Keluaran 1:7

1:7 The Israelites, ¹  however, ²  were fruitful, increased greatly, multiplied, and became extremely strong, ³  so that the land was filled with them.

Keluaran 3:9

3:9 And now indeed ⁴  the cry ⁵  of the Israelites has come to me, and I have also seen how severely the Egyptians oppress them. ⁶ 

Keluaran 5:6

5:6 That same day Pharaoh commanded ⁷  the slave masters and foremen ⁸  who were ⁹  over the people: ¹⁰ 

Keluaran 5:20

5:20 When they went out from Pharaoh, they encountered Moses and Aaron standing there to meet them, ¹¹ 

Keluaran 7:1

7:1 So the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God ¹²  to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. ¹³ 

Keluaran 10:21-22

The Ninth Blow: Darkness

10:21 ¹⁴ The Lord said to Moses, “Extend your hand toward heaven ¹⁵  so that there may be ¹⁶  darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness so thick it can be felt.” ¹⁷ 

10:22 So Moses extended his hand toward heaven, and there was absolute darkness ¹⁸  throughout the land of Egypt for three days. ¹⁹ 

Keluaran 12:20

12:20 You will not eat anything made with yeast; in all the places where you live you must eat bread made without yeast.’”

Keluaran 12:25

12:25 When you enter the land that the Lord will give to you, just as he said, you must observe ²⁰  this ceremony.

Keluaran 14:24

14:24 In the morning watch ²¹  the Lord looked down ²²  on the Egyptian army ²³  through the pillar of fire and cloud, and he threw the Egyptian army ²⁴  into a panic. ²⁵ 

Keluaran 15:10

15:10 But ²⁶  you blew with your breath, and ²⁷  the sea covered them.

They sank ²⁸  like lead in the mighty waters.

Keluaran 15:20

15:20 Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a hand-drum in her hand, and all the women went out after her with hand-drums and with dances. ²⁹ 

Keluaran 16:21

16:21 So they gathered it each morning, ³⁰  each person according to what he could eat, and when the sun got hot, it would melt. ³¹ 

Keluaran 17:11

17:11 Whenever Moses would raise his hands, ³²  then Israel prevailed, but whenever he would rest ³³  his hands, then Amalek prevailed.

Keluaran 19:17

19:17 Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their place at the foot of the mountain.

Keluaran 19:20

19:20 The Lord came down on Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain, and the Lord summoned Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.

Keluaran 23:1

Justice

23:1 ³⁴ “You must not give ³⁵  a false report. ³⁶  Do not make common cause ³⁷  with the wicked ³⁸  to be a malicious ³⁹  witness.

Keluaran 23:28

23:28 I will send ⁴⁰  hornets before you that will drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite before you.

Keluaran 24:2

24:2 Moses alone may come ⁴¹  near the Lord, but the others ⁴²  must not come near, ⁴³  nor may the people go up with him.”

Keluaran 24:6

24:6 Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and half of the blood he splashed on the altar. ⁴⁴ 

Keluaran 24:11

24:11 But he did not lay a hand ⁴⁵  on the leaders of the Israelites, so they saw God, ⁴⁶  and they ate and they drank. ⁴⁷ 

Keluaran 25:32

25:32 Six branches are to extend from the sides of the lampstand, ⁴⁸  three branches of the lampstand from one side of it and three branches of the lampstand from the other side of it. ⁴⁹ 

Keluaran 25:36

25:36 Their buds and their branches will be one piece, ⁵⁰  all of it one hammered piece of pure gold.

Keluaran 26:12

26:12 Now the part that remains of the curtains of the tent – the half curtain that remains will hang over at the back of the tabernacle. ⁵¹ 

Keluaran 26:17

26:17 with two projections ⁵²  per frame parallel one to another. ⁵³  You are to make all the frames of the tabernacle in this way.

Keluaran 27:3

27:3 You are to make its pots for the ashes, ⁵⁴  its shovels, its tossing bowls, ⁵⁵  its meat hooks, and its fire pans – you are to make all ⁵⁶  its utensils of bronze.

Keluaran 27:12

27:12 The width of the court on the west side is to be seventy-five feet with hangings, with their ten posts and their ten bases.

Keluaran 28:17

28:17 You are to set in it a setting for stones, four rows of stones, a row with a ruby, a topaz, and a beryl – the first row;

Keluaran 28:20

28:20 and the fourth row, a chrysolite, an onyx, and a jasper. ⁵⁷  They are to be enclosed in gold in their filigree settings.

Keluaran 28:22

28:22 “You are to make for the breastpiece braided chains like cords of pure gold,

Keluaran 28:32

28:32 There is to be an opening ⁵⁸  in its top ⁵⁹  in the center of it, with an edge all around the opening, the work of a weaver, ⁶⁰  like the opening of a collar, ⁶¹  so that it cannot be torn. ⁶² 

Keluaran 28:36

28:36 “You are to make a plate ⁶³  of pure gold and engrave on it the way a seal is engraved: ⁶⁴  “Holiness to the Lord.” ⁶⁵ 

Keluaran 30:14

30:14 Everyone who crosses over to those numbered, from twenty years old and up, is to pay an offering to the Lord.

Keluaran 36:31

36:31 He made bars of acacia wood, five for the frames on one side of the tabernacle

Keluaran 37:5

37:5 and put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark in order to carry the ark.

Keluaran 38:9

The Construction of the Courtyard

38:9 He made the courtyard. For the south side ⁶⁶  the hangings of the courtyard were of fine twisted linen, one hundred fifty feet long,

Keluaran 39:10

39:10 They set on it ⁶⁷  four rows of stones: a row with a ruby, a topaz, and a beryl – the first row;

Keluaran 39:13

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

Keluaran 39:30

39:30 They made a plate, the holy diadem, of pure gold and wrote on it an inscription, as on the engravings of a seal, “Holiness to the Lord.”

Keluaran 40:32-33

40:32 Whenever they entered ⁶⁸  the tent of meeting, and whenever they approached ⁶⁹  the altar, they would wash, ⁷⁰  just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

40:33 And he set up the courtyard around the tabernacle and the altar, and put the curtain at the gate of the courtyard. So Moses finished the work.

[1:7]  ¹ tn Heb “the sons of Israel.”

[1:7]  ² tn The disjunctive vav marks a contrast with the note about the deaths of the first generation.

[1:7]  ³ tn Using מְאֹד (mÿ’od) twice intensifies the idea of their becoming strong (see GKC 431-32 §133.k).

[1:7]  sn The text is clearly going out of its way to say that the people of Israel flourished in Egypt. The verbs פָּרָה (parah, “be fruitful”), שָׁרַץ (sharats, “swarm, teem”), רָבָה (ravah, “multiply”), and עָצַם (’atsam, “be strong, mighty”) form a literary link to the creation account in Genesis. The text describes Israel’s prosperity in the terms of God’s original command to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, to show that their prosperity was by divine blessing and in compliance with the will of God. The commission for the creation to fill the earth and subdue it would now begin to materialize through the seed of Abraham.

[3:9]  ⁴ tn The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) focuses attention on what is being said as grounds for what follows.

[3:9]  ⁵ tn The word is a technical term for the outcry one might make to a judge. God had seen the oppression and so knew that the complaints were accurate, and so he initiated the proceedings against the oppressors (B. Jacob, Exodus, 59).

[3:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.” The word for the oppression is now לַחַץ (lakhats), which has the idea of pressure with the oppression – squeezing, pressuring – which led to its later use in the Semitic languages for torture. The repetition in the Hebrew text of the root in the participle form after this noun serves to stress the idea. This emphasis has been represented in the translation by the expression “seen how severely the Egyptians oppress them.”

[5:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “and Pharaoh commanded on that day.”

[5:6]  ⁸ tn The Greek has “scribes” for this word, perhaps thinking of those lesser officials as keeping records of the slaves and the bricks.

[5:6]  ⁹ tn The phrase “who were” is supplied for clarity.

[5:6]  ¹⁰ sn In vv. 6-14 the second section of the chapter describes the severe measures by the king to increase the labor by decreasing the material. The emphasis in this section must be on the harsh treatment of the people and Pharaoh’s reason for it – he accuses them of idleness because they want to go and worship. The real reason, of course, is that he wants to discredit Moses (v. 9) and keep the people as slaves.

[5:20]  ¹¹ sn Moses and Aaron would not have made the appeal to Pharaoh that these Hebrew foremen did, but they were concerned to see what might happen, and so they waited to meet the foremen when they came out.

[7:1]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ 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.

[10:21]  ¹⁴ sn The ninth plague is that darkness fell on all the land – except on Israel. This plague is comparable to the silence in heaven, just prior to the last and terrible plague (Rev 8:1). Here Yahweh is attacking a core Egyptian religious belief as well as portraying what lay before the Egyptians. Throughout the Bible darkness is the symbol of evil, chaos, and judgment. Blindness is one of its manifestations (see Deut 28:27-29). But the plague here is not blindness, or even spiritual blindness, but an awesome darkness from outside (see Joel 2:2; Zeph 1:15). It is particularly significant in that Egypt’s high god was the Sun God. Lord Sun was now being shut down by Lord Yahweh. If Egypt would not let Israel go to worship their God, then Egypt’s god would be darkness. The structure is familiar: the plague, now unannounced (21-23), and then the confrontation with Pharaoh (24-27).

[10:21]  ¹⁵ tn Or “the sky” (also in the following verse). The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.

[10:21]  ¹⁶ sn The verb form is the jussive with the sequential vav – וִיהִי חֹשֶׁךְ (vihi khoshekh). B. Jacob (Exodus, 286) notes this as the only instance where Scripture says, “Let there be darkness” (although it is subordinated as a purpose clause; cf. Gen 1:3). Isa 45:7 alluded to this by saying, “who created light and darkness.”

[10:21]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew term מוּשׁ (mush) means “to feel.” The literal rendering would be “so that one may feel darkness.” The image portrays an oppressive darkness; it was sufficiently thick to possess the appearance of substance, although it was just air (B. Jacob, Exodus, 286).

[10:22]  ¹⁸ tn The construction is a variation of the superlative genitive: a substantive in the construct state is connected to a noun with the same meaning (see GKC 431 §133.i).

[10:22]  ¹⁹ sn S. R. Driver says, “The darkness was no doubt occasioned really by a sand-storm, produced by the hot electrical wind…which blows in intermittently…” (Exodus, 82, 83). This is another application of the antisupernatural approach to these texts. The text, however, is probably describing something that was not a seasonal wind, or Pharaoh would not have been intimidated. If it coincided with that season, then what is described here is so different and so powerful that the Egyptians would have known the difference easily. Pharaoh here would have had to have been impressed that this was something very abnormal, and that his god was powerless. Besides, there was light in all the dwellings of the Israelites.

[12:25]  ²⁰ tn The verb used here and at the beginning of v. 24 is שָׁמַר (shamar); it can be translated “watch, keep, protect,” but in this context the point is to “observe” the religious customs and practices set forth in these instructions.

[14:24]  ²¹ tn The night was divided into three watches of about four hours each, making the morning watch about 2:00-6:00 a.m. The text has this as “the watch of the morning,” the genitive qualifying which of the night watches was meant.

[14:24]  ²² tn This particular verb, שָׁקַף (shaqaf) is a bold anthropomorphism: Yahweh looked down. But its usage is always with some demonstration of mercy or wrath. S. R. Driver (Exodus, 120) suggests that the look might be with fiery flashes to startle the Egyptians, throwing them into a panic. Ps 77:17-19 pictures torrents of rain with lightning and thunder.

[14:24]  ²³ tn Heb “camp.” The same Hebrew word is used in Exod 14:20. Unlike the English word “camp,” it can be used of a body of people at rest (encamped) or on the move.

[14:24]  ²⁴ tn Heb “camp.”

[14:24]  ²⁵ tn The verb הָמַם (hamam) means “throw into confusion.” It is used in the Bible for the panic and disarray of an army before a superior force (Josh 10:10; Judg 4:15).

[15:10]  ²⁶ tn “But” has been supplied here.

[15:10]  ²⁷ tn Here “and” has been supplied.

[15:10]  ²⁸ tn The verb may have the idea of sinking with a gurgling sound, like water going into a whirlpool (R. A. Cole, Exodus [TOTC], 124; S. R. Driver, Exodus, 136). See F. M. Cross and D. N. Freedman, “The Song of Miriam,” JNES 14 (1955): 243-47.

[15:20]  ²⁹ sn See J. N. Easton, “Dancing in the Old Testament,” ExpTim 86 (1975): 136-40.

[16:21]  ³⁰ tn Heb “morning by morning.” This is an example of the repetition of words to express the distributive sense; here the meaning is “every morning” (see GKC 388 §121.c).

[16:21]  ³¹ tn The perfect tenses here with vav (ו) consecutives have the frequentative sense; they function in a protasis-apodosis relationship (GKC 494 §159.g).

[17:11]  ³² tn The two verbs in the temporal clauses are by וְהָיָה כַּאֲשֶׁר (vÿhaya ka’asher, “as long as” or, “and it was that whenever”). This indicates that the two imperfect tenses should be given a frequentative translation, probably a customary imperfect.

[17:11]  ³³ tn Or “lower.”

[23:1]  ³⁴ sn People who claim to worship and serve the righteous judge of the universe must preserve equity and justice in their dealings with others. These verses teach that God’s people must be honest witnesses (1-3); God’s people must be righteous even with enemies (4-5); and God’s people must be fair in dispensing justice (6-9).

[23:1]  ³⁵ tn Heb “take up, lift, carry” (נָשָׂא, nasa’). This verb was also used in the prohibition against taking “the name of Yahweh in vain.” Sometimes the object of this verb is physical, as in Jonah 1:12 and 15. Used in this prohibition involving speech, it covers both originating and repeating a lie.

[23:1]  ³⁶ tn Or “a groundless report” (see Exod 20:7 for the word שָׁוְא, shav’).

[23:1]  ³⁷ tn Heb “do not put your hand” (cf. KJV, ASV); NASB “join your hand.”

[23:1]  ³⁸ tn The word “wicked” (רָשָׁע, rasha’) refers to the guilty criminal, the person who is doing something wrong. In the religious setting it describes the person who is not a member of the covenant and may be involved in all kinds of sin, even though there is the appearance of moral and spiritual stability.

[23:1]  ³⁹ tn The word חָמָס (khamas) often means “violence” in the sense of social injustices done to other people, usually the poor and needy. A “malicious” witness would do great harm to others. See J. W. McKay, “Exodus 23:1-43, 6-8: A Decalogue for Administration of Justice in the City Gate,” VT 21 (1971): 311-25.

[23:28]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “and I will send.”

[24:2]  ⁴¹ 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]  ⁴² tn Heb “they.”

[24:2]  ⁴³ 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.

[24:6]  ⁴⁴ sn The people and Yahweh through this will be united by blood, for half was spattered on the altar and the other half spattered on/toward the people (v. 8).

[24:11]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “he did not stretch out his hand,” i.e., to destroy them.

[24:11]  ⁴⁶ tn The verb is חָזָה (khazah); it can mean “to see, perceive” or “see a vision” as the prophets did. The LXX safeguarded this by saying, “appeared in the place of God.” B. Jacob says they beheld – prophetically, religiously (Exodus, 746) – but the meaning of that is unclear. The fact that God did not lay a hand on them – to kill them – shows that they saw something that they never expected to see and live. Some Christian interpreters have taken this to refer to a glorious appearance of the preincarnate Christ, the second person of the Trinity. They saw the brilliance of this manifestation – but not the detail. Later, Moses will still ask to see God’s glory – the real presence behind the phenomena.

[24:11]  ⁴⁷ sn This is the covenant meal, the peace offering, that they are eating there on the mountain. To eat from the sacrifice meant that they were at peace with God, in covenant with him. Likewise, in the new covenant believers draw near to God on the basis of sacrifice, and eat of the sacrifice because they are at peace with him, and in Christ they see the Godhead revealed.

[25:32]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “from the sides of it.”

[25:32]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “from the second side.”

[25:36]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “will be from it.”

[26:12]  ⁵¹ sn U. Cassuto (Exodus, 353) cites b. Shabbat 98b which says, “What did the tabernacle resemble? A woman walking on the street with her train trailing behind her.” In the expression “the half of the curtain that remains,” the verb agrees in gender with the genitive near it.

[26:17]  ⁵² sn Heb “hands,” the reference is probably to projections that served as stays or supports. They may have been tenons, or pegs, projecting from the bottom of the frames to hold the frames in their sockets (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 286).

[26:17]  ⁵³ tn Or “being joined each to the other.”

[27:3]  ⁵⁴ sn The word is literally “its fat,” but sometimes it describes “fatty ashes” (TEV “the greasy ashes”). The fat would run down and mix with the ashes, and this had to be collected and removed.

[27:3]  ⁵⁵ sn This was the larger bowl used in tossing the blood at the side of the altar.

[27:3]  ⁵⁶ tn The text has “to all its vessels.” This is the lamed (ל) of inclusion according to Gesenius, meaning “all its utensils” (GKC 458 §143.e).

[28:20]  ⁵⁷ 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.

[28:32]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “mouth” or “opening” (פִּי, pi; in construct).

[28:32]  ⁵⁹ tn The “mouth of its head” probably means its neck; it may be rendered “the opening for the head,” except the pronominal suffix would have to refer to Aaron, and that is not immediately within the context.

[28:32]  ⁶⁰ tn Or “woven work” (KJV, ASV, NASB), that is, “the work of a weaver.” The expression suggests that the weaving was from the fabric edges itself and not something woven and then added to the robe. It was obviously intended to keep the opening from fraying.

[28:32]  ⁶¹ tn The expression כְּפִי תַחְרָא (kÿfi takhra’) is difficult. It was early rendered “like the opening of a coat of mail.” It occurs only here and in the parallel 39:23. Tg. Onq. has “coat of mail.” S. R. Driver suggests “a linen corselet,” after the Greek (Exodus, 308). See J. Cohen, “A Samaritan Authentication of the Rabbinic Interpretation of kephi tahra’,” VT 24 (1974): 361-66.

[28:32]  ⁶² tn The verb is the Niphal imperfect, here given the nuance of potential imperfect. Here it serves in a final clause (purpose/result), introduced only by the negative (see GKC 503-4 §165.a).

[28:36]  ⁶³ tn The word צִּיץ (tsits) seems to mean “a shining thing” and so here a plate of metal. It originally meant “flower,” but they could not write on a flower. So it must have the sense of something worn openly, visible, and shining. The Rabbinic tradition says it was two fingers wide and stretched from ear to ear, but this is an attempt to give details that the Law does not give (see B. Jacob, Exodus, 818).

[28:36]  ⁶⁴ tn Heb “the engravings of a seal”; this phrase is an adverbial accusative of manner.

[28:36]  ⁶⁵ sn The engraving was a perpetual reminder of the holiness that was due the Lord (Heb “Yahweh”), that all the clothing, the furnishings, and the activities were to come under that description. This corresponded to the symbolism for the whole nation of binding the law between the eyes. It was to be a perpetual reminder of commitment.

[38:9]  ⁶⁶ tn Heb “south side southward.”

[39:10]  ⁶⁷ tn That is, they set in mountings.

[40:32]  ⁶⁸ tn The construction is the infinitive construct with the temporal preposition and the suffixed subjective genitive. This temporal clause indicates that the verb in the preceding verse was frequentative.

[40:32]  ⁶⁹ tn This is another infinitive construct in a temporal clause.

[40:32]  ⁷⁰ tn In this explanatory verse the verb is a customary imperfect.