Keluaran 8:8

8:8 Then Pharaoh summoned ¹  Moses and Aaron and said, “Pray ²  to the Lord that he may take the frogs away ³  from me and my people, and I will release ⁴  the people that they may sacrifice ⁵  to the Lord.”

Keluaran 9:27-28

9:27 So Pharaoh sent and summoned Moses and Aaron and said to them, “I have sinned this time! ⁶  The Lord is righteous, and I and my people are guilty. ⁷  9:28 Pray to the Lord, for the mighty ⁸  thunderings and hail are too much! ⁹  I will release you and you will stay no longer.” ¹⁰ 

Keluaran 11:8

11:8 All these your servants will come down to me and bow down ¹¹  to me, saying, ‘Go, you and all the people who follow ¹²  you,’ and after that I will go out.” Then Moses ¹³  went out from Pharaoh in great anger.

[8:8]  ¹ tn The verb קָרָא (qara’) followed by the lamed (ל) preposition has the meaning “to summon.”

[8:8]  ² tn The verb הַעְתִּירוּ (ha’tiru) is the Hiphil imperative of the verb עָתַר (’atar). It means “to pray, supplicate,” or “make supplication” – always addressed to God. It is often translated “entreat” to reflect that it is a more urgent praying.

[8:8]  ³ tn This form is the jussive with a sequential vav that provides the purpose of the prayer: pray…that he may turn away the frogs.

[8:8]  sn This is the first time in the conflict that Pharaoh even acknowledged that Yahweh existed. Now he is asking for prayer to remove the frogs and is promising to release Israel. This result of the plague must have been an encouragement to Moses.

[8:8]  ⁴ tn The form is the Piel cohortative וַאֲשַׁלְּחָה (va’ashallÿkhah) with the vav (ו) continuing the sequence from the request and its purpose. The cohortative here stresses the resolve of the king: “and (then) I will release.”

[8:8]  ⁵ tn Here also the imperfect tense with the vav (ו) shows the purpose of the release: “that they may sacrifice.”

[9:27]  ⁶ sn Pharaoh now is struck by the judgment and acknowledges that he is at fault. But the context shows that this penitence was short-lived. What exactly he meant by this confession is uncertain. On the surface his words seem to represent a recognition that he was in the wrong and Yahweh right.

[9:27]  ⁷ tn The word רָשָׁע (rasha’) can mean “ungodly, wicked, guilty, criminal.” Pharaoh here is saying that Yahweh is right, and the Egyptians are not – so they are at fault, guilty. S. R. Driver says the words are used in their forensic sense (in the right or wrong standing legally) and not in the ethical sense of morally right and wrong (Exodus, 75).

[9:28]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ tn The last clause uses a verbal hendiadys: “you will not add to stand,” meaning “you will no longer stay.”

[11:8]  ¹¹ sn Moses’ anger is expressed forcefully. “He had appeared before Pharaoh a dozen times either as God’s emissary or when summoned by Pharaoh, but he would not come again; now they would have to search him out if they needed help” (B. Jacob, Exodus, 289-90).

[11:8]  ¹² tn Heb “that are at your feet.”

[11:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.