Keluaran 7:4

7:4 Pharaoh will not listen to you. ¹  I will reach into ²  Egypt and bring out my regiments, ³  my people the Israelites, from the land of Egypt with great acts of judgment.

Keluaran 8:19

8:19 The magicians said ⁴  to Pharaoh, “It is the finger ⁵  of God!” But Pharaoh’s heart remained hard, ⁶  and he did not listen to them, just as the Lord had predicted.

Keluaran 8:1

8:1 (7:26) ⁷  Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and tell him, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Release my people in order that they may serve me!

1 Samuel 5:7

5:7 When the people ⁸  of Ashdod saw what was happening, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel should not remain with us, for he has attacked ⁹  both us and our god Dagon!”

1 Samuel 5:11

5:11 So they assembled ¹⁰  all the leaders of the Philistines and said, “Get the ark of the God of Israel out of here! Let it go back to its own place so that it won’t kill us ¹¹  and our ¹²  people!” The terror ¹³  of death was throughout the entire city; God was attacking them very severely there. ¹⁴ 

1 Samuel 6:9

6:9 But keep an eye on it. If it should go up by the way of its own border to Beth Shemesh, then he has brought this great calamity on us. But if that is not the case, then we will know that it was not his hand that struck us; rather, it just happened to us by accident.”

Mazmur 32:4

32:4 For day and night you tormented me; ¹⁵ 

you tried to destroy me ¹⁶  in the intense heat ¹⁷  of summer. ¹⁸  (Selah)

[7:4]  ¹ tn Heb “and Pharaoh will not listen.”

[7:4]  ² tn Heb “put my hand into.” The expression is a strong anthropomorphism to depict God’s severest judgment on Egypt. The point is that neither the speeches of Moses and Aaron nor the signs that God would do will be effective. Consequently, God would deliver the blow that would destroy.

[7:4]  ³ tn See the note on this term in 6:26.

[8:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “and the magicians said.”

[8:19]  ⁵ tn The word “finger” is a bold anthropomorphism (a figure of speech in which God is described using human characteristics).

[8:19]  sn The point of the magicians’ words is clear enough. They knew they were beaten and by whom. The reason for their choice of the word “finger” has occasioned many theories, none of which is entirely satisfying. At the least their statement highlights that the plague was accomplished by God with majestic ease and effortlessness. Perhaps the reason that they could not do this was that it involved producing life – from the dust of the ground, as in Genesis 2:7. The creative power of God confounded the magic of the Egyptians and brought on them a loathsome plague.

[8:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “and the heart of Pharaoh became hard.” This phrase translates the Hebrew word חָזַק (khazaq; see S. R. Driver, Exodus, 53). In context this represents the continuation of a prior condition.

[8:1]  ⁷ sn Beginning with 8:1, the verse numbers through 8:32 in English Bibles differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 8:1 ET = 7:26 HT, 8:2 ET = 7:27 HT, 8:3 ET = 7:28 HT, 8:4 ET = 7:29 HT, 8:5 ET = 8:1 HT, etc., through 8:32 ET = 8:28 HT. Thus in English Bibles chapter 8 has 32 verses, while in the Hebrew Bible it has 28 verses, with the four extra verses attached to chapter 7.

[5:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “men.”

[5:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “for his hand is severe upon.”

[5:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and they sent and gathered.”

[5:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “me.”

[5:11]  ¹² tn Heb “my.”

[5:11]  ¹³ tn Or “panic.”

[5:11]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the hand of God was very heavy there.”

[32:4]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “your hand was heavy upon me.”

[32:4]  ¹⁶ tc Heb “my [?] was turned.” The meaning of the Hebrew term לְשַׁד (lÿshad) is uncertain. A noun לָשָׁד (lashad, “cake”) is attested in Num 11:8, but it would make no sense to understand that word in this context. It is better to emend the form to לְשֻׁדִּי (lÿshuddiy, “to my destruction”) and understand “your hand” as the subject of the verb “was turned.” In this case the text reads, “[your hand] was turned to my destruction.” In Lam 3:3 the author laments that God’s “hand” was “turned” (הָפַךְ, hafakh) against him in a hostile sense.

[32:4]  sn You tried to destroy me. The psalmist’s statement reflects his perspective. As far as he was concerned, it seemed as if the Lord was trying to kill him.

[32:4]  ¹⁷ tn The translation assumes that the plural form indicates degree. If one understands the form as a true plural, then one might translate, “in the times of drought.”

[32:4]  ¹⁸ sn Summer. Perhaps the psalmist suffered during the hot season and perceived the very weather as being an instrument of divine judgment. Another option is that he compares his time of suffering to the uncomfortable and oppressive heat of summer.