Exodus 8:22

8:22 But on that day I will mark off ¹  the land of Goshen, where my people are staying, ²  so that no swarms of flies will be there, that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of this land. ³ 

Exodus 10:1

The Eighth Blow: Locusts

10:1 ⁴ The Lord said ⁵  to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, in order to display ⁶  these signs of mine before him, ⁷ 

Exodus 17:7

17:7 He called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the contending of the Israelites and because of their testing the Lord, ⁸  saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Exodus 29:13

29:13 You are to take all the fat that covers the entrails, and the lobe ⁹  that is above the liver, and the two kidneys and the fat that is on them, and burn them ¹⁰  on the altar.

Exodus 29:22

29:22 “You are to take from the ram the fat, the fat tail, the fat that covers the entrails, the lobe ¹¹  of the liver, the two kidneys and the fat that is on them, and the right thigh – for it is the ram for consecration ¹²  –

Exodus 31:14

31:14 So you must keep the Sabbath, for it is holy for you. Everyone who defiles it ¹³  must surely be put to death; indeed, ¹⁴  if anyone does ¹⁵  any ¹⁶  work on it, then that person will be cut off from among his ¹⁷  people.

Exodus 33:5

33:5 For ¹⁸  the Lord had said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. If I went up among you for a moment, ¹⁹  I might destroy you. Now take off your ornaments, ²⁰  that I may know ²¹  what I should do to you.’” ²² 

Exodus 34:9

34:9 and said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, let my Lord ²³  go among us, for we ²⁴  are a stiff-necked people; pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”

[8:22]  ¹ tn Or “distinguish.” וְהִפְלֵיתִי (vÿhifleti) is the Hiphil perfect of פָּלָה (palah). The verb in Hiphil means “to set apart, make separate, make distinct.” God was going to keep the flies away from Goshen – he was setting that apart. The Greek text assumed that the word was from פָּלֵא (pale’), and translated it something like “I will marvelously glorify.”

[8:22]  ² tn The relative clause modifies the land of Goshen as the place “in which my people are dwelling.” But the normal word for “dwelling” is not used here. Instead, עֹמֵד (’omed) is used, which literally means “standing.” The land on which Israel stood was spared the flies and the hail.

[8:22]  ³ tn Or “of the earth” (KJV, ASV, NAB).

[10:1]  ⁴ sn The Egyptians dreaded locusts like every other ancient civilization. They had particular gods to whom they looked for help in such catastrophes. The locust-scaring deities of Greece and Asia were probably looked to in Egypt as well (especially in view of the origins in Egypt of so many of those religious ideas). The announcement of the plague falls into the now-familiar pattern. God tells Moses to go and speak to Pharaoh but reminds Moses that he has hardened his heart. Yahweh explains that he has done this so that he might show his power, so that in turn they might declare his name from generation to generation. This point is stressed so often that it must not be minimized. God was laying the foundation of the faith for Israel – the sovereignty of Yahweh.

[10:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “and Yahweh said.”

[10:1]  ⁶ tn The verb is שִׁתִי (shiti, “I have put”); it is used here as a synonym for the verb שִׂים (sim). Yahweh placed the signs in his midst, where they will be obvious.

[10:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “in his midst.”

[17:7]  ⁷ sn The name Massah (מַסָּה, massah) means “Proving”; it is derived from the verb “test, prove, try.” And the name Meribah (מְרִיבָה, mÿrivah) means “Strife”; it is related to the verb “to strive, quarrel, contend.” The choice of these names for the place would serve to remind Israel for all time of this failure with God. God wanted this and all subsequent generations to know how unbelief challenges God. And yet, he gave them water. So in spite of their failure, he remained faithful to his promises. The incident became proverbial, for it is the warning in Ps 95:7-8, which is quoted in Heb 3:15: “Oh, that today you would listen as he speaks! Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of testing in the wilderness. There your fathers tested me and tried me, and they saw my works for forty years.” The lesson is clear enough: to persist in this kind of unbelief could only result in the loss of divine blessing. Or, to put it another way, if they refused to believe in the power of God, they would wander powerless in the wilderness. They had every reason to believe, but they did not. (Note that this does not mean they are unbelievers, only that they would not take God at his word.)

[29:13]  ¹⁰ tn S. R. Driver suggests that this is the appendix or an appendix, both here and in v. 22 (Exodus, 320). “The surplus, the appendage of liver, found with cow, sheep, or goat, but not with humans: Lobus caudatus” (HALOT 453 s.v. יֹתֶרֶת).

[29:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “turn [them] into sweet smoke” since the word is used for burning incense.

[29:22]  ¹³ tn S. R. Driver suggests that this is the appendix or an appendix, both here and in v. 13 (Exodus, 320). “The surplus, the appendage of liver, found with cow, sheep, or goat, but not with humans: Lobus caudatus” (HALOT 453 s.v. יֹתֶרֶת).

[29:22]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “filling.”

[31:14]  ¹⁶ tn This clause is all from one word, a Piel plural participle with a third, feminine suffix: מְחַלְלֶיהָ (mÿkhalleha, “defilers of it”). This form serves as the subject of the sentence. The word חָלַל (khalal) is the antonym of קָדַשׁ (qadash, “to be holy”). It means “common, profane,” and in the Piel stem “make common, profane” or “defile.” Treating the Sabbath like an ordinary day would profane it, make it common.

[31:14]  ¹⁷ tn This is the asseverative use of כִּי (ki) meaning “surely, indeed,” for it restates the point just made (see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 73, §449).

[31:14]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the one who does.”

[31:14]  ¹⁹ tn “any” has been supplied.

[31:14]  ²⁰ tn Literally “her” (a feminine pronoun agreeing with “soul/life,” which is grammatically feminine).

[33:5]  ¹⁹ tn The verse simply begins “And Yahweh said.” But it is clearly meant to be explanatory for the preceding action of the people.

[33:5]  ²⁰ tn The construction is formed with a simple imperfect in the first half and a perfect tense with vav (ו) in the second half. Heb “[in] one moment I will go up in your midst and I will destroy you.” The verse is certainly not intended to say that God was about to destroy them. That, plus the fact that he has announced he will not go in their midst, leads most commentators to take this as a conditional clause: “If I were to do such and such, then….”

[33:5]  ²¹ tn The Hebrew text also has “from on you.”

[33:5]  ²² tn The form is the cohortative with a vav (ו) following the imperative; it therefore expresses the purpose or result: “strip off…that I may know.” The call to remove the ornaments must have been perceived as a call to show true repentance for what had happened. If they repented, then God would know how to deal with them.

[33:5]  ²³ tn This last clause begins with the interrogative “what,” but it is used here as an indirect interrogative. It introduces a noun clause, the object of the verb “know.”

[34:9]  ²² tn The Hebrew term translated “Lord” two times here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[34:9]  ²³ tn Heb “it is.” Hebrew uses the third person masculine singular pronoun here in agreement with the noun “people.”