Exodus 5:10

5:10 So the slave masters of the people and their foremen went to the Israelites and said, ¹  “Thus says Pharaoh: ‘I am not giving ²  you straw.

Exodus 6:7

6:7 I will take you to myself for a people, and I will be your God. ³  Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from your enslavement to ⁴  the Egyptians.

Exodus 9:8

The Sixth Blow: Boils

9:8 ⁵ Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Take handfuls of soot ⁶  from a furnace, and have Moses throw it ⁷  into the air while Pharaoh is watching. ⁸ 

Exodus 12:6

12:6 You must care for it ⁹  until the fourteenth day of this month, and then the whole community ¹⁰  of Israel will kill it around sundown. ¹¹ 

Exodus 12:14

12:14 This day will become ¹²  a memorial ¹³  for you, and you will celebrate it as a festival ¹⁴  to the Lord – you will celebrate it perpetually as a lasting ordinance. ¹⁵ 

Exodus 12:21

12:21 Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel, and told them, “Go and select ¹⁶  for yourselves a lamb or young goat ¹⁷  for your families, and kill the Passover animals. ¹⁸ 

Exodus 12:25

12:25 When you enter the land that the Lord will give to you, just as he said, you must observe ¹⁹  this ceremony.

Exodus 19:12

19:12 You must set boundaries ²⁰  for the people all around, saying, ‘Take heed ²¹  to yourselves not to go up on the mountain nor touch its edge. Whoever touches the mountain will surely be put to death!

Exodus 29:42

29:42 “This will be a regular ²²  burnt offering throughout your generations at the entrance of the tent of meeting before the Lord, where I will meet ²³  with you to speak to you there.

Exodus 30:32

30:32 It must not be applied ²⁴  to people’s bodies, and you must not make any like it with the same recipe. It is holy, and it must be holy to you.

Exodus 30:36

30:36 You are to beat some of it very fine and put some of it before the ark of the testimony in the tent of meeting where I will meet with you; it is to be most holy to you.

Exodus 35:2

35:2 In six days ²⁵  work may be done, but on the seventh day there must be a holy day ²⁶  for you, a Sabbath of complete rest to the Lord. ²⁷  Anyone who does work on it will be put to death.

[5:10]  ¹ tn Heb “went out and spoke to the people saying.” Here “the people” has been specified as “the Israelites” for clarity.

[5:10]  ² tn The construction uses the negative particle combined with a subject suffix before the participle: אֵינֶנִּי נֹתֵן (’enenni noten, “there is not I – giving”).

[6:7]  ³ sn These covenant promises are being reiterated here because they are about to be fulfilled. They are addressed to the nation, not individuals, as the plural suffixes show. Yahweh was their God already, because they had been praying to him and he is acting on their behalf. When they enter into covenant with God at Sinai, then he will be the God of Israel in a new way (19:4-6; cf. Gen 17:7-8; 28:20-22; Lev 26:11-12; Jer 24:7; Ezek 11:17-20).

[6:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “from under the burdens of” (so KJV, NASB); NIV “from under the yoke of.”

[9:8]  ⁵ sn This sixth plague, like the third, is unannounced. God instructs his servants to take handfuls of ashes from the Egyptians’ furnaces and sprinkle them heavenward in the sight of Pharaoh. These ashes would become little particles of dust that would cause boils on the Egyptians and their animals. Greta Hort, “The Plagues of Egypt,” ZAW 69 [1957]: 101-3, suggests it is skin anthrax (see W. C. Kaiser, Jr., “Exodus,” EBC 2:359). The lesson of this plague is that Yahweh has absolute control over the physical health of the people. Physical suffering consequent to sin comes to all regardless of their position and status. The Egyptians are helpless in the face of this, as now God begins to touch human life; greater judgments on human wickedness lie ahead.

[9:8]  ⁶ tn This word פִּיחַ (piakh) is a hapax legomenon, meaning “soot”; it seems to be derived from the verb פּוּחַ (puakh, “to breathe, blow”). The “furnace” (כִּבְשָׁן, kivshan) was a special kiln for making pottery or bricks.

[9:8]  ⁷ tn The verb זָרַק (zaraq) means “to throw vigorously, to toss.” If Moses tosses the soot into the air, it will symbolize that the disease is falling from heaven.

[9:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “before the eyes of Pharaoh.”

[12:6]  ⁷ tn The text has וְהָיָה לָכֶם לְמִשְׁמֶרֶת (vÿhaya lakem lÿmishmeret, “and it will be for you for a keeping”). This noun stresses the activity of watching over or caring for something, probably to keep it in its proper condition for its designated use (see 16:23, 32-34).

[12:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “all the assembly of the community.” This expression is a pleonasm. The verse means that everyone will kill the lamb, i.e., each family unit among the Israelites will kill its animal.

[12:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “between the two evenings” or “between the two settings” (בֵּין הָעַרְבָּיִם, ben ha’arbayim). This expression has had a good deal of discussion. (1) Tg. Onq. says “between the two suns,” which the Talmud explains as the time between the sunset and the time the stars become visible. More technically, the first “evening” would be the time between sunset and the appearance of the crescent moon, and the second “evening” the next hour, or from the appearance of the crescent moon to full darkness (see Deut 16:6 – “at the going down of the sun”). (2) Saadia, Rashi, and Kimchi say the first evening is when the sun begins to decline in the west and cast its shadows, and the second evening is the beginning of night. (3) The view adopted by the Pharisees and the Talmudists (b. Pesahim 61a) is that the first evening is when the heat of the sun begins to decrease, and the second evening begins at sunset, or, roughly from 3-5 p.m. The Mishnah (m. Pesahim 5:1) indicates the lamb was killed about 2:30 p.m. – anything before noon was not valid. S. R. Driver concludes from this survey that the first view is probably the best, although the last view was the traditionally accepted one (Exodus, 89-90). Late afternoon or early evening seems to be intended, the time of twilight perhaps.

[12:14]  ⁹ tn Heb “and this day will be.”

[12:14]  ¹⁰ tn The expression “will be for a memorial” means “will become a memorial.”

[12:14]  ¹¹ tn The verb וְחַגֹּתֶם (vÿkhaggotem), a perfect tense with the vav (ו) consecutive to continue the instruction, is followed by the cognate accusative חַג (khag), for emphasis. As the wording implies and the later legislation required, this would involve a pilgrimage to the sanctuary of Yahweh.

[12:14]  ¹² tn Two expressions show that this celebration was to be kept perpetually: the line has “for your generations, [as] a statute forever.” “Generations” means successive generations (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 94). עוֹלָם (’olam) means “ever, forever, perpetual” – no end in sight.

[12:21]  ¹¹ tn Heb “draw out and take.” The verb has in view the need “to draw out” a lamb or goat selected from among the rest of the flock.

[12:21]  ¹² tn The Hebrew noun is singular and can refer to either a lamb or a goat. Since English has no common word for both, the phrase “a lamb or young goat” is used in the translation.

[12:21]  ¹³ tn The word “animals” is added to avoid giving the impression in English that the Passover festival itself is the object of “kill.”

[12:25]  ¹³ tn The verb used here and at the beginning of v. 24 is שָׁמַר (shamar); it can be translated “watch, keep, protect,” but in this context the point is to “observe” the religious customs and practices set forth in these instructions.

[19:12]  ¹⁵ tn The verb is a Hiphil perfect (“make borders”) with vav (ו) consecutive, following the sequence of instructions.

[19:12]  ¹⁶ tn The Niphal imperative (“guard yourselves, take heed to yourselves”) is followed by two infinitives construct that provide the description of what is to be avoided – going up or touching the mountain.

[29:42]  ¹⁷ tn The translation has “regular” instead of “continually,” because they will be preparing this twice a day.

[29:42]  ¹⁸ tn The relative clause identifies the place in front of the Tent as the place that Yahweh would meet Moses. The main verb of the clause is אִוָּעֵד (’ivva’ed), a Niphal imperfect of the verb יָעַד (ya’ad), the verb that is cognate to the name “tent of meeting” – hence the name. This clause leads into the next four verses.

[30:32]  ¹⁹ tn Without an expressed subject, the verb may be treated as a passive. Any common use, as in personal hygiene, would be a complete desecration.

[35:2]  ²¹ tn This is an adverbial accusative of time.

[35:2]  ²² tn The word is קֹדֶשׁ (qodesh, “holiness”). S. R. Driver suggests that the word was transposed, and the line should read: “a sabbath of entire rest, holy to Jehovah” (Exodus, 379). But the word may simply be taken as a substitution for “holy day.”

[35:2]  ²³ sn See on this H. Routtenberg, “The Laws of the Sabbath: Biblical Sources,” Dor le Dor 6 (1977): 41-43, 99-101, 153-55, 204-6; G. Robinson, “The Idea of Rest in the Old Testament and the Search for the Basic Character of Sabbath,” ZAW 92 (1980): 32-43.