Keluaran 12:4

12:4 If any household is too small ¹  for a lamb, ²  the man ³  and his next-door neighbor ⁴  are to take ⁵  a lamb according to the number of people – you will make your count for the lamb according to how much each one can eat. ⁶ 

Keluaran 22:31

22:31 “You will be holy ⁷  people to me; you must not eat any meat torn by animals in the field. ⁸  You must throw it to the dogs.

Keluaran 25:19

25:19 Make ⁹  one cherub on one end ¹⁰  and one cherub on the other end; from the atonement lid ¹¹  you are to make the cherubim on the two ends.

Keluaran 29:33

29:33 They are to eat those things by which atonement was made ¹²  to consecrate and to set them apart, but no one else ¹³  may eat them, for they are holy.

Keluaran 30:12-13

30:12 “When you take a census ¹⁴  of the Israelites according to their number, ¹⁵  then each man is to pay a ransom ¹⁶  for his life to the Lord when you number them, ¹⁷  so that there will be no plague among them when you number them. 30:13 Everyone who crosses over to those who are numbered ¹⁸  is to pay this: a half shekel ¹⁹  according to the shekel of the sanctuary ²⁰  (a shekel weighs twenty gerahs). The half shekel is to be an offering ²¹  to the Lord.

[12:4]  ¹ sn Later Judaism ruled that “too small” meant fewer than ten (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 88).

[12:4]  ² tn The clause uses the comparative min (מִן) construction: יִמְעַט הַבַּיִת מִהְיֹת מִשֶּׂה (yim’at habbayit mihyot miseh, “the house is small from being from a lamb,” or “too small for a lamb”). It clearly means that if there were not enough people in the household to have a lamb by themselves, they should join with another family. For the use of the comparative, see GKC 430 §133.c.

[12:4]  ³ tn Heb “he and his neighbor”; the referent (the man) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “who is near to his house.”

[12:4]  ⁵ tn The construction uses a perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive after a conditional clause: “if the household is too small…then he and his neighbor will take.”

[12:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “[every] man according to his eating.”

[12:4]  sn The reference is normally taken to mean whatever each person could eat. B. Jacob (Exodus, 299) suggests, however, that the reference may not be to each individual person’s appetite, but to each family. Each man who is the head of a household was to determine how much his family could eat, and this in turn would determine how many families shared the lamb.

[22:31]  ⁷ sn The use of this word here has to do with the laws of the sanctuary and not some advanced view of holiness. The ritual holiness at the sanctuary would prohibit eating anything torn to pieces.

[22:31]  ⁸ tn Or “by wild animals.”

[25:19]  ⁹ tn The text now shifts to use an imperative with the vav (ו) conjunction.

[25:19]  ¹⁰ tn The use of זֶה (zeh) repeated here expresses the reciprocal ideas of “the one” and “the other” (see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 26, §132).

[25:19]  ¹¹ sn The angels were to form one piece with the lid and not be separated. This could be translated “of one piece with” the lid, but it is likely the angels were simply fastened to it permanently.

[29:33]  ¹² tn The clause is a relative clause modifying “those things,” the direct object of the verb “eat.” The relative clause has a resumptive pronoun: “which atonement was made by them” becomes “by which atonement was made.” The verb is a Pual perfect of כִּפֵּר (kipper, “to expiate, atone, pacify”).

[29:33]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew word is “stranger, alien” (זָר, zar). But in this context it means anyone who is not a priest (see S. R. Driver, Exodus, 324).

[30:12]  ¹⁴ tn The expression is “when you take [lift up] the sum [head] of the Israelites.”

[30:12]  ¹⁵ tn The form is לִפְקֻדֵיהֶם (lifqudehem, “according to those that are numbered of/by them”) from the verb פָּקַד (paqad, “to visit”). But the idea of this word seems more to be that of changing or determining the destiny, and so “appoint” and “number” become clear categories of meaning for the word. Here it simply refers to the census, but when this word is used for a census it often involves mustering an army for a military purpose. Here there is no indication of a war, but it may be laying down the principle that when they should do this, here is the price. B. Jacob (Exodus, 835) uses Num 31 as a good illustration, showing that the warrior was essentially a murderer, if he killed anyone in battle. For this reason his blood was forfeit; if he survived he must pay a כֹּפֶר (kofer) because every human life possesses value and must be atoned for. The payment during the census represented a “presumptive ransom” so that they could not be faulted for what they might do in war.

[30:12]  ¹⁶ tn The “ransom” is כֹּפֶר (kofer), a word related to words translated “atone” and “atonement.” Here the noun refers to what is paid for the life. The idea is that of delivering or redeeming by a substitute – here the substitute is the money. If they paid the amount, their lives would be safe (W. C. Kaiser, Jr., “Exodus,” EBC 2:473).

[30:12]  ¹⁷ tn The temporal clause uses a preposition, an infinitive construct, and then an accusative. The subject is supplied: “in numbering them” means “when [you] number them.” The verb could also be rendered “when you muster them.”

[30:13]  ¹⁸ sn Each man was to pass in front of the counting officer and join those already counted on the other side.

[30:13]  ¹⁹ sn The half shekel weight of silver would be about one-fifth of an ounce (6 grams).

[30:13]  ²⁰ sn It appears that some standard is in view for the amount of a shekel weight. The sanctuary shekel is sometimes considered to be twice the value of the ordinary shekel. The “gerah,” also of uncertain meaning, was mentioned as a reference point for the ancient reader to understand the value of the required payment. It may also be that the expression meant “a sacred shekel” and looked at the purpose more – a shekel for sanctuary dues. This would mean that the standard of the shekel weight was set because it was the traditional amount of sacred dues (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 333). “Though there is no certainty, the shekel is said to weigh about 11,5 grams…Whether an official standard is meant [by ‘sanctuary shekel’] or whether the sanctuary shekel had a different weight than the ‘ordinary’ shekel is not known” (C. Houtman, Exodus, 3:181).

[30:13]  ²¹ tn Or “contribution” (תְּרוּמָה, tÿrumah).