Exodus 8:4

8:4 Frogs ¹  will come up against you, your people, and all your servants.”’” ² 

Exodus 5:16

5:16 No straw is given to your servants, but we are told, ³  ‘Make bricks!’ Your servants are even ⁴  being beaten, but the fault ⁵  is with your people.”

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 10:6

10:6 They will fill your houses, the houses of your servants, and all the houses of Egypt, such as ⁸  neither ⁹  your fathers nor your grandfathers have seen since they have been ¹⁰  in the land until this day!’” Then Moses ¹¹  turned and went out from Pharaoh.

Exodus 11:8

11:8 All these your servants will come down to me and bow down ¹²  to me, saying, ‘Go, you and all the people who follow ¹³  you,’ and after that I will go out.” Then Moses ¹⁴  went out from Pharaoh in great anger.

Exodus 32:13

32:13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel your servants, to whom you swore by yourself and told them, ‘I will multiply your descendants ¹⁵  like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken about ¹⁶  I will give to your descendants, ¹⁷  and they will inherit it forever.’”

[8:4]  ¹ tn Here again is the generic use of the article, designating the class – frogs.

[8:4]  ² sn The word order of the Hebrew text is important because it shows how the plague was pointedly directed at Pharaoh: “and against you, and against your people, and against all your servants frogs will go up.”

[5:16]  ³ tn Heb “[they] are saying to us,” the line can be rendered as a passive since there is no expressed subject for the participle.

[5:16]  ⁴ tn הִנֵּה (hinneh) draws attention to the action reflected in the passive participle מֻכִּים (mukkim): “look, your servants are being beaten.”

[5:16]  ⁵ tn The word rendered “fault” is the basic OT verb for “sin” – וְחָטָאת (vÿkhata’t). The problem is that it is pointed as a perfect tense, feminine singular verb. Some other form of the verb would be expected, or a noun. But the basic word-group means “to err, sin, miss the mark, way, goal.” The word in this context seems to indicate that the people of Pharaoh – the slave masters – have failed to provide the straw. Hence: “fault” or “they failed.” But, as indicated, the line has difficult grammar, for it would literally translate: “and you [fem.] sin your people.” Many commentators (so GKC 206 §74.g) wish to emend the text to read with the Greek and the Syriac, thus: “you sin against your own people” (meaning the Israelites are his loyal subjects).

[8:3]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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.

[10:6]  ⁷ tn The relative pronoun אֲשֶׁר (’asher) is occasionally used as a comparative conjunction (see GKC 499 §161.b).

[10:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “which your fathers have not seen, nor your fathers’ fathers.”

[10:6]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew construction מִיּוֹם הֱיוֹתָם (miyyom heyotam, “from the day of their being”). The statement essentially says that no one, even the elderly, could remember seeing a plague of locusts like this. In addition, see B. Childs, “A Study of the Formula, ‘Until This Day,’” JBL 82 (1963).

[10:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:8]  ⁹ sn Moses’ anger is expressed forcefully. “He had appeared before Pharaoh a dozen times either as God’s emissary or when summoned by Pharaoh, but he would not come again; now they would have to search him out if they needed help” (B. Jacob, Exodus, 289-90).

[11:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “that are at your feet.”

[11:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[32:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “your seed.”

[32:13]  ¹² tn “about” has been supplied.

[32:13]  ¹³ tn Heb “seed.”