Genesis 34:30

34:30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought ruin ¹  on me by making me a foul odor ²  among the inhabitants of the land – among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I ³  am few in number; they will join forces against me and attack me, and both I and my family will be destroyed!”

Exodus 5:21

5:21 and they said to them, “May the Lord look on you and judge, ⁴  because you have made us stink ⁵  in the opinion of ⁶  Pharaoh and his servants, ⁷  so that you have given them an excuse to kill us!” ⁸ 

Exodus 5:1

Opposition to the Plan of God

5:1 ⁹ Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “Thus says the Lord, ¹⁰  the God of Israel, ‘Release ¹¹  my people so that they may hold a pilgrim feast ¹²  to me in the desert.’”

Exodus 13:4

13:4 On this day, ¹³  in the month of Abib, ¹⁴  you are going out. ¹⁵ 

Exodus 27:12

27:12 The width of the court on the west side is to be seventy-five feet with hangings, with their ten posts and their ten bases.

Psalms 14:3

14:3 Everyone rejects God; ¹⁶ 

they are all morally corrupt. ¹⁷ 

None of them does what is right, ¹⁸ 

not even one!

[34:30]  ¹ tn The traditional translation is “troubled me” (KJV, ASV), but the verb refers to personal or national disaster and suggests complete ruin (see Josh 7:25, Judg 11:35, Prov 11:17). The remainder of the verse describes the “trouble” Simeon and Levi had caused.

[34:30]  ² tn In the causative stem the Hebrew verb בָּאַשׁ (ba’ash) means “to cause to stink, to have a foul smell.” In the contexts in which it is used it describes foul smells, stenches, or things that are odious. Jacob senses that the people in the land will find this act terribly repulsive. See P. R. Ackroyd, “The Hebrew Root באשׁ,” JTS 2 (1951): 31-36.

[34:30]  ³ tn Jacob speaks in the first person as the head and representative of the entire family.

[5:21]  ⁴ tn The foremen vented their anger on Moses and Aaron. The two jussives express their desire that the evil these two have caused be dealt with. “May Yahweh look on you and may he judge” could mean only that God should decide if Moses and Aaron are at fault, but given the rest of the comments it is clear the foremen want more. The second jussive could be subordinated to the first – “so that he may judge [you].”

[5:21]  ⁵ tn Heb “you have made our aroma stink.”

[5:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

[5:21]  ⁷ tn Heb “in the eyes of his servants.” This phrase is not repeated in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[5:21]  ⁸ tn Heb “to put a sword in their hand to kill us.” The infinitive construct with the lamed (לָתֶת, latet) signifies the result (“so that”) of making the people stink. Their reputation is now so bad that Pharaoh might gladly put them to death. The next infinitive could also be understood as expressing result: “put a sword in their hand so that they can kill us.”

[5:1]  ⁹ sn The enthusiasm of the worshipers in the preceding chapter turns sour in this one when Pharaoh refuses to cooperate. The point is clear that when the people of God attempt to devote their full service and allegiance to God, they encounter opposition from the world. Rather than finding instant blessing and peace, they find conflict. This is the theme that will continue through the plague narratives. But what makes chapter 5 especially interesting is how the people reacted to this opposition. The chapter has three sections: first, the confrontation between Moses and Pharaoh (vv. 1-5); then the report of the stern opposition of the king (vv. 6-14); and finally, the sad account of the effect of this opposition on the people (vv. 15-21).

[5:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Yahweh.”

[5:1]  ¹¹ tn The form שַׁלַּח (shallakh), the Piel imperative, has been traditionally translated “let [my people] go.” The Qal would be “send”; so the Piel “send away, release, dismiss, discharge.” B. Jacob observes, “If a person was dismissed through the use of this verb, then he ceased to be within the power or sphere of influence of the individual who had dismissed him. He was completely free and subsequently acted entirely on his own responsibility” (Exodus, 115).

[5:1]  ¹² tn The verb חָגַג (khagag) means to hold a feast or to go on a pilgrim feast. The Arabic cognate of the noun form is haj, best known for the pilgrim flight of Mohammed, the hajira. The form in the text (וְיָחֹגּוּ, vÿyakhoggu) is subordinated to the imperative and thus shows the purpose of the imperative.

[13:4]  ¹³ tn The word הַיּוֹם (hayyom) means literally “the day, today, this day.” In this sentence it functions as an adverbial accusative explaining when the event took place.

[13:4]  ¹⁴ sn Abib appears to be an old name for the month, meaning something like “[month of] fresh young ears” (Lev 2:14 [Heb]) (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 106). B. Jacob (Exodus, 364) explains that these names were not precise designations, but general seasons based on the lunar year in the agricultural setting.

[13:4]  ¹⁵ tn The form is the active participle, functioning verbally.

[14:3]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “everyone turns aside.”

[14:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “together they are corrupt.”

[14:3]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “there is none that does good.”