Exodus 4:17

4:17 You will also take in your hand this staff, with which you will do the signs.” ¹ 

Exodus 5:11

5:11 You ²  go get straw for yourselves wherever you can ³  find it, because there will be no reduction at all in your workload.’”

Exodus 12:5

12:5 Your lamb must be ⁴  perfect, ⁵  a male, one year old; ⁶  you may take ⁷  it from the sheep or from the goats.

Exodus 12:32

12:32 Also, take your flocks and your herds, just as you have requested, and leave. But bless me also.” ⁸ 

Exodus 14:7

14:7 He took six hundred select ⁹  chariots, and all the rest of the chariots of Egypt, ¹⁰  and officers ¹¹  on all of them.

Exodus 18:2

18:2 Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took Moses’ wife Zipporah after he had sent her back,

Exodus 21:10

21:10 If he takes another wife, ¹²  he must not diminish the first one’s food, ¹³  her clothing, or her marital rights. ¹⁴ 

Exodus 21:14

21:14 But if a man willfully attacks his neighbor to kill him cunningly, ¹⁵  you will take him even from my altar that he may die.

Exodus 23:8

23:8 “You must not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds those who see ¹⁶  and subverts the words of the righteous.

Exodus 24:6

24:6 Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and half of the blood he splashed on the altar. ¹⁷ 

Exodus 28:9

28:9 “You are to take two onyx stones and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel, ¹⁸ 

Exodus 29:7

29:7 You are to take the anointing oil and pour it on his head and anoint him. ¹⁹ 

Exodus 29:15-16

29:15 “You are to take one ram, and Aaron and his sons are to lay their hands on the ram’s head, 29:16 and you are to kill the ram and take its blood and splash it all around on the altar.

Exodus 29:19

29:19 “You are to take the second ram, and Aaron and his sons are to lay their hands on the ram’s head,

Exodus 29:31

29:31 “You are to take the ram of the consecration and cook ²⁰  its meat in a holy place. ²¹ 

Exodus 34:16

34:16 and you then take ²²  his daughters for your sons, and when his daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will make your sons prostitute themselves to their gods as well.

[4:17]  ¹ sn Mention of the staff makes an appropriate ending to the section, for God’s power (represented by the staff) will work through Moses. The applicable point that this whole section is making could be worded this way: The servants of God who sense their inadequacy must demonstrate the power of God as their sufficiency.

[5:11]  ² tn The independent personal pronoun emphasizes that the people were to get their own straw, and it heightens the contrast with the king. “You – go get.”

[5:11]  ³ tn The tense in this section could be translated as having the nuance of possibility: “wherever you may find it,” or the nuance of potential imperfect: “wherever you are able to find any.”

[12:5]  ³ tn The construction has: “[The] lamb…will be to you.” This may be interpreted as a possessive use of the lamed, meaning, “[the] lamb…you have” (your lamb) for the Passover. In the context instructing the people to take an animal for this festival, the idea is that the one they select, their animal, must meet these qualifications.

[12:5]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew word תָּמִים (tamim) means “perfect” or “whole” or “complete” in the sense of not having blemishes and diseases – no physical defects. The rules for sacrificial animals applied here (see Lev 22:19-21; Deut 17:1).

[12:5]  ⁵ tn The idiom says “a son of a year” (בֶּן־שָׁנָה, ben shanah), meaning a “yearling” or “one year old” (see GKC 418 §128.v).

[12:5]  ⁶ tn Because a choice is being given in this last clause, the imperfect tense nuance of permission should be used. They must have a perfect animal, but it may be a sheep or a goat. The verb’s object “it” is supplied from the context.

[12:32]  ⁴ tn The form is the Piel perfect with a vav (ו) consecutive (וּבֵרַכְתֶּם, uverakhtem); coming in the sequence of imperatives this perfect tense would be volitional – probably a request rather than a command.

[14:7]  ⁵ tn The passive participle of the verb “to choose” means that these were “choice” or superb chariots.

[14:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “every chariot of Egypt.” After the mention of the best chariots, the meaning of this description is “all the other chariots.”

[14:7]  ⁷ tn The word שָׁלִשִׁם (shalishim) means “officers” or some special kind of military personnel. At one time it was taken to mean a “three man chariot,” but the pictures of Egyptian chariots only show two in a chariot. It may mean officers near the king, “men of the third rank” (B. Jacob, Exodus, 394). So the chariots and the crew represented the elite. See the old view by A. E. Cowley that linked it to a Hittite word (“A Hittite Word in Hebrew,” JTS 21 [1920]: 326), and the more recent work by P. C. Craigie connecting it to Egyptian “commander” (“An Egyptian Expression in the Song of the Sea: Exodus XV.4,” VT 20 [1970]: 85).

[21:10]  ⁶ tn “wife” has been supplied.

[21:10]  ⁷ tn The translation of “food” does not quite do justice to the Hebrew word. It is “flesh.” The issue here is that the family she was to marry into is wealthy, they ate meat. She was not just to be given the basic food the ordinary people ate, but the fine foods that this family ate.

[21:10]  ⁸ sn See S. Paul, “Exodus 21:10, A Threefold Maintenance Clause,” JNES 28 (1969): 48-53. Paul suggests that the third element listed is not marital rights but ointments since Sumerian and Akkadian texts list food, clothing, and oil as the necessities of life. The translation of “marital rights” is far from certain, since the word occurs only here. The point is that the woman was to be cared for with all that was required for a woman in that situation.

[21:14]  ⁷ tn The word עָרְמָה (’ormah) is problematic. It could mean with prior intent, which would be connected with the word in Prov 8:5, 12 which means “understanding” (or “prudence” – fully aware of the way things are). It could be connected also to an Arabic word for “enemy” which would indicate this was done with malice or evil intentions (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 270). The use here seems parallel to the one in Josh 9:4, an instance involving intentionality and clever deception.

[23:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “blinds the open-eyed.”

[24:6]  ⁹ sn The people and Yahweh through this will be united by blood, for half was spattered on the altar and the other half spattered on/toward the people (v. 8).

[28:9]  ¹⁰ tn Although this is normally translated “Israelites,” here a more literal translation is clearer because it refers to the names of the twelve tribes – the actual sons of Israel.

[29:7]  ¹¹ sn The act of anointing was meant to set him apart for this holy service within the house of Yahweh. The psalms indicate that no oil was spared in this ritual, for it ran down his beard and to the hem of his garment. Oil of anointing was used for all major offices (giving the label with the passive adjective “mashiah” (or “messiah”) to anyone anointed. In the further revelation of Scripture, the oil came to signify the enablement as well as the setting apart, and often the Holy Spirit came on the person at the anointing with oil. The olive oil was a symbol of the Spirit in the OT as well (Zech 4:4-6). And in the NT “anointing” signifies empowerment by the Holy Spirit for service.

[29:31]  ¹² tn Or “boil” (see Lev 8:31).

[29:31]  ¹³ sn The “holy place” must be in the courtyard of the sanctuary. Lev 8:31 says it is to be cooked at the entrance of the tent of meeting. Here it says it will be eaten there as well. This, then, becomes a communion sacrifice, a peace offering which was a shared meal. Eating a communal meal in a holy place was meant to signify that the worshipers and the priests were at peace with God.

[34:16]  ¹³ tn In the construction this verb would follow as a possible outcome of the last event, and so remain in the verbal sequence. If the people participate in the festivals of the land, then they will intermarry, and that could lead to further involvement with idolatry.