Exodus 9:28

9:28 Pray to the Lord, for the mighty ¹  thunderings and hail are too much! ²  I will release you and you will stay no longer.” ³ 

Exodus 12:4

12:4 If any household is too small ⁴  for a lamb, ⁵  the man ⁶  and his next-door neighbor ⁷  are to take ⁸  a lamb according to the number of people – you will make your count for the lamb according to how much each one can eat. ⁹ 

[9:28]  ¹ sn The text has Heb “the voices of God.” The divine epithet can be used to express the superlative (cf. Jonah 3:3).

[9:28]  ² tn The expression וְרַב מִהְיֹת (vÿrav mihyot, “[the mighty thunder and hail] is much from being”) means essentially “more than enough.” This indicates that the storm was too much, or, as one might say, “It is enough.”

[9:28]  ³ tn The last clause uses a verbal hendiadys: “you will not add to stand,” meaning “you will no longer stay.”

[12:4]  ⁴ sn Later Judaism ruled that “too small” meant fewer than ten (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 88).

[12:4]  ⁵ tn The clause uses the comparative min (מִן) construction: יִמְעַט הַבַּיִת מִהְיֹת מִשֶּׂה (yim’at habbayit mihyot miseh, “the house is small from being from a lamb,” or “too small for a lamb”). It clearly means that if there were not enough people in the household to have a lamb by themselves, they should join with another family. For the use of the comparative, see GKC 430 §133.c.

[12:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “he and his neighbor”; the referent (the man) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “who is near to his house.”

[12:4]  ⁸ tn The construction uses a perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive after a conditional clause: “if the household is too small…then he and his neighbor will take.”

[12:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “[every] man according to his eating.”