Keluaran 7:1

7:1 So the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God ¹  to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. ² 

Keluaran 20:23

20:23 You must not make gods of silver alongside me, ³  nor make gods of gold for yourselves. ⁴ 

Keluaran 23:9

23:9 “You must not oppress ⁵  a foreigner, since you know the life ⁶  of a foreigner, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.

Keluaran 24:2

24:2 Moses alone may come ⁷  near the Lord, but the others ⁸  must not come near, ⁹  nor may the people go up with him.”

[7:1]  ¹ tn The word “like” is added for clarity, making explicit the implied comparison in the statement “I have made you God to Pharaoh.” The word אֱלֹהִים (’elohim) is used a few times in the Bible for humans (e.g., Pss 45:6; 82:1), and always clearly in the sense of a subordinate to GOD – they are his representatives on earth. The explanation here goes back to 4:16. If Moses is like God in that Aaron is his prophet, then Moses is certainly like God to Pharaoh. Only Moses, then, is able to speak to Pharaoh with such authority, giving him commands.

[7:1]  ² tn The word נְבִיאֶךָ (nÿvi’ekha, “your prophet”) recalls 4:16. Moses was to be like God to Aaron, and Aaron was to speak for him. This indicates that the idea of a “prophet” was of one who spoke for God, an idea with which Moses and Aaron and the readers of Exodus are assumed to be familiar.

[20:23]  ³ tn The direct object of the verb must be “gods of silver.” The prepositional phrase modifies the whole verse to say that these gods would then be alongside the one true God.

[20:23]  ⁴ tn Heb “neither will you make for you gods of gold.”

[20:23]  sn U. Cassuto explains that by the understanding of parallelism each of the halves apply to the whole verse, so that “with me” and “for you” concern gods of silver or gods of gold (Exodus, 255).

[23:9]  ⁵ tn The verb means “to crush.” S. R. Driver notes that in this context this would probably mean with an unfair judgment in the courts (Exodus, 239).

[23:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “soul, life” – “you know what it feels like.”

[24:2]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tn Heb “they.”

[24:2]  ⁹ 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.