Exodus 4:3

4:3 The Lord ¹  said, “Throw it to the ground.” So he threw it to the ground, and it became a snake, ²  and Moses ran from it.

Exodus 34:8

34:8 Moses quickly bowed ³  to the ground and worshiped

Exodus 4:20

4:20 Then Moses took ⁴  his wife and sons ⁵  and put them on a donkey and headed back ⁶  to the land of Egypt, and Moses took the staff of God in his hand.

Exodus 9:33

9:33 So Moses left Pharaoh, went out of the city, and spread out his hands to the Lord, and the thunder and the hail ceased, and the rain stopped pouring on the earth.

Exodus 9:23

9:23 When Moses extended ⁷  his staff toward the sky, the Lord ⁸  sent thunder ⁹  and hail, and fire fell to the earth; ¹⁰  so the Lord caused hail to rain down on the land of Egypt.

[4:3]  ¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:3]  ² sn The details of the verse are designed to show that there was a staff that became a snake. The question is used to affirm that there truly was a staff, and then the report of Moses running from it shows it was a genuine snake. Using the serpent as a sign would have had an impact on the religious ideas of Egypt, for the sacred cobra was one of their symbols.

[34:8]  ³ tn The first two verbs form a hendiadys: “he hurried…he bowed,” meaning “he quickly bowed down.”

[4:20]  ⁵ tn Heb “And Moses took.”

[4:20]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ 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.

[9:23]  ⁷ tn The preterite with the vav (ו) consecutive is here subordinated to the next clause in view of the emphasis put on the subject, Yahweh, by the disjunctive word order of that clause.

[9:23]  ⁸ tn By starting the clause with the subject (an example of disjunctive word order) the text is certainly stressing that Yahweh alone did this.

[9:23]  ⁹ tn The expression נָתַן קֹלֹת (natan qolot) literally means “gave voices” (also “voice”). This is a poetic expression for sending the thunder. Ps 29:3 talks about the “voice of Yahweh” – the God of glory thunders!

[9:23]  ¹⁰ sn This clause has been variously interpreted. Lightning would ordinarily accompany thunder; in this case the mention of fire could indicate that the lightning was beyond normal and that it was striking in such a way as to start fires on the ground. It could also mean that fire went along the ground from the pounding hail.