Genesis 31:21

31:21 He left ¹  with all he owned. He quickly crossed ²  the Euphrates River ³  and headed for ⁴  the hill country of Gilead.

Exodus 1:22

1:22 Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “All sons ⁵  that are born you must throw ⁶  into the river, but all daughters you may let live.” ⁷ 

Exodus 4:9

4:9 And if ⁸  they do not believe even these two signs or listen to you, ⁹  then take ¹⁰  some water from the Nile and pour it out on the dry ground. The water you take out of the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.” ¹¹ 

Deuteronomy 11:10

11:10 For the land where you are headed ¹²  is not like the land of Egypt from which you came, a land where you planted seed and which you irrigated by hand ¹³  like a vegetable garden.

Isaiah 19:5

19:5 The water of the sea will be dried up,

and the river will dry up and be empty. ¹⁴ 

Ezekiel 29:3

29:3 Tell them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says:

“‘Look, I am against ¹⁵  you, Pharaoh king of Egypt,

the great monster ¹⁶  lying in the midst of its waterways,

who has said, “My Nile is my own, I made it for myself.” ¹⁷ 

Ezekiel 29:9

29:9 The land of Egypt will become a desolate ruin. Then they will know that I am the Lord.

Because he said, “The Nile is mine and I made it,”

[31:21]  ¹ tn Heb “and he fled.”

[31:21]  ² tn Heb “he arose and crossed.” The first verb emphasizes that he wasted no time in getting across.

[31:21]  ³ tn Heb “the river”; the referent (the Euphrates) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[31:21]  ⁴ tn Heb “he set his face.”

[1:22]  ⁵ tn The substantive כֹּל (kol) followed by the article stresses the entirety – “all sons” or “all daughters” – even though the nouns are singular in Hebrew (see GKC 411 §127.b).

[1:22]  ⁶ tn The form includes a pronominal suffix that reiterates the object of the verb: “every son…you will throw it.”

[1:22]  ⁷ tn The first imperfect has the force of a definite order, but the second, concerning the girls, could also have the nuance of permission, which may fit better. Pharaoh is simply allowing the girls to live.

[4:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “and it will be if.”

[4:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “listen to your voice.”

[4:9]  ¹⁰ tn The verb form is the perfect tense with the vav (ו) consecutive; it functions then as the equivalent of the imperfect tense – here as an imperfect of instruction.

[4:9]  ¹¹ sn This is a powerful sign, for the Nile was always known as the source of life in Egypt, but now it will become the evidence of death. So the three signs were alike, each consisting of life and death. They would clearly anticipate the struggle with Egypt through the plagues. The point is clear that in the face of the possibility that people might not believe, the servants of God must offer clear proof of the power of God as they deliver the message of God. The rest is up to God.

[11:10]  ¹² tn Heb “you are going there to possess it”; NASB “into which you are about to cross to possess it”; NRSV “that you are crossing over to occupy.”

[11:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “with your foot” (so NASB, NLT). There is a two-fold significance to this phrase. First, Egypt had no rain so water supply depended on human efforts at irrigation. Second, the Nile was the source of irrigation waters but those waters sometimes had to be pumped into fields and gardens by foot-power, perhaps the kind of machinery (Arabic shaduf) still used by Egyptian farmers (see C. Aldred, The Egyptians, 181). Nevertheless, the translation uses “by hand,” since that expression is the more common English idiom for an activity performed by manual labor.

[19:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “will dry up and be dry.” Two synonyms are joined for emphasis.

[29:3]  ¹⁵ tn Or “I challenge you.” The phrase “I am against you” may be a formula for challenging someone to combat or a duel. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:201-2, and P. Humbert, “Die Herausforderungsformel ‘h!nn#n' ?l?K>,’” ZAW 45 (1933): 101-8.

[29:3]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “jackals,” but many medieval Hebrew mss read correctly “the serpent.” The Hebrew term appears to refer to a serpent in Exod 7:9-10, 12; Deut 32:33; and Ps 91:13. It also refers to large creatures that inhabit the sea (Gen 1:21; Ps 148:7). In several passages it is associated with the sea or with the multiheaded sea monster Leviathan (Job 7:12; Ps 74:13; Isa 27:1; 51:9). Because of the Egyptian setting of this prophecy and the reference to the creature’s scales (v. 4), many understand a crocodile to be the referent here (e.g., NCV “a great crocodile”; TEV “you monster crocodile”; CEV “a giant crocodile”).

[29:3]  ¹⁷ sn In Egyptian theology Pharaoh owned and controlled the Nile. See J. D. Currid, Ancient Egypt and the Old Testament, 240-44.