Keluaran 2:20

2:20 He said ¹  to his daughters, “So where is he? ²  Why in the world ³  did you leave the man? Call him, so that he may eat ⁴  a meal ⁵  with us.”

Keluaran 7:18

7:18 Fish ⁶  in the Nile will die, the Nile will stink, and the Egyptians will be unable ⁷  to drink water from the Nile.”’”

Keluaran 11:9

11:9 The Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh will not listen to you, so that my wonders ⁸  may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.”

Keluaran 24:2

24:2 Moses alone may come ⁹  near the Lord, but the others ¹⁰  must not come near, ¹¹  nor may the people go up with him.”

[2:20]  ¹ tn Heb “And he said.”

[2:20]  ² tn The conjunction vav (ו) joins Reuel’s question to what the daughters said as logically following with the idea, “If he has done all that you say, why is he not here for me to meet?” (see GKC 485 §154.b).

[2:20]  ³ tn This uses the demonstrative pronoun as an enclitic, for emphasis (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 24, §118). The question reads more literally, “Why [is] this [that] you left him?”

[2:20]  ⁴ tn The imperfect tense coming after the imperative indicates purpose.

[2:20]  ⁵ tn Heb “bread,” i.e., “food.”

[7:18]  ⁶ tn The definite article here has the generic use, indicating the class – “fish” (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 19, §92).

[7:18]  ⁷ tn The verb לָאָה (la’a), here in the Niphal perfect with a vav consecutive, means “be weary, impatient.” The Niphal meaning is “make oneself weary” in doing something, or “weary (strenuously exert) oneself.” It seems always to indicate exhausted patience (see BDB 521 s.v.). The term seems to imply that the Egyptians were not able to drink the red, contaminated water, and so would expend all their energy looking for water to drink – in frustration of course.

[11:9]  ⁸ sn The thought is essentially the same as in Exod 7:3-4, but the wonders, or portents, here refer to what is yet to be done in Egypt.

[24:2]  ⁹ tn The verb is a perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive; it and the preceding perfect tense follow the imperative, and so have either a force of instruction, or, as taken here, are the equivalent of an imperfect tense (of permission).

[24:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “they.”

[24:2]  ¹¹ tn Now the imperfect tense negated is used; here the prohibition would fit (“they will not come near”), or the obligatory (“they must not”) in which the subjects are obliged to act – or not act in this case.