Exodus 4:7

4:7 He said, “Put your hand back into your robe.” So he put his hand back into his robe, and when he brought it out from his robe – there it was, ¹  restored ²  like the rest of his skin! ³ 

Exodus 4:21

4:21 The Lord said ⁴  to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, ⁵  see that you ⁶  do before Pharaoh all the wonders I have put under your control. ⁷  But I will harden ⁸  his heart ⁹  and ¹⁰  he will not let the people go.

Exodus 7:21

7:21 When the fish ¹¹  that were in the Nile died, the Nile began ¹²  to stink, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. There was blood ¹³  everywhere in the land of Egypt!

Exodus 8:22

8:22 But on that day I will mark off ¹⁴  the land of Goshen, where my people are staying, ¹⁵  so that no swarms of flies will be there, that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of this land. ¹⁶ 

Exodus 10:13

10:13 So Moses extended his staff over the land of Egypt, and then the Lord ¹⁷  brought ¹⁸  an east wind on the land all that day and all night. ¹⁹  The morning came, ²⁰  and the east wind had brought up ²¹  the locusts!

Exodus 14:17

14:17 And as for me, I am going to harden ²²  the hearts of the Egyptians so that ²³  they will come after them, that I may be honored ²⁴  because ²⁵  of Pharaoh and his army and his chariots and his horsemen.

Exodus 14:20

14:20 It came between the Egyptian camp and the Israelite camp; it was a dark cloud ²⁶  and it lit up the night so that one camp did not come near the other ²⁷  the whole night. ²⁸ 

Exodus 14:27

14:27 So Moses extended his hand toward the sea, and the sea returned to its normal state ²⁹  when the sun began to rise. ³⁰  Now the Egyptians were fleeing ³¹  before it, but the Lord overthrew ³²  the Egyptians in the middle of the sea.

Exodus 19:16

19:16 On ³³  the third day in the morning there was thunder and lightning and a dense ³⁴  cloud on the mountain, and the sound of a very loud ³⁵  horn; ³⁶  all the people who were in the camp trembled.

[4:7]  ¹ tn The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) points out the startling or amazing sight as if the reader were catching first glimpse of it with Moses.

[4:7]  ² tn Heb “it returned.”

[4:7]  ³ tn Heb “like his flesh.”

[4:21]  ⁴ tn Heb “And Yahweh said.”

[4:21]  ⁵ tn The construction may involve a verbal hendiadys using the two infinitive forms: “when you go to return” (בְּלֶכְתְּךָ לָשׁוּב, bÿlekhtÿkha lashuv). The clause is temporal, subordinated to the instruction to do the signs. Therefore, its focus cannot be on going to return, i.e., preparing or beginning to return.

[4:21]  ⁶ tn The two verb forms in this section are the imperative (רְאֵה, rÿ’eh) followed by the perfect with the vav (וַעֲשִׂיתָם, va’asitam). The second could be coordinated and function as a second command: “see…and [then] do”; or it could be subordinated logically: “see…so that you do.” Some commentators who take the first option suggest that Moses was supposed to contemplate these wonders before doing them before Pharaoh. That does not seem as likely as the second interpretation reflected in the translation.

[4:21]  ⁷ tn Or “in your power”; Heb “in your hand.”

[4:21]  ⁸ tn Heb “strengthen” (in the sense of making stubborn or obstinate). The text has the expression וַאֲנִי אֲחַזֵּק אֶת־לִבּוֹ (va’ani ’akhazzeq ’et-libbo), “I will make strong his will,” or “I will strengthen his resolve,” recognizing the “heart” as the location of decision making (see Prov 16:1, 9).

[4:21]  ⁹ sn Here is the first mention of the hardening of the heart of Pharaoh. God first tells Moses he must do the miracles, but he also announces that he will harden Pharaoh’s heart, as if working against Moses. It will help Moses to know that God is bringing about the resistance in order to bring a greater victory with greater glory. There is a great deal of literature on this, but see among the resources F. W. Danker, “Hardness of Heart: A Study in Biblical Thematic,” CTM 44 (1973): 89-100; R. R. Wilson, “The Hardening of Pharaoh’s Heart,” CBQ 41 (1979): 18-36; and R. B. Chisholm Jr., “Divine Hardening in the Old Testament,” BSac 153 (1996): 410-34.

[4:21]  ¹⁰ tn Or “so that.”

[7:21]  ⁷ tn The first clause in this verse begins with a vav disjunctive, introducing a circumstantial clause to the statement that the water stank. The vav (ו) consecutive on the next verb shows that the smell was the result of the dead fish in the contaminated water. The result is then expressed with the vav beginning the clause that states that they could not drink it.

[7:21]  ⁸ tn The preterite could be given a simple definite past translation, but an ingressive past would be more likely, as the smell would get worse and worse with the dead fish.

[7:21]  ⁹ tn Heb “and there was blood.”

[8:22]  ¹⁰ tn Or “distinguish.” וְהִפְלֵיתִי (vÿhifleti) is the Hiphil perfect of פָּלָה (palah). The verb in Hiphil means “to set apart, make separate, make distinct.” God was going to keep the flies away from Goshen – he was setting that apart. The Greek text assumed that the word was from פָּלֵא (pale’), and translated it something like “I will marvelously glorify.”

[8:22]  ¹¹ tn The relative clause modifies the land of Goshen as the place “in which my people are dwelling.” But the normal word for “dwelling” is not used here. Instead, עֹמֵד (’omed) is used, which literally means “standing.” The land on which Israel stood was spared the flies and the hail.

[8:22]  ¹² tn Or “of the earth” (KJV, ASV, NAB).

[10:13]  ¹³ tn The clause begins וַיהוָה (va’adonay [vayhvah], “Now Yahweh….”). In contrast to a normal sequence, this beginning focuses attention on Yahweh as the subject of the verb.

[10:13]  ¹⁴ tn The verb נָהַג (nahag) means “drive, conduct.” It is elsewhere used for driving sheep, leading armies, or leading in processions.

[10:13]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and all the night.”

[10:13]  ¹⁶ tn The text does not here use ordinary circumstantial clause constructions; rather, Heb “the morning was, and the east wind carried the locusts.” It clearly means “when it was morning,” but the style chosen gives a more abrupt beginning to the plague, as if the reader is in the experience – and at morning, the locusts are there!

[10:13]  ¹⁷ tn The verb here is a past perfect, indicting that the locusts had arrived before the day came.

[14:17]  ¹⁶ tn הִנְנִי (hinni) before the participle gives it the force of a futur instans participle, meaning “I am about to harden” or “I am going to harden” their heart.

[14:17]  ¹⁷ tn The form again is the imperfect tense with vav (ו) to express the purpose or the result of the hardening. The repetition of the verb translated “come” is interesting: Moses is to divide the sea in order that the people may cross, but God will harden the Egyptians’ hearts in order that they may follow.

[14:17]  ¹⁸ tn For the comments on this verb see the discussion in v. 4. God would get glory by defeating Egypt.

[14:17]  ¹⁹ tn Or “I will get glory over.”

[14:20]  ¹⁹ tn The two nouns “cloud” and “darkness” form a nominal hendiadys: “and it was the cloud and the darkness” means “and it was the dark cloud.” Perhaps this is what the Egyptians saw, preventing them from observing Moses and the Israelites.

[14:20]  ²⁰ tn Heb “this to this”; for the use of the pronouns in this reciprocal sense of “the one to the other,” see GKC 448 §139.e, n. 3.

[14:20]  ²¹ tc The LXX reads very differently at the end of this verse: “and there was darkness and blackness and the night passed.” B. S. Childs (Exodus [OTL], 218) summarizes three proposals: (1) One takes the MT as it stands and explains it along the lines of the Targum and Jewish exegesis, that there was one cloud that was dark to one group and light to the other. (2) Another tries to reconstruct a verb from the noun “darkness” or make some use of the Greek verb. (3) A third seeks a different meaning for the verb “lit,” “gave light” by comparative philology, but no consensus has been reached. Given that there is no easy solution apart from reconstructing the text, and given that the MT can be interpreted as it is, the present translation follows the MT.

[14:27]  ²² tn The Hebrew term לְאֵיתָנוֹ (lÿ’etano) means “to its place,” or better, “to its perennial state.” The point is that the sea here had a normal level, and now when the Egyptians were in the sea on the dry ground the water would return to that level.

[14:27]  ²³ tn Heb “at the turning of the morning”; NASB, NIV, TEV, CEV “at daybreak.”

[14:27]  ²⁴ tn The clause begins with the disjunctive vav (ו) on the noun, signaling either a circumstantial clause or a new beginning. It could be rendered, “Although the Egyptians…Yahweh…” or “as the Egyptians….”

[14:27]  ²⁵ tn The verb means “shake out” or “shaking off.” It has the significance of “throw downward.” See Neh 5:13 or Job 38:13.

[19:16]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and it was on.”

[19:16]  ²⁶ tn Heb “heavy” (כָּבֵד, kaved).

[19:16]  ²⁷ tn Literally “strong” (חָזָק, khazaq).

[19:16]  ²⁸ tn The word here is שֹׁפָר (shofar), the normal word for “horn.” This word is used especially to announce something important in a public event (see 1 Kgs 1:34; 2 Sam 6:15). The previous word used in the context (v. 16) was יֹבֵל (yovel, “ram’s horn”).