are” has been supplied.

[35:35]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “doers of all work.”

[35:35]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “designers of designs.”

[36:1]  ⁴³ tn Heb “wise of [in] heart.”

[36:1]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “wisdom.”

[36:1]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “understanding, discernment.”

[36:1]  ⁴⁶ tn The relative clause includes this infinitive clause that expresses either the purpose or the result of God’s giving wisdom and understanding to these folk.

[36:1]  ⁴⁷ tn This noun is usually given an interpretive translation. B. Jacob renders the bound relationship as “the holy task” or “the sacred task” (Exodus, 1019). The NIV makes it “constructing,” so read “the work of constructing the sanctuary.”

[36:1]  ⁴⁸ tn The first word of the verse is a perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive; it is singular because it agrees with the first of the compound subject. The sentence is a little cumbersome because of the extended relative clause in the middle.