Exodus 5:21

5:21 and they said to them, “May the Lord look on you and judge, ¹  because you have made us stink ²  in the opinion of ³  Pharaoh and his servants, ⁴  so that you have given them an excuse to kill us!” ⁵ 

Exodus 8:3

8:3 The Nile will swarm ⁶  with frogs, and they will come up and go into your house, in your bedroom, and on your bed, and into the houses of your servants and your people, and into your ovens and your kneading troughs. ⁷ 

Exodus 8:9

8:9 Moses said to Pharaoh, “You may have the honor over me ⁸  – when shall I pray for you, your servants, and your people, for the frogs to be removed ⁹  from you and your houses, so that ¹⁰  they will be left ¹¹  only in the Nile?”

Exodus 8:24

8:24 The Lord did so; a ¹²  thick ¹³  swarm of flies came into ¹⁴  Pharaoh’s house and into the houses ¹⁵  of his servants, and throughout the whole land of Egypt the land was ruined ¹⁶  because of the swarms of flies.

Exodus 8:31

8:31 and the Lord did as Moses asked ¹⁷  – he removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people. Not one remained!

Exodus 9:21

9:21 but those ¹⁸  who did not take ¹⁹  the word of the Lord seriously left their servants and their cattle ²⁰  in the field.

Exodus 9:34

9:34 When Pharaoh saw ²¹  that the rain and hail and thunder ceased, he sinned again: ²²  both he and his servants hardened ²³  their hearts.

Exodus 13:14

13:14 ²⁴ In the future, ²⁵  when your son asks you ²⁶  ‘What is this?’ ²⁷  you are to tell him, ‘With a mighty hand ²⁸  the Lord brought us out from Egypt, from the land of slavery. ²⁹ 

Exodus 14:31

14:31 When Israel saw ³⁰  the great power ³¹  that the Lord had exercised ³²  over the Egyptians, they ³³  feared the Lord, and they believed in ³⁴  the Lord and in his servant Moses. ³⁵ 

Exodus 20:10

20:10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; on it ³⁶  you shall not do any work, you, ³⁷  or your son, or your daughter, or your male servant, or your female servant, or your cattle, or the resident foreigner who is in your gates. ³⁸ 

Exodus 20:17

20:17 “You shall not covet ³⁹  your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that belongs to your neighbor.” ⁴⁰ 

Exodus 21:5

21:5 But if the servant should declare, ⁴¹  ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out ⁴²  free,’

Exodus 21:20

21:20 “If a man strikes his male servant or his female servant with a staff so that he or she ⁴³  dies as a result of the blow, ⁴⁴  he will surely be punished. ⁴⁵ 

Exodus 21:26

21:26 “If a man strikes the eye of his male servant or his female servant so that he destroys it, ⁴⁶  he will let the servant ⁴⁷  go free ⁴⁸  as compensation for the eye.

Exodus 21:32

21:32 If the ox gores a male servant or a female servant, the owner ⁴⁹  must pay thirty shekels of silver, ⁵⁰  and the ox must be stoned. ⁵¹ 

[5:21]  ¹ tn 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]  ² tn Heb “you have made our aroma stink.”

[5:21]  ³ tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

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

[5:21]  ⁵ tn 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.”

[8:3]  ⁶ sn The choice of this verb שָׁרַץ (sharats) recalls its use in the creation account (Gen 1:20). The water would be swarming with frogs in abundance. There is a hint here of this being a creative work of God as well.

[8:3]  ⁷ sn This verse lists places the frogs will go. The first three are for Pharaoh personally – they are going to touch his private life. Then the text mentions the servants and the people. Mention of the ovens and kneading bowls (or troughs) of the people indicates that food would be contaminated and that it would be impossible even to eat a meal in peace.

[8:9]  ¹¹ tn The expression הִתְפָּאֵר עָלַי (hitpa’er ’alay) is problematic. The verb would be simply translated “honor yourself” or “deck yourself with honor.” It can be used in the bad sense of self-exaltation. But here it seems to mean “have the honor or advantage over me” in choosing when to remove the frogs. The LXX has “appoint for me.” Moses is doing more than extending a courtesy to Pharaoh; he is giving him the upper hand in choosing the time. But it is also a test, for if Pharaoh picked the time it would appear less likely that Moses was manipulating things. As U. Cassuto puts it, Moses is saying “my trust in God is so strong you may have the honor of choosing the time” (Exodus, 103).

[8:9]  ¹² tn Or “destroyed”; Heb “to cut off the frogs.”

[8:9]  ¹³ tn The phrase “so that” is implied.

[8:9]  ¹⁴ tn Or “survive, remain.”

[8:24]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and there came a….”

[8:24]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “heavy,” or “severe.”

[8:24]  ¹⁸ tn Here, and in the next phrase, the word “house” has to be taken as an adverbial accusative of termination.

[8:24]  ¹⁹ tn The Hebrew text has the singular here.

[8:24]  ²⁰ tc Concerning the connection of “the land was ruined” with the preceding, S. R. Driver (Exodus, 68) suggests reading with the LXX, Smr, and Peshitta; this would call for adding a conjunction before the last clause to make it read, “into the house of Pharaoh, and into his servants’ houses, and into all the land of Egypt; and the land was…”

[8:31]  ²¹ tn Heb “according to the word of Moses” (so KJV, ASV).

[9:21]  ²⁶ tn The Hebrew text again has the singular.

[9:21]  ²⁷ tn Heb “put to his heart.”

[9:21]  ²⁸ tn Heb “his servants and his cattle.”

[9:34]  ³¹ tn The clause beginning with the preterite and vav (ו) consecutive is here subordinated to the next, and main clause – that he hardened his heart again.

[9:34]  ³² tn The construction is another verbal hendiadys: וַיֹּסֶף לַחֲטֹּא (vayyosef lakhatto’), literally rendered “and he added to sin.” The infinitive construct becomes the main verb, and the Hiphil preterite becomes adverbial. The text is clearly interpreting as sin the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart and his refusal to release Israel. At the least this means that the plagues are his fault, but the expression probably means more than this – he was disobeying Yahweh God.

[9:34]  ³³ tn This phrase translates the Hebrew word כָּבֵד (kaved); see S. R. Driver, Exodus, 53.

[13:14]  ³⁶ sn As with v. 8, the Law now requires that the children be instructed on the meaning of this observance. It is a memorial of the deliverance from bondage and the killing of the firstborn in Egypt.

[13:14]  ³⁷ tn Heb “tomorrow.”

[13:14]  ³⁸ tn Heb “and it will be when your son will ask you.”

[13:14]  ³⁹ tn The question is cryptic; it simply says, “What is this?” but certainly refers to the custom just mentioned. It asks, “What does this mean?” or “Why do we do this?”

[13:14]  ⁴⁰ tn The expression is “with strength of hand,” making “hand” the genitive of specification. In translation “strength” becomes the modifier, because “hand” specifies where the strength was. But of course the whole expression is anthropomorphic for the power of God.

[13:14]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “house of slaves.”

[14:31]  ⁴¹ tn The preterite with the vav (ו) consecutive introduces a clause that is subordinate to the main points that the verse is making.

[14:31]  ⁴² tn Heb “the great hand,” with “hand” being a metonymy for work or power. The word play using “hand” contrasts the Lord’s hand/power at work on behalf of the Israelites with the hand/power of Egypt that would have killed them.

[14:31]  ⁴³ tn Heb “did, made.”

[14:31]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “and the people feared.”

[14:31]  ⁴⁵ tn The verb is the Hiphil preterite of אָמַן (’aman).

[14:31]  ⁴⁶ sn Here the title of “servant” is given to Moses. This is the highest title a mortal can have in the OT – the “servant of Yahweh.” It signifies more than a believer; it describes the individual as acting on behalf of God. For example, when Moses stretched out his hand, God used it as his own (Isa 63:12). Moses was God’s personal representative. The chapter records both a message of salvation and of judgment. Like the earlier account of deliverance at the Passover, this chapter can be a lesson on deliverance from present troubles – if God could do this for Israel, there is no trouble too great for him to overcome. The passage can also be understood as a picture (at least) of the deliverance at the final judgment on the world. But the Israelites used this account for a paradigm of the power of God: namely, God is able to deliver his people from danger because he is the sovereign Lord of creation. His people must learn to trust him, even in desperate situations; they must fear him and not the situation. God can bring any threat to an end by bringing his power to bear in judgment on the wicked.

[20:10]  ⁴⁶ tn The phrase “on it” has been supplied for clarity.

[20:10]  ⁴⁷ sn The wife is omitted in the list, not that she was considered unimportant, nor that she was excluded from the rest, but rather in reflecting her high status. She was not man’s servant, not lesser than the man, but included with the man as an equal before God. The “you” of the commandments is addressed to the Israelites individually, male and female, just as God in the Garden of Eden held both the man and the woman responsible for their individual sins (see B. Jacob, Exodus, 567-68).

[20:10]  ⁴⁸ sn The Sabbath day was the sign of the Sinaitic Covenant. It required Israel to cease from ordinary labors and devote the day to God. It required Israel to enter into the life of God, to share his Sabbath. It gave them a chance to recall the work of the Creator. But in the NT the apostolic teaching for the Church does not make one day holier than another, but calls for the entire life to be sanctified to God. This teaching is an application of the meaning of entering into the Sabbath of God. The book of Hebrews declares that those who believe in Christ cease from their works and enter into his Sabbath rest. For a Christian keeping Saturday holy is not a requirement from the NT; it may be a good and valuable thing to have a day of rest and refreshment, but it is not a binding law for the Church. The principle of setting aside time to worship and serve the Lord has been carried forward, but the strict regulations have not.

[20:17]  ⁵¹ tn The verb חָמַד (khamad) focuses not on an external act but on an internal mental activity behind the act, the motivation for it. The word can be used in a very good sense (Ps 19:10; 68:16), but it has a bad connotation in contexts where the object desired is off limits. This command is aimed at curtailing the greedy desire for something belonging to a neighbor, a desire that leads to the taking of it or the attempt to take it. It was used in the story of the Garden of Eden for the tree that was desired.

[20:17]  ⁵² sn See further G. Wittenburg, “The Tenth Commandment in the Old Testament,” Journal for Theology in South Africa 21 (1978): 3-17: and E. W. Nicholson, “The Decalogue as the Direct Address of God,” VT 27 (1977): 422-33.

[21:5]  ⁵⁶ tn The imperfect with the infinitive absolute means that the declaration is unambiguous, that the servant will clearly affirm that he wants to stay with the master. Gesenius says that in a case like this the infinitive emphasizes the importance of the condition on which some consequence depends (GKC 342-43 §113.o).

[21:5]  ⁵⁷ tn Or taken as a desiderative imperfect, it would say, “I do not want to go out free.”

[21:20]  ⁶¹ tn Heb “so that he”; the words “or she” have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[21:20]  ⁶² tn Heb “under his hand.”

[21:20]  ⁶³ tn Heb “will be avenged” (how is not specified).

[21:26]  ⁶⁶ tn The form וְשִׁחֲתָהּ (vÿshikhatah) is the Piel perfect with the vav (ל) consecutive, rendered “and destroys it.” The verb is a strong one, meaning “to ruin, completely destroy.”

[21:26]  ⁶⁷ tn Heb “him”; the referent (the male or female servant) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:26]  ⁶⁸ sn Interestingly, the verb used here for “let him go” is the same verb throughout the first part of the book for “release” of the Israelites from slavery. Here, an Israelite will have to release the injured slave.

[21:32]  ⁷¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the owner) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:32]  ⁷² sn A shekel was a unit for measure by means of a scale. Both the weight and the value of a shekel of silver are hard to determine. “Though there is no certainty, the shekel is said to weigh about 11,5 grams” (C. Houtman, Exodus, 3:181). Over four hundred years earlier, Joseph was sold into Egypt for 20 shekels. The free Israelite citizen was worth about 50 shekels (Lev 27:3f.).

[21:32]  ⁷³ sn See further B. S. Jackson, “The Goring Ox Again [Ex. 21,28-36],” JJP 18 (1974): 55-94.