Keluaran 16:32

16:32 Moses said, “This is what ¹  the Lord has commanded: ‘Fill an omer with it to be kept ²  for generations to come, ³  so that they may see ⁴  the food I fed you in the desert when I brought you out from the land of Egypt.’”

Keluaran 17:12

17:12 When ⁵  the hands of Moses became heavy, ⁶  they took a stone and put it under him, and Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side and one on the other, ⁷  and so his hands were steady ⁸  until the sun went down.

[16:32]  ¹ tn Heb “This is the thing that.”

[16:32]  ² tn Heb “for keeping.”

[16:32]  ³ tn Heb “according to your generations” (see Exod 12:14).

[16:32]  ⁴ tn In this construction after the particle expressing purpose or result, the imperfect tense has the nuance of final imperfect, equal to a subjunctive in the classical languages.

[17:12]  ⁵ tn Literally “now the hands of Moses,” the disjunctive vav (ו) introduces a circumstantial clause here – of time.

[17:12]  ⁶ tn The term used here is the adjective כְּבֵדִים (kÿvedim). It means “heavy,” but in this context the idea is more that of being tired. This is the important word that was used in the plague stories: when the heart of Pharaoh was hard, then the Israelites did not gain their freedom or victory. Likewise here, when the staff was lowered because Moses’ hands were “heavy,” Israel started to lose.

[17:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “from this, one, and from this, one.”

[17:12]  ⁸ tn The word “steady” is אֱמוּנָה (’emuna) from the root אָמַן (’aman). The word usually means “faithfulness.” Here is a good illustration of the basic idea of the word – firm, steady, reliable, dependable. There may be a double entendre here; on the one hand it simply says that his hands were stayed so that Israel might win, but on the other hand it is portraying Moses as steady, firm, reliable, faithful. The point is that whatever God commissioned as the means or agency of power – to Moses a staff, to the Christians the Spirit – the people of God had to know that the victory came from God alone.