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 10:26

10:26 Our livestock must ⁴  also go with us! Not a hoof is to be left behind! For we must take ⁵  these animals ⁶  to serve the Lord our God. Until we arrive there, we do not know what we must use to serve the Lord.” ⁷ 

Exodus 12:13

12:13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, so that when I see ⁸  the blood I will pass over you, ⁹  and this plague ¹⁰  will not fall on you to destroy you ¹¹  when I attack ¹²  the land of Egypt. ¹³ 

Exodus 12:30

12:30 Pharaoh got up ¹⁴  in the night, ¹⁵  along with all his servants and all Egypt, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was no house ¹⁶  in which there was not someone dead.

Exodus 17:3

17:3 But the people were very thirsty ¹⁷  there for water, and they murmured against Moses and said, “Why in the world ¹⁸  did you bring us up out of Egypt – to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?” ¹⁹ 

Exodus 17:6

17:6 I will be standing ²⁰  before you there on ²¹  the rock in Horeb, and you will strike ²²  the rock, and water will come out of it so that the people may drink.” ²³  And Moses did so in plain view ²⁴  of the elders of Israel.

Exodus 24:12

24:12 ²⁵ The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me to the mountain and remain there, and I will give you the stone tablets ²⁶  with ²⁷  the law and the commandments that I have written, so that you may teach them.” ²⁸ 

Exodus 25:22

25:22 I will meet with you there, ²⁹  and ³⁰  from above the atonement lid, from between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will command you for the Israelites.

Exodus 26:33

26:33 You are to hang this curtain under the clasps and bring the ark of the testimony in there behind the curtain. ³¹  The curtain will make a division for you between the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place. ³² 

Exodus 34:28

34:28 So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; ³³  he did not eat bread, and he did not drink water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments. ³⁴ 

[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).

[10:26]  ⁴ tn This is the obligatory imperfect nuance. They were obliged to take the animals if they were going to sacrifice, but more than that, since they were not coming back, they had to take everything.

[10:26]  ⁵ tn The same modal nuance applies to this verb.

[10:26]  ⁶ tn Heb “from it,” referring collectively to the livestock.

[10:26]  ⁷ sn Moses gives an angry but firm reply to Pharaoh’s attempt to control Israel; he makes it clear that he has no intention of leaving any pledge with Pharaoh. When they leave, they will take everything that belongs to them.

[12:13]  ⁷ tn Both of the verbs for seeing and passing over are perfect tenses with vav (ו) consecutives: וּפָסַחְתִּי…וְרָאִיתִי (vÿra’iti...ufasakhti); the first of these parallel verb forms is subordinated to the second as a temporal clause. See Gesenius’s description of perfect consecutives in the protasis and apodosis (GKC 494 §159.g).

[12:13]  ⁸ tn The meaning of the verb is supplied in part from the near context of seeing the sign and omitting to destroy, as well as the verb at the start of verse 12 “pass through, by, over.” Isa 31:5 says, “Just as birds hover over a nest, so the Lord who commands armies will protect Jerusalem. He will protect and deliver it; as he passes over he will rescue it.” The word does not occur enough times to enable one to delineate a clear meaning. It is probably not the same word as “to limp” found in 1 Kgs 18:21, 26, unless there is a highly developed category of meaning there.

[12:13]  ⁹ tn The word “plague” (נֶגֶף, negef) is literally “a blow” or “a striking.” It usually describes a calamity or affliction given to those who have aroused God’s anger, as in Exod 30:12; Num 8:19; 16:46, 47; Josh 22:17 (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 92-93).

[12:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “for destruction.” The form מַשְׁחִית (mashkhit) is the Hiphil participle of שָׁחַת (shakhat). The word itself is a harsh term; it was used to describe Yahweh’s destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 13:10).

[12:13]  ¹¹ tn בְּהַכֹּתִי (bÿhakkoti) is the Hiphil infinitive construct from נָכָה (nakhah), with a preposition prefixed and a pronominal suffix added to serve as the subjective genitive – the subject of this temporal clause. It is also used in 12:12.

[12:13]  ¹² sn For additional discussions, see W. H. Elder, “The Passover,” RevExp 74 (1977): 511-22; E. Nutz, “The Passover,” BV 12 (1978): 23-28; H. M. Kamsler, “The Blood Covenant in the Bible,” Dor le Dor 6 (1977): 94-98; A. Rodriguez, Substitution in the Hebrew Cultus; B. Ramm, “The Theology of the Book of Exodus: A Reflection on Exodus 12:12,” SwJT 20 (1977): 59-68; and M. Gilula, “The Smiting of the First-Born: An Egyptian Myth?” TA 4 (1977): 94-85.

[12:30]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “arose,” the verb קוּם (qum) in this context certainly must describe a less ceremonial act. The entire country woke up in terror because of the deaths.

[12:30]  ¹¹ tn The noun is an adverbial accusative of time – “in the night” or “at night.”

[12:30]  ¹² sn Or so it seemed. One need not push this description to complete literalness. The reference would be limited to houses that actually had firstborn people or animals. In a society in which households might include more than one generation of humans and animals, however, the presence of a firstborn human or animal would be the rule rather than the exception.

[17:3]  ¹³ tn The verbs and the pronouns in this verse are in the singular because “the people” is singular in form.

[17:3]  ¹⁴ tn The demonstrative pronoun is used as the enclitic form for special emphasis in the question; it literally says, “why is this you have brought us up?” (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 24, §118).

[17:3]  ¹⁵ sn Their words deny God the credit for bringing them out of Egypt, impugn the integrity of Moses and God by accusing them of bringing the people out here to die, and show a lack of faith in God’s ability to provide for them.

[17:6]  ¹⁶ tn The construction uses הִנְנִי עֹמֵד (hinni ’omed) to express the futur instans or imminent future of the verb: “I am going to be standing.”

[17:6]  ¹⁷ tn Or “by” (NIV, NLT).

[17:6]  ¹⁸ tn The form is a Hiphil perfect with the vav (ו) consecutive; it follows the future nuance of the participle and so is equivalent to an imperfect tense nuance of instruction.

[17:6]  ¹⁹ tn These two verbs are also perfect tenses with vav (ו) consecutive: “and [water] will go out…and [the people] will drink.” But the second verb is clearly the intent or the result of the water gushing from the rock, and so it may be subordinated.

[17:6]  ²⁰ tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

[24:12]  ¹⁹ sn Now the last part is recorded in which Moses ascends to Yahweh to receive the tablets of stone. As Moses disappears into the clouds, the people are given a vision of the glory of Yahweh.

[24:12]  ²⁰ sn These are the stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments would be written. This is the first time they are mentioned. The commandments were apparently proclaimed by God first and then proclaimed to the people by Moses. Now that they have been formally agreed on and ratified, they will be written by God on stone for a perpetual covenant.

[24:12]  ²¹ tn Or “namely”; or “that is to say.” The vav (ו) on the noun does not mean that this is in addition to the tablets of stone; the vav is explanatory. Gesenius has “to wit”; see GKC 484-85 §154.a, n. 1(b).

[24:12]  ²² tn The last word of the verse is לְהוֹרֹתָם (lÿhorotam), the Hiphil infinitive construct of יָרָה (yarah). It serves as a purpose clause, “to teach them,” meaning “I am giving you this Law and these commands in order that you may teach them.” This duty to teach the Law will be passed especially to parents (Deut 6:6-9, 20-25) and to the tribe of Levi as a whole (Deut 33:9-10; Mal 2:1-9).

[25:22]  ²² sn Here then is the main point of the ark of the covenant, and the main point of all worship – meeting with God through atonement. The text makes it clear that here God would meet with Moses (“you” is singular) and then he would speak to the people – he is the mediator of the covenant. S. R. Driver (Exodus, 272) makes the point that the verb here is not the word that means “to meet by chance” (as in Exod 3:18), but “to meet” by appointment for a purpose (וְנוֹעַדְתִּי, vÿno’adti). The parallel in the NT is Jesus Christ and his work. The theology is that the Law condemns people as guilty of sin, but the sacrifice of Christ makes atonement. So he is the “place of propitiation (Rom 3:25) who gains communion with the Father for sinners. A major point that could be made from this section is this: At the center of worship must be the atoning work of Christ – a perpetual reminder of God’s righteous standard (the testimony in the ark) and God’s gracious provision (the atonement lid).

[25:22]  ²³ tn The verb is placed here in the text: “and I will speak”; it has been moved in this translation to be closer to the direct object clause.

[26:33]  ²⁵ tn The traditional expression is “within the veil,” literally “into the house (or area) of the (special) curtain.”

[26:33]  ²⁶ tn Or “the Holy of Holies.”

[34:28]  ²⁸ tn These too are adverbial in relation to the main clause, telling how long Moses was with Yahweh on the mountain.

[34:28]  ²⁹ tn Heb “the ten words,” though “commandments” is traditional.