Exodus 5:21

Context
5:21 and they said to them, “May the Lord look on you and judge,¹ because you have made us stink² in the opinion of³ Pharaoh and his servants,⁴ so that you have given them an excuse to kill us!”⁵

Exodus 3:9

Context
3:9 And now indeed⁶ the cry⁷ of the Israelites has come to me, and I have also seen how severely the Egyptians oppress them.⁸

[5:21] ¹tn The foremen vented their anger on Moses and Aaron. The two jussives express their desire that the evil these two have caused be dealt with. “May Yahweh look on you and may he judge” could mean only that God should decide if Moses and Aaron are at fault, but given the rest of the comments it is clear the foremen want more. The second jussive could be subordinated to the first – “so that he may judge [you].”

[5:21] ²tn Heb “you have made our aroma stink.”

[5:21] ³tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

[5:21] ⁴tn Heb “in the eyes of his servants.” This phrase is not repeated in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[5:21] ⁵tn Heb “to put a sword in their hand to kill us.” The infinitive construct with the lamed (לָתֶת, latet) signifies the result (“so that”) of making the people stink. Their reputation is now so bad that Pharaoh might gladly put them to death. The next infinitive could also be understood as expressing result: “put a sword in their hand so that they can kill us.”

[3:9] ⁶tn The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) focuses attention on what is being said as grounds for what follows.

[3:9] ⁷tn The word is a technical term for the outcry one might make to a judge. God had seen the oppression and so knew that the complaints were accurate, and so he initiated the proceedings against the oppressors (B. Jacob, Exodus, 59).

[3:9] ⁸tn Heb “seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.” The word for the oppression is now לַחַץ (lakhats), which has the idea of pressure with the oppression – squeezing, pressuring – which led to its later use in the Semitic languages for torture. The repetition in the Hebrew text of the root in the participle form after this noun serves to stress the idea. This emphasis has been represented in the translation by the expression “seen how severely the Egyptians oppress them.”