Keluaran 13:19

13:19 Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph ¹  had made the Israelites solemnly swear, ²  “God will surely attend ³  to you, and you will carry ⁴  my bones up from this place with you.”

Keluaran 16:3

16:3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died ⁵  by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by ⁶  the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full, ⁷  for you have brought us out into this desert to kill ⁸  this whole assembly with hunger!”

Keluaran 31:14

31:14 So you must keep the Sabbath, for it is holy for you. Everyone who defiles it ⁹  must surely be put to death; indeed, ¹⁰  if anyone does ¹¹  any ¹²  work on it, then that person will be cut off from among his ¹³  people.

[13:19]  ¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:19]  ² tn Heb “solemnly swear, saying” (so NASB). The construction uses the Hiphil infinitive absolute with the Hiphil perfect to stress that Joseph had made them take a solemn oath to carry his bones out of Egypt. “Saying” introduces the content of what Joseph said.

[13:19]  ³ sn This verb appears also in 3:16 and 4:31. The repetition here is a reminder that God was doing what he had said he would do and what Joseph had expected.

[13:19]  ⁴ tn The form is a Hiphil perfect with the vav (ו) consecutive; it follows in the sequence of the imperfect tense before it, and so is equal to an imperfect of injunction (because of the solemn oath). Israel took Joseph’s bones with them as a sign of piety toward the past and as a symbol of their previous bond with Canaan (B. Jacob, Exodus, 380).

[16:3]  ⁵ tn The text reads: מִי־יִתֵּן מוּתֵנוּ (mi-yitten mutenu, “who will give our dying”) meaning “If only we had died.” מוּתֵנוּ is the Qal infinitive construct with the suffix. This is one way that Hebrew expresses the optative with an infinitive construct. See R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 91-92, §547.

[16:3]  ⁶ tn The form is a Qal infinitive construct used in a temporal clause, and the verb “when we ate” has the same structure.

[16:3]  ⁷ sn That the complaint leading up to the manna is unjustified can be seen from the record itself. They left Egypt with flocks and herds and very much cattle, and about 45 days later they are complaining that they are without food. Moses reminded them later that they lacked nothing (Deut 3:7; for the whole sermon on this passage, see 8:1-20). Moreover, the complaint is absurd because the food of work gangs was far more meager than they recall. The complaint was really against Moses. They crave the eating of meat and of bread and so God will meet that need; he will send bread from heaven and quail as well.

[16:3]  ⁸ tn לְהָמִית (lÿhamit) is the Hiphil infinitive construct showing purpose. The people do not trust the intentions or the plan of their leaders and charge Moses with bringing everyone out to kill them.

[31:14]  ⁹ tn This clause is all from one word, a Piel plural participle with a third, feminine suffix: מְחַלְלֶיהָ (mÿkhalleha, “defilers of it”). This form serves as the subject of the sentence. The word חָלַל (khalal) is the antonym of קָדַשׁ (qadash, “to be holy”). It means “common, profane,” and in the Piel stem “make common, profane” or “defile.” Treating the Sabbath like an ordinary day would profane it, make it common.

[31:14]  ¹⁰ tn This is the asseverative use of כִּי (ki) meaning “surely, indeed,” for it restates the point just made (see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 73, §449).

[31:14]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the one who does.”

[31:14]  ¹² tn “any” has been supplied.

[31:14]  ¹³ tn Literally “her” (a feminine pronoun agreeing with “soul/life,” which is grammatically feminine).