Keluaran 4:31

4:31 and the people believed. When they heard ¹  that the Lord had attended to ²  the Israelites and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed down close to the ground. ³ 

Keluaran 4:2

4:2 The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.” ⁴ 

1 Raja-raja 19:16

19:16 You must anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to take your place as prophet.

1 Raja-raja 19:2

19:2 Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah with this warning, ⁵  “May the gods judge me severely ⁶  if by this time tomorrow I do not take your life as you did theirs!” ⁷ 

1 Tawarikh 6:20

6:20 To Gershom:

His son Libni, his son Jahath, his son Zimmah,

Mazmur 33:18

33:18 Look, the Lord takes notice of his loyal followers, ⁸ 

those who wait for him to demonstrate his faithfulness ⁹ 

[4:31]  ¹ tc The LXX (Greek OT) has “and they rejoiced,” probably reading וַיִּשְׂמְחוּ (vayyismÿkhu) instead of what the MT reading, וַיִּשְׂמְעוּ (vayyismÿ’u, “and they heard”). To rejoice would have seemed a natural response of the people at the news, and the words sound similar in Hebrew.

[4:31]  tn The form is the preterite with the vav consecutive, “and they heard.” It clearly is a temporal clause subordinate to the following verbs that report how they bowed and worshiped. But it is also in sequence to the preceding: they believed, and then they bowed when they heard.

[4:31]  ² tn Or “intervened for.” The word פָּקַד (paqad) has traditionally been translated “visited,” which is open to many interpretations. It means that God intervened in the life of the Israelites to bless them with the fulfillment of the promises. It says more than that he took notice of them, took pity on them, or remembered them. He had not yet fulfilled the promises, but he had begun to act by calling Moses and Aaron. The translation “attended to” attempts to capture that much.

[4:31]  ³ tn The verb וַיִּשְׁתַּחֲוּוּ (vayyishtakhavu) is usually rendered “worshiped.” More specifically, the verbal root חָוָה (khava) in the hishtaphel stem means “to cause oneself to be low to the ground.” While there is nothing wrong with giving it a general translation of “worship,” it may be better in a passage like this to take it in conjunction with the other verb (“bow”) as a verbal hendiadys, using it as an adverb to that verb. The implication is certainly that they prayed, or praised, and performed some other aspect of worship, but the text may just be describing it from their posture of worship. With this response, all the fears of Moses are swept aside – they believed and they were thankful to God.

[4:2]  ⁴ tn Or “rod” (KJV, ASV); NCV, CEV “walking stick”; NLT “shepherd’s staff.”

[4:2]  sn The staff appears here to be the shepherd’s staff that he was holding. It now will become the instrument with which Moses will do the mighty works, for it is the medium of the display of the divine power (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 27; also, L. Shalit, “How Moses Turned a Staff into a Snake and Back Again,” BAR 9 [1983]: 72-73).

[19:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “saying.”

[19:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “So may the gods do to me, and so may they add.”

[19:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “I do not make your life like the life of one of them.”

[33:18]  ⁸ tn Heb “look, the eye of the Lord [is] toward the ones who fear him.” The expression “the eye…[is] toward” here indicates recognition and the bestowing of favor. See Ps 34:15. The one who fears the Lord respects his sovereignty and obeys his commandments. See Ps 128:1; Prov 14:2.

[33:18]  ⁹ tn Heb “for the ones who wait for his faithfulness.”