Keluaran 4:17

4:17 You will also take in your hand this staff, with which you will do the signs.” ¹ 

Keluaran 4:20

4:20 Then Moses took ²  his wife and sons ³  and put them on a donkey and headed back ⁴  to the land of Egypt, and Moses took the staff of God in his hand.

Kejadian 38:18

38:18 He said, “What pledge should I give you?” She replied, “Your seal, your cord, and the staff that’s in your hand.” So he gave them to her and had sex with her. ⁵  She became pregnant by him.

Keluaran 7:19

7:19 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over Egypt’s waters – over their rivers, over their canals, ⁶  over their ponds, and over all their reservoirs ⁷  – so that it becomes ⁸  blood.’ There will be blood everywhere in ⁹  the land of Egypt, even in wooden and stone containers.”

[4:17]  ¹ sn Mention of the staff makes an appropriate ending to the section, for God’s power (represented by the staff) will work through Moses. The applicable point that this whole section is making could be worded this way: The servants of God who sense their inadequacy must demonstrate the power of God as their sufficiency.

[4:20]  ² tn Heb “And Moses took.”

[4:20]  ³ sn Only Gershom has been mentioned so far. The other son’s name will be explained in chapter 18. The explanation of Gershom’s name was important to Moses’ sojourn in Midian. The explanation of the name Eliezer fits better in the later chapter (18:2-4).

[4:20]  ⁴ tn The verb would literally be rendered “and returned”; however, the narrative will record other happenings before he arrived in Egypt, so an ingressive nuance fits here – he began to return, or started back.

[38:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “and he went to her.” This expression is a euphemism for sexual intercourse.

[7:19]  ⁶ tn Or “irrigation rivers” of the Nile.

[7:19]  ⁷ sn The Hebrew term means “gathering,” i.e., wherever they gathered or collected waters, notably cisterns and reservoirs. This would naturally lead to the inclusion of both wooden and stone vessels – down to the smallest gatherings.

[7:19]  ⁸ tn The imperfect tense with vav (ו) after the imperative indicates the purpose or result: “in order that they [the waters] be[come] blood.”

[7:19]  ⁹ tn Or “in all.”