Keluaran 1:22

1:22 Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “All sons ¹  that are born you must throw ²  into the river, but all daughters you may let live.” ³ 

Keluaran 13:12

13:12 then you must give over ⁴  to the Lord the first offspring of every womb. ⁵  Every firstling ⁶  of a beast that you have ⁷  – the males will be the Lord’s. ⁸ 

Keluaran 18:26

18:26 They judged the people under normal circumstances; the difficult cases they would bring ⁹  to Moses, but every small case they would judge themselves.

Keluaran 20:4

20:4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image ¹⁰  or any likeness ¹¹  of anything ¹²  that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water below. ¹³ 

Keluaran 20:17-18

20:17 “You shall not covet ¹⁴  your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that belongs to your neighbor.” ¹⁵ 

20:18 All the people were seeing ¹⁶  the thundering and the lightning, and heard ¹⁷  the sound of the horn, and saw ¹⁸  the mountain smoking – and when ¹⁹  the people saw it they trembled with fear ²⁰  and kept their distance. ²¹ 

Keluaran 34:30

34:30 When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face shone; ²²  and they were afraid to approach him.

Keluaran 35:23

35:23 Everyone who had ²³  blue, purple, or ²⁴  scarlet yarn, fine linen, goats’ hair, ram skins dyed red, or fine leather ²⁵  brought them. ²⁶ 

Keluaran 35:25

35:25 Every woman who was skilled ²⁷  spun with her hands and brought what she had spun, blue, purple, or scarlet yarn, or fine linen,

[1:22]  ¹ 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]  ² tn The form includes a pronominal suffix that reiterates the object of the verb: “every son…you will throw it.”

[1:22]  ³ 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.

[1:22]  sn Verse 22 forms a fitting climax to the chapter, in which the king continually seeks to destroy the Israelite strength. Finally, with this decree, he throws off any subtlety and commands the open extermination of Hebrew males. The verse forms a transition to the next chapter, in which Moses is saved by Pharaoh’s own daughter. These chapters show that the king’s efforts to destroy the strength of Israel – so clearly a work of God – met with failure again and again. And that failure involved the efforts of women, whom Pharaoh did not consider a threat.

[13:12]  ⁴ tn The unusual choice of words in this passage reflects the connection with the deliverance of the firstborn in the exodus when the Lord passed over the Israelites (12:12, 23). Here the Law said, “you will cause to pass over (וְהַעֲבַרְתָּ, vÿha’avarta) to Yahweh.” The Hiphil perfect with the vav (ו) provides the main clause after the temporal clauses. Yahweh here claimed the firstborn as his own. The remarkable thing about this is that Yahweh did not keep the firstborn that was dedicated to him, but allowed the child to be redeemed by his father. It was an acknowledgment that the life of the child belonged to God as the one redeemed from death, and that the child represented the family. Thus, the observance referred to the dedication of all the redeemed to God.

[13:12]  sn It was once assumed by some scholars that child sacrifice lay behind this text in the earlier days, but that the priests and prophets removed those themes. Apart from the fact that there is absolutely no evidence for anything like that, the Law forbade child sacrifice, and always used child sacrifice as the sample of what not to do in conformity with the pagans (e.g., Deut 12:31). Besides, how absurd would it be for Yahweh to redeem the firstborn from death and then ask Israel to kill them. See further B. Jacob, Exodus, 371.

[13:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “every opener of a womb,” that is, the firstborn from every womb.

[13:12]  ⁶ tn The descriptive noun שֶׁגֶר (sheger) is related to the verb “drop, cast”; it refers to a newly born animal that is dropped or cast from the womb. The expression then reads, “and all that first open [the womb], the casting of a beast.”

[13:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “that is to you.” The preposition expresses possession.

[13:12]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew text simply has “the males to Yahweh.” It indicates that the Lord must have them, or they belong to the Lord.

[18:26]  ⁹ tn This verb and the verb in the next clause are imperfect tenses. In the past tense narrative of the verse they must be customary, describing continuous action in past time.

[20:4]  ¹⁰ tn A פֶּסֶל (pesel) is an image that was carved out of wood or stone. The Law was concerned with a statue that would be made for the purpose of worship, an idol to be venerated, and not any ordinary statue.

[20:4]  ¹¹ tn The word תְּמוּנָה (tÿmunah) refers to the mental pattern from which the פֶּסֶל (pesel) is constructed; it is a real or imagined resemblance. If this is to stand as a second object to the verb, then the verb itself takes a slightly different nuance here. It would convey “you shall not make an image, neither shall you conceive a form” for worship (B. Jacob, Exodus, 547). Some simply make the second word qualify the first: “you shall not make an idol in the form of…” (NIV).

[20:4]  ¹² tn Here the phrase “of anything” has been supplied.

[20:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “under the earth” (so KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV).

[20:17]  ¹⁴ tn The verb חָמַד (khamad) focuses not on an external act but on an internal mental activity behind the act, the motivation for it. The word can be used in a very good sense (Ps 19:10; 68:16), but it has a bad connotation in contexts where the object desired is off limits. This command is aimed at curtailing the greedy desire for something belonging to a neighbor, a desire that leads to the taking of it or the attempt to take it. It was used in the story of the Garden of Eden for the tree that was desired.

[20:17]  ¹⁵ sn See further G. Wittenburg, “The Tenth Commandment in the Old Testament,” Journal for Theology in South Africa 21 (1978): 3-17: and E. W. Nicholson, “The Decalogue as the Direct Address of God,” VT 27 (1977): 422-33.

[20:18]  ¹⁶ tn The participle is used here for durative action in the past time (GKC 359 §116.o).

[20:18]  ¹⁷ tn The verb “to see” (רָאָה, ra’ah) refers to seeing with all the senses, or perceiving. W. C. Kaiser suggests that this is an example of the figure of speech called zeugma because the verb “saw” yokes together two objects, one that suits the verb and the other that does not. So, the verb “heard” is inserted here to clarify (“Exodus,” EBC 2:427).

[20:18]  ¹⁸ tn The verb “saw” is supplied here because it is expected in English (see the previous note on “heard”).

[20:18]  ¹⁹ tn The preterite with vav (ו) consecutive is here subordinated as a temporal clause to the following clause, which receives the prominence.

[20:18]  ²⁰ tn The meaning of נוּעַ (nua’) is “to shake, sway to and fro” in fear. Compare Isa 7:2 – “and his heart shook…as the trees of the forest shake with the wind.”

[20:18]  ²¹ tn Heb “and they stood from/at a distance.”

[34:30]  ²² tn This clause is introduced by the deictic particle הִנֵּה (hinneh); it has the force of pointing to something surprising or sudden.

[35:23]  ²³ tn The text uses a relative clause with a resumptive pronoun for this: “who was found with him,” meaning “with whom was found.”

[35:23]  ²⁴ tn The conjunction in this verse is translated “or” because the sentence does not intend to say that each person had all these things. They brought what they had.

[35:23]  ²⁵ tn See the note on this phrase in Exod 25:5.

[35:23]  ²⁶ tn Here “them” has been supplied.

[35:25]  ²⁷ tn Heb “wisdom of heart,” which means that they were skilled and could make all the right choices about the work.