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 7:5

7:5 Then ³  the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord, when I extend my hand ⁴  over Egypt and bring the Israelites out from among them.

Exodus 13:16

13:16 It will be for a sign on your hand and for frontlets ⁵  on your forehead, for with a mighty hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt.” ⁶ 

Exodus 15:7

15:7 In the abundance of your majesty ⁷  you have overthrown ⁸ 

those who rise up against you. ⁹ 

You sent forth ¹⁰  your wrath; ¹¹ 

it consumed them ¹²  like stubble.

Exodus 20:20

20:20 Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, ¹³  that the fear of him ¹⁴  may be before you so that you do not ¹⁵  sin.”

[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.

[7:5]  ³ tn The emphasis on sequence is clear because the form is the perfect tense with the vav consecutive.

[7:5]  ⁴ sn This is another anthropomorphism, parallel to the preceding. If God were to “put” (נָתַן, natan), “extend” (נָטָה, nata), or “reach out” (שָׁלַח, shalakh) his hand against them, they would be destroyed. Contrast Exod 24:11.

[13:16]  ⁵ tn The word is טוֹטָפֹת (totafot, “frontlets”). The etymology is uncertain, but the word denotes a sign or an object placed on the forehead (see m. Shabbat 6:1). The Gemara interprets it as a band that goes from ear to ear. In the Targum to 2 Sam 1:10 it is an armlet worn by Saul (see S. R. Driver, Exodus, 110). These bands may have resembled the Egyptian practice of wearing as amulets “forms of words written on folds of papyrus tightly rolled up and sewn in linen” (W. C. Kaiser, Jr., “Exodus,” EBC 2:384).

[13:16]  ⁶ sn The pattern of the passage now emerges more clearly; it concerns the grateful debt of the redeemed. In the first part eating the unleavened bread recalls the night of deliverance in Egypt, and it calls for purity. In the second part the dedication of the firstborn was an acknowledgment of the deliverance of the firstborn from bondage. They were to remember the deliverance and choose purity; they were to remember the deliverance and choose dedication. The NT will also say, “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price, therefore, glorify God” (1 Cor 6:20). Here too the truths of God’s great redemption must be learned well and retained well from generation to generation.

[15:7]  ⁷ sn This expression is cognate with words in v. 1. Here that same greatness or majesty is extolled as in abundance.

[15:7]  ⁸ tn Here, and throughout the song, these verbs are the prefixed conjugation that may look like the imperfect but are actually historic preterites. This verb is to “overthrow” or “throw down” – like a wall, leaving it in shattered pieces.

[15:7]  ⁹ tn The form קָמֶיךָ (qamekha) is the active participle with a pronominal suffix. The participle is accusative, the object of the verb, but the suffix is the genitive of nearer definition (see GKC 358 §116.i).

[15:7]  ¹⁰ sn The verb is the Piel of שָׁלַח (shalakh), the same verb used throughout for the demand on Pharaoh to release Israel. Here, in some irony, God released his wrath on them.

[15:7]  ¹¹ sn The word wrath is a metonymy of cause; the effect – the judgment – is what is meant.

[15:7]  ¹² tn The verb is the prefixed conjugation, the preterite, without the consecutive vav (ו).

[20:20]  ⁹ tn נַסּוֹת (nassot) is the Piel infinitive construct; it forms the purpose of God’s coming with all the accompanying phenomena. The verb can mean “to try, test, prove.” The sense of “prove” fits this context best because the terrifying phenomena were intended to put the fear of God in their hearts so that they would obey. In other words, God was inspiring them to obey, not simply testing to see if they would.

[20:20]  ¹⁰ tn The suffix on the noun is an objective genitive, referring to the fear that the people would have of God (GKC 439 §135.m).

[20:20]  ¹¹ tn The negative form לְבִלְתִּי (lÿvilti) is used here with the imperfect tense (see for other examples GKC 483 §152.x). This gives the imperfect the nuance of a final imperfect: that you might not sin. Others: to keep you from sin.