Keluaran 4:17

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

Keluaran 23:8

23:8 “You must not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds those who see ²  and subverts the words of the righteous.

Keluaran 29:15

29:15 “You are to take one ram, and Aaron and his sons are to lay their hands on the ram’s head,

Keluaran 29:31

29:31 “You are to take the ram of the consecration and cook ³  its meat in a holy place. ⁴ 

Keluaran 7:15

7:15 Go to Pharaoh in the morning when ⁵  he goes out to the water. Position yourself ⁶  to meet him by the edge of the Nile, ⁷  and take ⁸  in your hand the staff ⁹  that was turned into a snake.

Keluaran 4:9

4:9 And if ¹⁰  they do not believe even these two signs or listen to you, ¹¹  then take ¹²  some water from the Nile and pour it out on the dry ground. The water you take out of the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.” ¹³ 

[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.

[23:8]  ² tn Heb “blinds the open-eyed.”

[29:31]  ³ tn Or “boil” (see Lev 8:31).

[29:31]  ⁴ sn The “holy place” must be in the courtyard of the sanctuary. Lev 8:31 says it is to be cooked at the entrance of the tent of meeting. Here it says it will be eaten there as well. This, then, becomes a communion sacrifice, a peace offering which was a shared meal. Eating a communal meal in a holy place was meant to signify that the worshipers and the priests were at peace with God.

[7:15]  ⁵ tn The clause begins with הִנֵּה (hinneh); here it provides the circumstances for the instruction for Moses – he is going out to the water so go meet him. A temporal clause translation captures the connection between the clauses.

[7:15]  ⁶ tn The instruction to Moses continues with this perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive following the imperative. The verb means “to take a stand, station oneself.” It seems that Pharaoh’s going out to the water was a regular feature of his day and that Moses could be there waiting to meet him.

[7:15]  ⁷ sn The Nile, the source of fertility for the country, was deified by the Egyptians. There were religious festivals held to the god of the Nile, especially when the Nile was flooding. The Talmud suggests that Pharaoh in this passage went out to the Nile to make observations as a magician about its level. Others suggest he went out simply to bathe or to check the water level – but that would not change the view of the Nile that was prevalent in the land.

[7:15]  ⁸ tn The verb תִּקַּח (tiqqakh), the Qal imperfect of לָקַח (laqakh), functions here as the imperfect of instruction, or injunction perhaps, given the word order of the clause.

[7:15]  ⁹ tn The final clause begins with the noun and vav disjunctive, which singles this instruction out for special attention – “now the staff…you are to take.”

[4:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and it will be if.”

[4:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “listen to your voice.”

[4:9]  ¹² tn The verb form is the perfect tense with the vav (ו) consecutive; it functions then as the equivalent of the imperfect tense – here as an imperfect of instruction.

[4:9]  ¹³ sn This is a powerful sign, for the Nile was always known as the source of life in Egypt, but now it will become the evidence of death. So the three signs were alike, each consisting of life and death. They would clearly anticipate the struggle with Egypt through the plagues. The point is clear that in the face of the possibility that people might not believe, the servants of God must offer clear proof of the power of God as they deliver the message of God. The rest is up to God.