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 9:3

9:3 then the hand of the Lord will surely bring ⁴  a very terrible plague ⁵  on your livestock in the field, on the horses, the donkeys, the camels, ⁶  the herds, and the flocks.

Exodus 13:13

13:13 Every firstling ⁷  of a donkey you must redeem ⁸  with a lamb, and if you do not redeem it, then you must break its neck. ⁹  Every firstborn of ¹⁰  your sons you must redeem.

Exodus 20:17

20:17 “You shall not covet ¹¹  your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that belongs to your neighbor.” ¹² 

Exodus 21:33

21:33 “If a man opens a pit or if a man digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it,

Exodus 22:4

22:4 If the stolen item should in fact be found ¹³  alive in his possession, ¹⁴  whether it be an ox or a donkey or a sheep, he must pay back double. ¹⁵ 

Exodus 23:5

23:5 If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen under its load, you must not ignore him, ¹⁶  but be sure to help ¹⁷  him with it. ¹⁸ 

Exodus 23:12

23:12 For six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you must cease, in order that your ox and your donkey may rest and that your female servant’s son and any hired help ¹⁹  may refresh themselves. ²⁰ 

Exodus 34:20

34:20 Now the firstling ²¹  of a donkey you may redeem with a lamb, but if you do not redeem it, then break its neck. ²²  You must redeem all the firstborn of your sons.

“No one will appear before me empty-handed. ²³ 

[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.

[9:3]  ⁴ tn The form used here is הוֹיָה (hoyah), the Qal active participle, feminine singular, from the verb “to be.” This is the only place in the OT that this form occurs. Ogden shows that this form is appropriate with the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) to stress impending divine action, and that it conforms to the pattern in these narratives where five times the participle is used in the threat to Pharaoh (7:17; 8:2; 9:3, 14; 10:4). See G. S. Ogden, “Notes on the Use of הויה in Exodus IX. 3,” VT 17 (1967): 483-84.

[9:3]  ⁵ tn The word דֶּבֶר (dever) is usually translated “pestilence” when it applies to diseases for humans. It is used only here and in Ps 78:50 for animals.

[9:3]  ⁶ sn The older view that camels were not domesticated at this time (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 70; W. F. Albright, Archaeology and the Religion of Israel, 96; et. al.) has been corrected by more recently uncovered information (see K. A. Kitchen, NBD³ 160-61).

[13:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “and every opener [of a womb].”

[13:13]  ⁸ tn The verb תִּפְדֶּה (tifdeh), the instructional imperfect, refers to the idea of redemption by paying a cost. This word is used regularly of redeeming a person, or an animal, from death or servitude (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 109).

[13:13]  ⁹ tn The conditional clause uses an imperfect tense; this is followed by a perfect tense with the vav consecutive providing the obligation or instruction. The owner might not redeem the donkey, but if he did not, he could not keep it, he had to kill it by breaking its neck (so either a lamb for it, or the donkey itself). The donkey could not be killed by shedding blood because that would make it a sacrifice, and that was not possible with this kind of animal. See G. Brin, “The Firstling of Unclean Animals,” JQR 68 (1977): 1-15.

[13:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and every firstborn of man among your sons.” The addition of “man” is clearly meant to distinguish firstborn humans from animals.

[20:17]  ¹⁰ tn The verb חָמַד (khamad) focuses not on an external act but on an internal mental activity behind the act, the motivation for it. The word can be used in a very good sense (Ps 19:10; 68:16), but it has a bad connotation in contexts where the object desired is off limits. This command is aimed at curtailing the greedy desire for something belonging to a neighbor, a desire that leads to the taking of it or the attempt to take it. It was used in the story of the Garden of Eden for the tree that was desired.

[20:17]  ¹¹ sn See further G. Wittenburg, “The Tenth Commandment in the Old Testament,” Journal for Theology in South Africa 21 (1978): 3-17: and E. W. Nicholson, “The Decalogue as the Direct Address of God,” VT 27 (1977): 422-33.

[22:4]  ¹³ tn The construction uses a Niphal infinitive absolute and a Niphal imperfect: if it should indeed be found. Gesenius says that in such conditional clauses the infinitive absolute has less emphasis, but instead emphasizes the condition on which some consequence depends (see GKC 342-43 §113.o).

[22:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “in his hand.”

[22:4]  ¹⁵ sn He must pay back one for what he took, and then one for the penalty – his loss as he was inflicting a loss on someone else.

[23:5]  ¹⁶ tn The line reads “you will cease to forsake him” – refrain from leaving your enemy without help.

[23:5]  ¹⁷ tn The law is emphatic here as well, using the infinitive absolute and the imperfect of instruction (or possibly obligation). There is also a wordplay here: two words עָזַב (’azav) are used, one meaning “forsake” and the other possibly meaning “arrange” based on Arabic and Ugaritic evidence (see U. Cassuto, Exodus, 297-98).

[23:5]  ¹⁸ sn See H. B. Huffmon, “Exodus 23:4-5: A Comparative Study,” A Light Unto My Path, 271-78.

[23:12]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “alien,” or “resident foreigner.” Such an individual would have traveled out of need and depended on the goodwill of the people around him. The rendering “hired help” assumes that the foreigner is mentioned in this context because he is working for an Israelite and will benefit from the Sabbath rest, along with his employer.

[23:12]  ²⁰ tn The verb is וְיִּנָּפֵשׁ (vÿyyinnafesh); it is related to the word usually translated “soul” or “life.”

[34:20]  ²² tn Heb “and the one that opens [the womb of] the donkey.”

[34:20]  ²³ sn See G. Brin, “The Firstling of Unclean Animals,” JQR 68 (1971): 1-15.

[34:20]  ²⁴ tn The form is the adverb “empty.”