Exodus 5:8

5:8 But you must require ¹  of them the same quota of bricks that they were making before. ²  Do not reduce it, for they are slackers. ³  That is why they are crying, ‘Let us go sacrifice to our God.’

Exodus 7:19

7:19 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over Egypt’s waters – over their rivers, over their canals, ⁴  over their ponds, and over all their reservoirs ⁵  – so that it becomes ⁶  blood.’ There will be blood everywhere in ⁷  the land of Egypt, even in wooden and stone containers.”

Exodus 19:24

19:24 The Lord said to him, “Go, get down, and come up, and Aaron with you, but do not let the priests and the people force their way through to come up to the Lord, lest he break through against them.”

Exodus 23:23

23:23 For my angel will go before you and bring you to the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I will destroy them completely. ⁸ 

Exodus 39:3

39:3 They hammered the gold into thin sheets and cut it into narrow strips to weave ⁹  them into the blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and into the fine linen, the work of an artistic designer.

[5:8]  ¹ tn The verb is the Qal imperfect of שִׂים (sim, “place, put”). The form could be an imperfect of instruction: “You will place upon them the quota.” Or, as here, it may be an obligatory imperfect: “You must place.”

[5:8]  ² tn Heb “yesterday and three days ago” or “yesterday and before that” is idiomatic for “previously” or “in the past.”

[5:8]  ³ tn Or “loafers.” The form נִרְפִּים (nirpim) is derived from the verb רָפָה (rafah), meaning “to be weak, to let oneself go.” They had been letting the work go, Pharaoh reasoned, and being idle is why they had time to think about going to worship.

[7:19]  ⁴ tn Or “irrigation rivers” of the Nile.

[7:19]  ⁵ sn The Hebrew term means “gathering,” i.e., wherever they gathered or collected waters, notably cisterns and reservoirs. This would naturally lead to the inclusion of both wooden and stone vessels – down to the smallest gatherings.

[7:19]  ⁶ tn The imperfect tense with vav (ו) after the imperative indicates the purpose or result: “in order that they [the waters] be[come] blood.”

[7:19]  ⁷ tn Or “in all.”

[23:23]  ⁷ tn Heb “will cut them off” (so KJV, ASV).

[39:3]  ¹⁰ tn The verb is the infinitive that means “to do, to work.” It could be given a literal rendering: “to work [them into] the blue….” Weaving or embroidering is probably what is intended.