Exodus 4:20

4:20 Then Moses took ¹  his wife and sons ²  and put them on a donkey and headed back ³  to the land of Egypt, and Moses took the staff of God in his hand.

Exodus 4:27

4:27 The Lord said ⁴  to Aaron, “Go to the wilderness to meet Moses. So he went and met him at the mountain of God ⁵  and greeted him with a kiss. ⁶ 

Exodus 24:17

24:17 Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in plain view ⁷  of the people.

Exodus 25:37

25:37 “You are to make its seven lamps, ⁸  and then set ⁹  its lamps up on it, so that it will give light ¹⁰  to the area in front of it.

Exodus 39:6

39:6 They set the onyx stones in gold filigree settings, engraved as with the engravings of a seal ¹¹  with the names of the sons of Israel. ¹² 

Exodus 40:4

40:4 You are to bring in the table and set out the things that belong on it; ¹³  then you are to bring in the lampstand and set up its lamps.

[4:20]  ¹ tn Heb “And Moses took.”

[4:20]  ² sn Only Gershom has been mentioned so far. The other son’s name will be explained in chapter 18. The explanation of Gershom’s name was important to Moses’ sojourn in Midian. The explanation of the name Eliezer fits better in the later chapter (18:2-4).

[4:20]  ³ tn The verb would literally be rendered “and returned”; however, the narrative will record other happenings before he arrived in Egypt, so an ingressive nuance fits here – he began to return, or started back.

[4:27]  ⁴ tn Heb “And Yahweh said.”

[4:27]  ⁵ tn S. R. Driver considers that this verse is a continuation of vv. 17 and 18 and that Aaron met Moses before Moses started back to Egypt (Exodus, 33). The first verb, then, might have the nuance of a past perfect: Yahweh had said.

[4:27]  ⁶ tn Heb “and kissed him.”

[24:17]  ⁷ tn Heb “to the eyes of” which could mean in their opinion.

[25:37]  ¹⁰ tn The word for “lamps” is from the same root as the lampstand, of course. The word is נֵרוֹת (nerot). This probably refers to the small saucer-like pottery lamps that are made very simply with the rim pinched over to form a place to lay the wick. The bowl is then filled with olive oil as fuel.

[25:37]  ¹¹ tn The translation “set up on” is from the Hebrew verb “bring up.” The construction is impersonal, “and he will bring up,” meaning “one will bring up.” It may mean that people were to fix the lamps on to the shaft and the branches, rather than cause the light to go up (see S. R. Driver, Exodus, 277).

[25:37]  ¹² tn This is a Hiphil perfect with vav consecutive, from אוֹר (’or, “light”), and in the causative, “to light, give light.”

[39:6]  ¹³ tn Or “as seals are engraved.”

[39:6]  ¹⁴ sn The twelve names were those of Israel’s sons. The idea was not the remembrance of the twelve sons as such, but the twelve tribes that bore their names.

[40:4]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and you will set in order its setting” or “arrange its arrangement.” See 25:29-30 for items that belonged on the table.