Exodus 9:30

9:30 But as for you ¹  and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear ²  the Lord God.”

Exodus 23:4

23:4 “If you encounter ³  your enemy’s ox or donkey wandering off, you must by all means return ⁴  it to him.

Exodus 23:30

23:30 Little by little ⁵  I will drive them out before you, until you become fruitful and inherit the land.

Exodus 25:40

25:40 Now be sure to make ⁶  them according to the pattern you were shown ⁷  on the mountain. ⁸ 

[9:30]  ¹ tn The verse begins with the disjunctive vav to mark a strong contrastive clause to what was said before this.

[9:30]  ² tn The adverb טֶרֶם (terem, “before, not yet”) occurs with the imperfect tense to give the sense of the English present tense to the verb negated by it (GKC 314-15 §107.c). Moses is saying that he knew that Pharaoh did not really stand in awe of God, so as to grant Israel’s release, i.e., fear not in the religious sense but “be afraid of” God – fear “before” him (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 76).

[23:4]  ³ tn Heb “meet” (so KJV, ASV, NASB).

[23:4]  ⁴ tn The construction uses the imperfect tense (taken here as an obligatory imperfect) and the infinitive absolute for emphasis.

[23:30]  ⁵ tn The repetition expresses an exceptional or super-fine quality (see GKC 396 §123.e).

[25:40]  ⁷ tn The text uses two imperatives: “see and make.” This can be interpreted as a verbal hendiadys, calling for Moses and Israel to see to it that they make these things correctly.

[25:40]  ⁸ tn The participle is passive, “caused to see,” or, “shown.”

[25:40]  ⁹ sn The message of this section surely concerns access to God. To expound this correctly, though, since it is an instruction section for building the lampstand, the message would be: God requires that his people ensure that light will guide the way of access to God. The breakdown for exposition could be the instructions for preparation for light (one lamp, several branches), then instructions for the purpose and maintenance of the lamps, and then the last verse telling the divine source for the instructions. Naturally, the metaphorical value of light will come up in the study, especially from the NT. So in the NT there is the warning that if churches are unfaithful God will remove their lampstand, their ministry (Rev 2-3).