Exodus 6:14

The Ancestry of the Deliverer

6:14 ¹ These are the heads of their fathers’ households: ² 

The sons ³  of Reuben, the firstborn son of Israel, were Hanoch and Pallu, Hezron and Carmi. These were the clans ⁴  of Reuben.

Exodus 16:31

16:31 The house of Israel ⁵  called its name “manna.” ⁶  It was like coriander seed and was white, and it tasted ⁷  like wafers with honey.

Exodus 20:17

20:17 “You shall not covet ⁸  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.” ⁹ 

Exodus 40:38

40:38 For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, but fire would be ¹⁰  on it at night, in plain view ¹¹  of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.

[6:14]  ¹ sn This list of names shows that Moses and Aaron are in the line of Levi that came to the priesthood. It helps to identify them and authenticate them as spokesmen for God within the larger history of Israel. As N. M. Sarna observes, “Because a genealogy inherently symbolizes vigor and continuity, its presence here also injects a reassuring note into the otherwise despondent mood” (Exodus [JPSTC], 33).

[6:14]  ² tn The expression is literally “the house of their fathers.” This expression means that the household or family descended from a single ancestor. It usually indicates a subdivision of a tribe, that is, a clan, or the subdivision of a clan, that is, a family. Here it refers to a clan (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 46).

[6:14]  ³ tn Or “descendants.”

[6:14]  ⁴ tn Or “families,” and so throughout the genealogy.

[16:31]  ⁵ sn The name “house of Israel” is unusual in this context.

[16:31]  ⁶ tn Hebrew מָן (man).

[16:31]  ⁷ tn Heb “like seed of coriander, white, its taste was.”

[20:17]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ 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.

[40:38]  ¹³ tn Here is another imperfect tense of the customary nuance.

[40:38]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “to the eyes of all”; KJV, ASV, NASB “in the sight of all”; NRSV “before the eyes of all.”