Exodus 5:16

5:16 No straw is given to your servants, but we are told, ¹  ‘Make bricks!’ Your servants are even ²  being beaten, but the fault ³  is with your people.”

Exodus 14:11

14:11 and they said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the desert? ⁴  What in the world ⁵  have you done to us by bringing ⁶  us out of Egypt?

Exodus 22:3

22:3 If the sun has risen on him, then there is blood guilt for him. A thief ⁷  must surely make full restitution; if he has nothing, then he will be sold for his theft.

Exodus 22:14

22:14 “If a man borrows an animal ⁸  from his neighbor, and it is hurt or dies when its owner was not with it, the man who borrowed it ⁹  will surely pay.

Exodus 32:18

32:18 Moses ¹⁰  said, “It is not the sound of those who shout for victory, ¹¹  nor is it the sound of those who cry because they are overcome, ¹²  but the sound of singing ¹³  I hear.” ¹⁴ 

[5:16]  ¹ tn Heb “[they] are saying to us,” the line can be rendered as a passive since there is no expressed subject for the participle.

[5:16]  ² tn הִנֵּה (hinneh) draws attention to the action reflected in the passive participle מֻכִּים (mukkim): “look, your servants are being beaten.”

[5:16]  ³ tn The word rendered “fault” is the basic OT verb for “sin” – וְחָטָאת (vÿkhata’t). The problem is that it is pointed as a perfect tense, feminine singular verb. Some other form of the verb would be expected, or a noun. But the basic word-group means “to err, sin, miss the mark, way, goal.” The word in this context seems to indicate that the people of Pharaoh – the slave masters – have failed to provide the straw. Hence: “fault” or “they failed.” But, as indicated, the line has difficult grammar, for it would literally translate: “and you [fem.] sin your people.” Many commentators (so GKC 206 §74.g) wish to emend the text to read with the Greek and the Syriac, thus: “you sin against your own people” (meaning the Israelites are his loyal subjects).

[14:11]  ⁴ sn B. Jacob (Exodus, 396-97) notes how the speech is overly dramatic and came from a people given to using such exaggerations (Num 16:14), even using a double negative. The challenge to Moses brings a double irony. To die in the desert would be without proper burial, but in Egypt there were graves – it was a land of tombs and graves! Gesenius notes that two negatives in the sentence do not nullify each other but make the sentence all the more emphatic: “Is it because there were no graves…?” (GKC 483 §152.y).

[14:11]  ⁵ tn The demonstrative pronoun has the enclitic use again, giving a special emphasis to the question (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 24, §118).

[14:11]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew term לְהוֹצִּיאָנוּ (lÿhotsi’anu) is the Hiphil infinitive construct with a suffix, “to bring us out.” It is used epexegetically here, explaining the previous question.

[22:3]  ⁷ tn The words “a thief” have been added for clarification. S. R. Driver (Exodus, 224) thinks that these lines are out of order, since some of them deal with killing the thief and then others with the thief making restitution, but rearranging the clauses is not a necessary way to bring clarity to the paragraph. The idea here would be that any thief caught alive would pay restitution.

[22:14]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “if a man asks [an animal] from his neighbor” (see also Exod 12:36). The ruling here implies an animal is borrowed, and if harm comes to it when the owner is not with it, the borrower is liable. The word “animal” is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[22:14]  ¹¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man who borrowed the animal) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[32:18]  ¹³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[32:18]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the sound of the answering of might,” meaning it is not the sound of shouting in victory (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 418).

[32:18]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the sound of the answering of weakness,” meaning the cry of the defeated (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 415).

[32:18]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “answering in song” (a play on the twofold meaning of the word).

[32:18]  ¹⁷ sn See A. Newman, “Compositional Analysis and Functional Ambiguity Equivalence: Translating Exodus 32, 17-18,” Babel 21 (1975): 29-35.