Keluaran 1:15

1:15 The king of Egypt said ¹  to the Hebrew midwives, ²  one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, ³ 

Keluaran 1:17-18

1:17 But ⁴  the midwives feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them; they let the boys live. ⁵ 

1:18 Then the king of Egypt summoned ⁶  the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this and let the boys live?” ⁷ 

Keluaran 2:1

The Birth of the Deliverer

2:1 ⁸ A man from the household ⁹  of Levi married ¹⁰  a woman who was a descendant of Levi. ¹¹ 

Keluaran 6:19

6:19 The sons of Merari were Mahli and Mushi. These were the clans of Levi, according to their records.

Keluaran 6:27

6:27 They were the men who were speaking to Pharaoh king of Egypt, in order to bring the Israelites out of Egypt. It was the same Moses and Aaron.

Keluaran 7:7

7:7 Now Moses was eighty years old and Aaron was eighty-three years old when they spoke to Pharaoh.

Keluaran 8:15

8:15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, ¹²  he hardened ¹³  his heart and did not listen to them, just as the Lord had predicted. ¹⁴ 

Keluaran 14:22

14:22 So the Israelites went through the middle of the sea on dry ground, the water forming a wall ¹⁵  for them on their right and on their left.

Keluaran 18:4

18:4 and the other Eliezer (for Moses had said, ¹⁶  “The God of my father has been my help ¹⁷  and delivered ¹⁸  me from the sword of Pharaoh”).

Keluaran 20:23

20:23 You must not make gods of silver alongside me, ¹⁹  nor make gods of gold for yourselves. ²⁰ 

Keluaran 25:21

25:21 You are to put the atonement lid on top of the ark, and in the ark you are to put the testimony I am giving you.

Keluaran 25:32

25:32 Six branches are to extend from the sides of the lampstand, ²¹  three branches of the lampstand from one side of it and three branches of the lampstand from the other side of it. ²² 

Keluaran 25:37

25:37 “You are to make its seven lamps, ²³  and then set ²⁴  its lamps up on it, so that it will give light ²⁵  to the area in front of it.

Keluaran 26:11

26:11 You are to make fifty bronze clasps and put the clasps into the loops and join the tent together so that it is a unit. ²⁶ 

Keluaran 28:20

28:20 and the fourth row, a chrysolite, an onyx, and a jasper. ²⁷  They are to be enclosed in gold in their filigree settings.

Keluaran 36:10

36:10 He joined ²⁸  five of the curtains to one another, and the other ²⁹  five curtains he joined to one another.

Keluaran 36:14

36:14 He made curtains of goats’ hair for a tent over the tabernacle; he made eleven curtains. ³⁰ 

Keluaran 39:13

39:13 and the fourth row, a chrysolite, an onyx, and a jasper. They were enclosed in gold filigree settings.

[1:15]  ¹ tn Heb “and the king of Egypt said.”

[1:15]  ² sn The word for “midwife” is simply the Piel participle of the verb יָלַד (yalad, “to give birth”). So these were women who assisted in the childbirth process. It seems probable that given the number of the Israelites in the passage, these two women could not have been the only Hebrew midwives, but they may have been over the midwives (Rashi). Moreover, the LXX and Vulgate do not take “Hebrew” as an adjective, but as a genitive after the construct, yielding “midwives of/over the Hebrews.” This leaves open the possibility that these women were not Hebrews. This would solve the question of how the king ever expected Hebrew midwives to kill Hebrew children. And yet, the two women have Hebrew names.

[1:15]  ³ tn Heb “who the name of the first [was] Shiphrah, and the name of the second [was] Puah.”

[1:17]  ⁴ tn Heb “and they [fem. pl.] feared”; the referent (the midwives) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:17]  ⁵ tn The verb is the Piel preterite of חָיָה (khaya, “to live”). The Piel often indicates a factitive nuance with stative verbs, showing the cause of the action. Here it means “let live, cause to live.” The verb is the exact opposite of Pharaoh’s command for them to kill the boys.

[1:18]  ⁶ tn The verb קָרָא (qara’) followed by the lamed (ל) preposition has here the nuance of “summon.” The same construction is used later when Pharaoh summons Moses.

[1:18]  ⁷ tn The second verb in Pharaoh’s speech is a preterite with a vav (ו) consecutive. It may indicate a simple sequence: “Why have you done…and (so that you) let live?” It could also indicate that this is a second question, “Why have you done …[why] have you let live?”

[2:1]  ⁸ sn The chapter records the exceptional survival of Moses under the decree of death by Pharaoh (vv. 1-10), the flight of Moses from Pharaoh after killing the Egyptian (vv. 11-15), the marriage of Moses (vv. 16-22), and finally a note about the Lord’s hearing the sighing of the people in bondage (vv. 23-25). The first part is the birth. The Bible has several stories about miraculous or special births and deliverances of those destined to lead Israel. Their impact is essentially to authenticate the individual’s ministry. If the person’s beginning was providentially provided and protected by the Lord, then the mission must be of divine origin too. In this chapter the plot works around the decree for the death of the children – a decree undone by the women. The second part of the chapter records Moses’ flight and marriage. Having introduced the deliverer Moses in such an auspicious way, the chapter then records how this deliverer acted presumptuously and had to flee for his life. Any deliverance God desired had to be supernatural, as the chapter’s final note about answering prayer shows.

[2:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “house.” In other words, the tribe of Levi.

[2:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “went and took”; NASB “went and married.”

[2:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “a daughter of Levi.” The word “daughter” is used in the sense of “descendant” and connects the new account with Pharaoh’s command in 1:22. The words “a woman who was” are added for clarity in English.

[2:1]  sn The first part of this section is the account of hiding the infant (vv. 1-4). The marriage, the birth, the hiding of the child, and the positioning of Miriam, are all faith operations that ignore the decree of Pharaoh or work around it to preserve the life of the child.

[8:15]  ¹² tn The word רְוָחָה (rÿvakhah) means “respite, relief.” BDB 926 relates it to the verb רָוַח (ravakh, “to be wide, spacious”). There would be relief when there was freedom to move about.

[8:15]  ¹³ tn וְהַכְבֵּד (vÿhakhbed) is a Hiphil infinitive absolute, functioning as a finite verb. The meaning of the word is “to make heavy,” and so stubborn, sluggish, indifferent. It summarizes his attitude and the outcome, that he refused to keep his promises.

[8:15]  ¹⁴ sn The end of the plague revealed clearly God’s absolute control over Egypt’s life and deities – all at the power of the man who prayed to God. Yahweh had made life unpleasant for the people by sending the plague, but he was also the one who could remove it. The only recourse anyone has in such trouble is to pray to the sovereign Lord God. Everyone should know that there is no one like Yahweh.

[14:22]  ¹⁵ tn The clause literally reads, “and the waters [were] for them a wall.” The word order in Hebrew is disjunctive, with the vav (ו) on the noun introducing a circumstantial clause.

[14:22]  sn S. R. Driver (Exodus, 119), still trying to explain things with natural explanations, suggests that a northeast wind is to be thought of (an east wind would be directly in their face he says), such as a shallow ford might cooperate with an ebb tide in keeping a passage clear. He then quotes Dillmann about the “wall” of water: “A very summary poetical and hyperbolical (xv. 8) description of the occurrence, which at most can be pictured as the drying up of a shallow ford, on both sides of which the basin of the sea was much deeper, and remained filled with water.” There is no way to “water down” the text to fit natural explanations; the report clearly shows a miraculous work of God making a path through the sea – a path that had to be as wide as half a mile in order for the many people and their animals to cross between about 2:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. (W. C. Kaiser, Jr., “Exodus,” EBC 2:389). The text does not say that they actually only started across in the morning watch, however.

[18:4]  ¹⁶ tn The referent (Moses) and the verb have been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:4]  ¹⁷ tn Now is given the etymological explanation of the name of Moses’ other son, Eliezer (אֱלִיעֶזֶר, ’eli’ezer), which means “my God is a help.” The sentiment that explains this name is אֱלֹהֵי אָבִי בְּעֶזְרִי (’elohe ’avi bÿ’ezri, “the God of my father is my help”). The preposition in the sentiment is the bet (ב) essentiae (giving the essence – see GKC 379 §119.i). Not mentioned earlier, the name has become even more appropriate now that God has delivered Moses from Pharaoh again. The word for “help” is a common word in the Bible, first introduced as a description of the woman in the Garden. It means to do for someone what he or she cannot do for himself or herself. Samuel raised the “stone of help” (Ebenezer) when Yahweh helped Israel win the battle (1 Sam 7:12).

[18:4]  ¹⁸ sn The verb “delivered” is an important motif in this chapter (see its use in vv. 8, 9, and 10 with reference to Pharaoh).

[20:23]  ¹⁹ 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]  ²⁰ 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).

[25:32]  ²¹ tn Heb “from the sides of it.”

[25:32]  ²² tn Heb “from the second side.”

[25:37]  ²³ tn The word for “lamps” is from the same root as the lampstand, of course. The word is נֵרוֹת (nerot). This probably refers to the small saucer-like pottery lamps that are made very simply with the rim pinched over to form a place to lay the wick. The bowl is then filled with olive oil as fuel.

[25:37]  ²⁴ tn The translation “set up on” is from the Hebrew verb “bring up.” The construction is impersonal, “and he will bring up,” meaning “one will bring up.” It may mean that people were to fix the lamps on to the shaft and the branches, rather than cause the light to go up (see S. R. Driver, Exodus, 277).

[25:37]  ²⁵ tn This is a Hiphil perfect with vav consecutive, from אוֹר (’or, “light”), and in the causative, “to light, give light.”

[26:11]  ²⁶ tn Heb “one”

[28:20]  ²⁷ sn U. Cassuto (Exodus, 375-76) points out that these are the same precious stones mentioned in Ezek 28:13 that were to be found in Eden, the garden of God. So the priest, when making atonement, was to wear the precious gems that were there and symbolized the garden of Eden when man was free from sin.

[36:10]  ²⁸ tn The verb is singular since it probably is referring to Bezalel, but since he would not do all the work himself, it may be that the verbs could be given a plural subject: “they joined.”

[36:10]  ²⁹ tn The words “the other” have been supplied.

[36:14]  ³⁰ tn Heb “eleven curtains he made them.”