Keluaran 4:24

4:24 Now on the way, at a place where they stopped for the night, ¹  the Lord met Moses and sought to kill him. ² 

Keluaran 7:13

7:13 Yet Pharaoh’s heart became hard, ³  and he did not listen to them, just as the Lord had predicted.

Keluaran 16:17

16:17 The Israelites did so, and they gathered – some more, some less.

Keluaran 32:22

32:22 Aaron said, “Do not let your anger burn hot, my lord; ⁴  you know these people, that they tend to evil. ⁵ 

Keluaran 38:20

38:20 All the tent pegs of the tabernacle and of the courtyard all around were bronze.

[4:24]  ¹ tn Or “at a lodging place” or “at an inn.”

[4:24]  ² sn The next section (vv. 24-26) records a rather strange story. God had said that if Pharaoh would not comply he would kill his son – but now God was ready to kill Moses, the representative of Israel, God’s own son. Apparently, one would reconstruct that on the journey Moses fell seriously ill, but his wife, learning the cause of the illness, saved his life by circumcising her son and casting the foreskin at Moses’ feet (indicating that it was symbolically Moses’ foreskin). The point is that this son of Abraham had not complied with the sign of the Abrahamic covenant. No one, according to Exod 12:40-51, would take part in the Passover-exodus who had not complied. So how could the one who was going to lead God’s people not comply? The bold anthropomorphisms and the location at the border invite comparisons with Gen 32, the Angel wrestling with Jacob. In both cases there is a brush with death that could not be forgotten. See also, W. Dumbrell, “Exodus 4:24-25: A Textual Re-examination,” HTR 65 (1972): 285-90; T. C. Butler, “An Anti-Moses Tradition,” JSOT 12 (1979): 9-15; and L. Kaplan, “And the Lord Sought to Kill Him,” HAR 5 (1981): 65-74.

[7:13]  ³ tn This phrase translates the Hebrew word חָזַק (khazaq); see S. R. Driver, Exodus, 53.

[7:13]  sn For more on this subject, see B. Jacob, Exodus, 241-49. S. R. Driver (Exodus, 53) notes that when this word (חָזַק) is used it indicates a will or attitude that is unyielding and firm, but when כָּבֵד (kaved) is used, it stresses the will as being slow to move, unimpressionable, slow to be affected.

[32:22]  ⁴ sn “My lord” refers to Moses.

[32:22]  ⁵ tn Heb “that on evil it is.”