Exodus 9:33

9:33 So Moses left Pharaoh, went out of the city, and spread out his hands to the Lord, and the thunder and the hail ceased, and the rain stopped pouring on the earth.

Exodus 25:20

25:20 The cherubim are to be spreading their wings upward, overshadowing ¹  the atonement lid with their wings, and the cherubim are to face each other, ²  looking ³  toward the atonement lid.

Exodus 37:9

37:9 The cherubim were spreading their wings ⁴  upward, overshadowing the atonement lid with their wings. The cherubim ⁵  faced each other, ⁶  looking toward the atonement lid. ⁷ 

Exodus 40:19

40:19 Then he spread the tent over the tabernacle and put the covering of the tent over it, as the Lord had commanded Moses.

Exodus 9:29

9:29 Moses said to him, “When I leave the city ⁸  I will spread my hands to the Lord, the thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know that the earth belongs to the Lord. ⁹ 

[25:20]  ¹ tn The verb means “overshadowing, screening” in the sense of guarding (see 1 Kgs 8:7; 1 Chr 28:18; see also the account in Gen 3:24). The cherubim then signify two things here: by their outstretched wings they form the throne of God who sits above the ark (with the Law under his feet), and by their overshadowing and guarding they signify this as the place of atonement where people must find propitiation to commune with God. Until then they are barred from his presence. See U. Cassuto, Exodus, 330-35.

[25:20]  ² tn Heb “their faces a man to his brother.”

[25:20]  ³ tn Heb “the faces of the cherubim will be” (“the cherubim” was moved to the preceding clause for smoother English).

[37:9]  ¹ tn The construction is a participle in construct followed by the genitive “wings” – “spreaders of wings.”

[37:9]  ² tn “The cherubim” has been placed here instead of in the second clause to produce a smoother translation.

[37:9]  ³ tn Heb “and their faces a man to his brother.”

[37:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “to the atonement lid were the faces of the cherubim.”

[9:29]  ¹ tn כְּצֵאתִי (kÿtse’ti) is the Qal infinitive construct of יָצָא (yatsa’); it functions here as the temporal clause before the statement about prayer.

[9:29]  ² sn This clause provides the purpose/result of Moses’ intention: he will pray to Yahweh and the storms will cease “that you might know….” It was not enough to pray and have the plague stop. Pharaoh must “know” that Yahweh is the sovereign Lord over the earth. Here was that purpose of knowing through experience. This clause provides the key for the exposition of this plague: God demonstrated his power over the forces of nature to show his sovereignty – the earth is Yahweh’s. He can destroy it. He can preserve it. If people sin by ignoring his word and not fearing him, he can bring judgment on them. If any fear Yahweh and obey his instructions, they will be spared. A positive way to express the expositional point of the chapter is to say that those who fear Yahweh and obey his word will escape the powerful destruction he has prepared for those who sinfully disregard his word.