Keluaran 3:17

3:17 and I have promised ¹  that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, ²  to a land flowing with milk and honey.”’

Keluaran 9:19

9:19 So now, send instructions ³  to gather ⁴  your livestock and all your possessions in the fields to a safe place. Every person ⁵  or animal caught ⁶  in the field and not brought into the house – the hail will come down on them, and they will die!”’”

Keluaran 14:12-13

14:12 Isn’t this what we told you ⁷  in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone so that we can serve the Egyptians, ⁸  because it is better for us to serve ⁹  the Egyptians than to die in the desert!’” ¹⁰ 

14:13 Moses said to the people, “Do not fear! ¹¹  Stand firm ¹²  and see ¹³  the salvation ¹⁴  of the Lord that he will provide ¹⁵  for you today; for the Egyptians that you see today you will never, ever see again. ¹⁶ 

Keluaran 19:5

19:5 And now, if you will diligently listen to me ¹⁷  and keep ¹⁸  my covenant, then you will be my ¹⁹  special possession ²⁰  out of all the nations, for all the earth is mine,

Keluaran 20:5

20:5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, ²¹  for I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous ²²  God, responding to ²³  the transgression of fathers by dealing with children to the third and fourth generations ²⁴  of those who reject me, ²⁵ 

Keluaran 23:31

23:31 I will set ²⁶  your boundaries from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the River, ²⁷  for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will drive them out before you.

Keluaran 29:28

29:28 It is to belong to Aaron and to his sons from the Israelites, by a perpetual ordinance, for it is a contribution. It is to be a contribution from the Israelites from their peace offerings, their contribution to the Lord.

Keluaran 34:18

34:18 “You must keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days ²⁸  you must eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you; do this ²⁹  at the appointed time of the month Abib, for in the month Abib you came out of Egypt.

[3:17]  ¹ tn Heb “And I said.”

[3:17]  ² tn See the note on this list in 3:8.

[9:19]  ³ tn The object “instructions” is implied in the context.

[9:19]  ⁴ tn הָעֵז (ha’ez) is the Hiphil imperative from עוּז (’uz, “to bring into safety” or “to secure”). Although there is no vav (ו) linking the two imperatives, the second could be subordinated by virtue of the meanings. “Send to bring to safety.”

[9:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “man, human.”

[9:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “[who] may be found.” The verb can be the imperfect of possibility.

[14:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “Is not this the word that we spoke to you.”

[14:12]  ⁸ sn U. Cassuto (Exodus, 164) explains this statement by the people as follows: “The question appears surprising at first, for we have not read previously that such words were spoken to Moses. Nor is the purport of the protest of the Israelite foremen (v 21 [5:21]) identical with that of the words uttered now. However, from a psychological standpoint the matter can be easily explained. In the hour of peril the children of Israel remember that remonstrance, and now it seems to them that it was of a sharper character and flowed from their foresight, and that the present situation justifies it, for death awaits them at this moment in the desert.” This declaration that “we told you so,” born of fright, need not have been strictly accurate or logical.

[14:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “better for us to serve.”

[14:12]  ¹⁰ tn Since Hebrew does not use quotation marks to indicate the boundaries of quotations, there is uncertainty about whether the Israelites’ statement in Egypt includes the end of v. 12 or consists solely of “leave us alone so that we can serve the Egyptians.” In either case, the command to Moses to leave them alone rested on the assumption, spoken or unspoken, that serving Egypt would be less risky than what Moses was proposing. Now with the Egyptian army on the horizon, the Israelites are sure that their worst predictions are about to take place.

[14:13]  ¹¹ tn The use of אַל (’al) with the jussive has the force of “stop fearing.” It is a more immediate negative command than לֹא (lo’) with the imperfect (as in the Decalogue).

[14:13]  ¹² tn The force of this verb in the Hitpael is “to station oneself” or “stand firm” without fleeing.

[14:13]  ¹³ tn The form is an imperative with a vav (ו). It could also be rendered “stand firm and you will see” meaning the result, or “stand firm that you may see” meaning the purpose.

[14:13]  ¹⁴ tn Or “victory” (NAB) or “deliverance” (NIV, NRSV).

[14:13]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “do,” i.e., perform or accomplish.

[14:13]  ¹⁶ tn The construction uses a verbal hendiadys consisting of a Hiphil imperfect (“you will not add”) and a Qal infinitive construct with a suffix (“to see them”) – “you will no longer see them.” Then the clause adds “again, for ever.”

[14:13]  sn U. Cassuto (Exodus, 164) notes that the antithetical parallelism between seeing salvation and seeing the Egyptians, as well as the threefold repetition of the word “see” cannot be accidental; so too the alliteration of the last three words beginning with ayin (ע).

[19:5]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “listen to my voice.” The construction uses the imperfect tense in the conditional clause, preceded by the infinitive absolute from the same verb. The idiom “listen to the voice of” implies obedience, not just mental awareness of sound.

[19:5]  ¹⁸ tn The verb is a perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive; it continues the idea in the protasis of the sentence: “and [if you will] keep.”

[19:5]  ¹⁹ tn The lamed preposition expresses possession here: “to me” means “my.”

[19:5]  ²⁰ tn The noun is סְגֻלָּה (sÿgullah), which means a special possession. Israel was to be God’s special possession, but the prophets will later narrow it to the faithful remnant. All the nations belong to God, but Israel was to stand in a place of special privilege and enormous responsibility. See Deut 7:6; 14:2; 26:18; Ps 135:4; and Mal 3:17. See M. Greenburg, “Hebrew sÿgulla: Akkadian sikiltu,” JAOS 71 (1951): 172ff.

[20:5]  ²¹ tn The combination of these two verbs customarily refers to the worship of pagan deities (e.g., Deut 17:3: 30:17; Jer 8:2; see J. J. Stamm and M. E. Andrew, The Ten Commandments in Recent Research [SBT], 86). The first verb is לאֹ־תִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה (lo’ tishtakhaveh), now to be classified as a hishtaphel imperfect from חָוָה (khavah; BDB 1005 s.v. שׁחה), “to cause oneself to be low to the ground.” It is used of the true worship of God as well. The second verb is וְלֹא תָעָבְדֵם (vÿlo’ to’ovdem). The two could be taken as a hendiadys: “you will not prostrate yourself to serve them.” In an interesting side comment U. Cassuto (Exodus, 242) offers an explanation of the spelling of the second verb: he suggests that it was spelled with the qamets khatuf vowel to show contempt for pagan worship, as if their conduct does not even warrant a correct spelling of the word “serve.” Gesenius says that the forms like this are anomalous, but he wonders if they were pointed as if the verb was a Hophal with the meaning “you shall not allow yourself to be brought to worship them” (GKC 161 §60.b). But this is unlikely.

[20:5]  ²² sn The word “jealous” is the same word often translated “zeal” or “zealous.” The word describes a passionate intensity to protect or defend something that is jeopardized. The word can also have the sense of “envy,” but in that case the object is out of bounds. God’s zeal or jealousy is to protect his people or his institutions or his honor. Yahweh’s honor is bound up with the life of his people.

[20:5]  ²³ tn Verses 5 and 6 are very concise, and the word פָּקַד (paqad) is difficult to translate. Often rendered “visiting,” it might here be rendered “dealing with” in a negative sense or “punishing,” but it describes positive attention in 13:19. When used of God, it essentially means that God intervenes in the lives of people for blessing or for cursing. Some would simply translate the participle here as “punishing” the children for the sins of the fathers (cf. Lev 18:25; Isa 26:21; Jer 29:32; 36:31; Hos 1:4; Amos 3:2). That is workable, but may not say enough. The verse may indicate that those who hate Yahweh and do not keep his commandments will repeat the sins their fathers committed and suffer for them. Deut 24:16 says that individuals will die for their own sins and not their father’s sins (see also Deut 7:10 and Ezek 18). It may have more to do with patterns of sin being repeated from generation to generation; if the sin and the guilt were not fully developed in the one generation, then left unchecked they would develop and continue in the next. But it may also indicate that the effects of the sins of the fathers will be experienced in the following generations, especially in the case of Israel as a national entity (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 243). God is showing here that his ethical character is displayed in how he deals with sin and righteousness, all of which he describes as giving strong motivation for loyalty to him and for avoiding idolatry. There is a justice at work in the dealings of God that is not present in the pagan world.

[20:5]  ²⁴ tn The Hebrew word for “generations” is not found in v. 5 or 6. The numbers are short for a longer expression, which is understood as part of the description of the children already mentioned (see Deut 7:9, where “generation” [דּוֹר, dor] is present and more necessary, since “children” have not been mentioned).

[20:5]  ²⁵ tn This is an important qualification to the principle. The word rendered “reject” is often translated “hate” and carries with it the idea of defiantly rejecting and opposing God and his word. Such people are doomed to carry on the sins of their ancestors and bear guilt with them.

[23:31]  ²⁶ tn The form is a perfect tense with vav consecutive.

[23:31]  ²⁷ tn In the Hebrew Bible “the River” usually refers to the Euphrates (cf. NASB, NCV, NRSV, TEV, CEV, NLT). There is some thought that it refers to a river Nahr el Kebir between Lebanon and Syria. See further W. C. Kaiser, Jr., “Exodus,” EBC 2:447; and G. W. Buchanan, The Consequences of the Covenant (NovTSup), 91-100.

[34:18]  ²⁸ tn This is an adverbial accusative of time.

[34:18]  ²⁹ tn The words “do this” have been supplied.