Exodus 4:16

4:16 He ¹  will speak for you to the people, and it will be as if ²  he ³  were your mouth ⁴  and as if you were his God. ⁵ 

Exodus 13:12

13:12 then you must give over ⁶  to the Lord the first offspring of every womb. ⁷  Every firstling ⁸  of a beast that you have ⁹  – the males will be the Lord’s. ¹⁰ 

Exodus 18:16

18:16 When they have a dispute, ¹¹  it comes to me and I decide ¹²  between a man and his neighbor, and I make known the decrees of God and his laws.” ¹³ 

Exodus 22:30

22:30 You must also do this for your oxen and for your sheep; seven days they may remain with their mothers, but give them to me on the eighth day.

Exodus 23:33

23:33 They must not live in your land, lest they make you sin against me, for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare ¹⁴  to you.”

Exodus 26:13

26:13 The foot and a half ¹⁵  on the one side and the foot and a half on the other side of what remains in the length of the curtains of the tent will hang over the sides of the tabernacle, on one side and the other side, to cover it. ¹⁶ 

Exodus 26:24

26:24 At the two corners ¹⁷  they must be doubled at the lower end and finished together at the top in one ring. So it will be for both.

Exodus 27:1

The Altar

27:1 “You are to make the ¹⁸  altar of acacia wood, seven feet six inches long, ¹⁹  and seven feet six inches wide; the altar is to be square, ²⁰  and its height is to be ²¹  four feet six inches.

Exodus 28:8

28:8 The artistically woven waistband ²²  of the ephod that is on it is to be like it, of one piece with the ephod, ²³  of gold, blue, purple, scarlet, and fine twisted linen.

Exodus 28:37

28:37 You are to attach to it a blue cord so that it will be ²⁴  on the turban; it is to be ²⁵  on the front of the turban,

Exodus 30:25

30:25 You are to make this ²⁶  into ²⁷  a sacred anointing oil, a perfumed compound, ²⁸  the work of a perfumer. It will be sacred anointing oil.

Exodus 30:32

30:32 It must not be applied ²⁹  to people’s bodies, and you must not make any like it with the same recipe. It is holy, and it must be holy to you.

Exodus 30:34

30:34 The Lord said to Moses: “Take ³⁰  spices, gum resin, ³¹  onycha, ³²  galbanum, ³³  and pure frankincense ³⁴  of equal amounts ³⁵ 

Exodus 34:12

34:12 Be careful not to make ³⁶  a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it become a snare ³⁷  among you.

Exodus 35:2

35:2 In six days ³⁸  work may be done, but on the seventh day there must be a holy day ³⁹  for you, a Sabbath of complete rest to the Lord. ⁴⁰  Anyone who does work on it will be put to death.

[4:16]  ¹ tn The word “he” represents the Hebrew independent pronoun, which makes the subject emphatic.

[4:16]  ² tn The phrase “as if” is supplied for clarity.

[4:16]  ³ tn Heb “and it will be [that] he, he will be to you for a mouth,” or more simply, “he will be your mouth.”

[4:16]  ⁴ tn Heb “he will be to you for a mouth.”

[4:16]  ⁵ tn The phrase “as if” is supplied for clarity. The word “you” represents the Hebrew independent pronoun, which makes the subject emphatic.

[13:12]  ⁶ tn The unusual choice of words in this passage reflects the connection with the deliverance of the firstborn in the exodus when the Lord passed over the Israelites (12:12, 23). Here the Law said, “you will cause to pass over (וְהַעֲבַרְתָּ, vÿha’avarta) to Yahweh.” The Hiphil perfect with the vav (ו) provides the main clause after the temporal clauses. Yahweh here claimed the firstborn as his own. The remarkable thing about this is that Yahweh did not keep the firstborn that was dedicated to him, but allowed the child to be redeemed by his father. It was an acknowledgment that the life of the child belonged to God as the one redeemed from death, and that the child represented the family. Thus, the observance referred to the dedication of all the redeemed to God.

[13:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “every opener of a womb,” that is, the firstborn from every womb.

[13:12]  ⁸ tn The descriptive noun שֶׁגֶר (sheger) is related to the verb “drop, cast”; it refers to a newly born animal that is dropped or cast from the womb. The expression then reads, “and all that first open [the womb], the casting of a beast.”

[13:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “that is to you.” The preposition expresses possession.

[13:12]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew text simply has “the males to Yahweh.” It indicates that the Lord must have them, or they belong to the Lord.

[18:16]  ¹¹ tn Or “thing,” “matter,” “issue.”

[18:16]  ¹² tn The verb שָׁפַט (shafat) means “to judge”; more specifically, it means to make a decision as an arbiter or umpire. When people brought issues to him, Moses decided between them. In the section of laws in Exodus after the Ten Commandments come the decisions, the מִשְׁפָּטִים (mishppatim).

[18:16]  ¹³ tn The “decrees” or “statutes” were definite rules, stereotyped and permanent; the “laws” were directives or pronouncements given when situations arose. S. R. Driver suggests this is another reason why this event might have taken place after Yahweh had given laws on the mountain (Exodus, 165).

[23:33]  ¹⁶ tn The idea of the “snare” is to lure them to judgment; God is apparently warning about contact with the Canaanites, either in worship or in business. They were very syncretistic, and so it would be dangerous to settle among them.

[26:13]  ²¹ tn Literally “cubit.”

[26:13]  ²² sn U. Cassuto states the following: “To the north and to the south, since the tent curtains were thirty cubits long, there were ten cubits left over on each side; these covered the nine cubits of the curtains of the tabernacle and also the bottom cubit of the boards, which the tabernacle curtains did not suffice to cover. It is to this that v. 13 refers” (Exodus, 353).

[26:24]  ²⁶ tn Heb “they will be for the two corners.” This is the last clause of the verse, moved forward for clarity.

[27:1]  ³¹ tn The article on this word identifies this as the altar, meaning the main high altar on which the sacrifices would be made.

[27:1]  ³² tn The dimensions are five cubits by five cubits by three cubits high.

[27:1]  ³³ tn Heb “four”; this refers to four sides. S. R. Driver says this is an archaism that means there were four equal sides (Exodus, 291).

[27:1]  ³⁴ tn Heb “and three cubits its height.”

[28:8]  ³⁶ tn This is the rendering of the word חֵשֶׁב (kheshev), cognate to the word translated “designer” in v. 6. Since the entire ephod was of the same material, and this was of the same piece, it is unclear why this is singled out as “artistically woven.” Perhaps the word is from another root that just describes the item as a “band.” Whatever the connection, this band was to be of the same material, and the same piece, as the ephod, but perhaps a different pattern (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 301). It is this sash that attaches the ephod to the priest’s body, that is, at the upper border of the ephod and clasped together at the back.

[28:8]  ³⁷ tn Heb “from it” but meaning “of one [the same] piece”; the phrase “the ephod” has been supplied.

[28:37]  ⁴¹ tn The verb is the perfect tense with the vav (ו) consecutive; it follows the same at the beginning of the verse. Since the first verb is equal to the imperfect of instruction, this could be as well, but it is more likely to be subordinated to express the purpose of the former.

[28:37]  ⁴² tn Heb “it will be,” an instruction imperfect.

[30:25]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “it.”

[30:25]  ⁴⁷ tn The word “oil” is an adverbial accusative, indicating the product that results from the verb (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, §52).

[30:25]  ⁴⁸ tn The somewhat rare words rendered “a perfumed compound” are both associated with a verbal root having to do with mixing spices and other ingredients to make fragrant ointments. They are used with the next phrase, “the work of a perfumer,” to describe the finished oil as a special mixture of aromatic spices and one requiring the knowledge and skills of an experienced maker.

[30:32]  ⁵¹ tn Without an expressed subject, the verb may be treated as a passive. Any common use, as in personal hygiene, would be a complete desecration.

[30:34]  ⁵⁶ tn The construction is “take to you,” which could be left in that literal sense, but more likely the suffix is an ethical dative, stressing the subject of the imperative.

[30:34]  ⁵⁷ sn This is from a word that means “to drip”; the spice is a balsam that drips from a resinous tree.

[30:34]  ⁵⁸ sn This may be a plant, or it may be from a species of mollusks; it is mentioned in Ugaritic and Akkadian; it gives a pungent odor when burnt.

[30:34]  ⁵⁹ sn This is a gum from plants of the genus Ferula; it has an unpleasant odor, but when mixed with others is pleasant.

[30:34]  ⁶⁰ tn The word “spice is repeated here, suggesting that the first three formed half of the ingredient and this spice the other half – but this is conjecture (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 400).

[30:34]  ⁶¹ tn Heb “of each part there will be an equal part.”

[34:12]  ⁶¹ tn The exact expression is “take heed to yourself lest you make.” It is the second use of this verb in the duties, now in the Niphal stem. To take heed to yourself means to watch yourself, be sure not to do something. Here, if they failed to do this, they would end up making entangling treaties.

[34:12]  ⁶² sn A snare would be a trap, an allurement to ruin. See Exod 23:33.

[35:2]  ⁶⁶ tn This is an adverbial accusative of time.

[35:2]  ⁶⁷ 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]  ⁶⁸ 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.