Keluaran 8:9

8:9 Moses said to Pharaoh, “You may have the honor over me ¹  – when shall I pray for you, your servants, and your people, for the frogs to be removed ²  from you and your houses, so that ³  they will be left ⁴  only in the Nile?”

Keluaran 14:12

14:12 Isn’t this what we told you ⁵  in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone so that we can serve the Egyptians, ⁶  because it is better for us to serve ⁷  the Egyptians than to die in the desert!’” ⁸ 

Keluaran 15:25

15:25 He cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him ⁹  a tree. ¹⁰  When Moses ¹¹  threw it into the water, the water became safe to drink. There the Lord ¹²  made for them ¹³  a binding ordinance, ¹⁴  and there he tested ¹⁵  them.

Keluaran 16:23

16:23 He said to them, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘Tomorrow is a time of cessation from work, ¹⁶  a holy Sabbath ¹⁷  to the Lord. Whatever you want to ¹⁸  bake, bake today; ¹⁹  whatever you want to boil, boil today; whatever is left put aside for yourselves to be kept until morning.’”

Keluaran 18:19

18:19 Now listen to me, ²⁰  I will give you advice, and may God be with you: You be a representative for the people to God, ²¹  and you bring ²²  their disputes ²³  to God;

Keluaran 21:6

21:6 then his master must bring him to the judges, ²⁴  and he will bring him to the door or the doorposts, and his master will pierce his ear with an awl, and he shall serve him forever. 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 31:6

31:6 Moreover, ²⁸  I have also given him Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, and I have given ability to all the specially skilled, ²⁹  that they may make ³⁰  everything I have commanded you:

Keluaran 31:17

31:17 It is a sign between me and the Israelites forever; for in six days ³¹  the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’” ³² 

Keluaran 33:11

33:11 The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, ³³  the way a person speaks ³⁴  to a friend. Then Moses ³⁵  would return to the camp, but his servant, Joshua son of Nun, a young man, did not leave the tent. ³⁶ 

[8:9]  ¹ tn The expression הִתְפָּאֵר עָלַי (hitpa’er ’alay) is problematic. The verb would be simply translated “honor yourself” or “deck yourself with honor.” It can be used in the bad sense of self-exaltation. But here it seems to mean “have the honor or advantage over me” in choosing when to remove the frogs. The LXX has “appoint for me.” Moses is doing more than extending a courtesy to Pharaoh; he is giving him the upper hand in choosing the time. But it is also a test, for if Pharaoh picked the time it would appear less likely that Moses was manipulating things. As U. Cassuto puts it, Moses is saying “my trust in God is so strong you may have the honor of choosing the time” (Exodus, 103).

[8:9]  ² tn Or “destroyed”; Heb “to cut off the frogs.”

[8:9]  ³ tn The phrase “so that” is implied.

[8:9]  ⁴ tn Or “survive, remain.”

[14:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “Is not this the word that we spoke to you.”

[14:12]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn Heb “better for us to serve.”

[14:12]  ⁸ 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.

[15:25]  ⁹ tn The verb is וַיּוֹרֵהוּ (vayyorehu, “and he showed him”). It is the Hiphil preterite from יָרָה (yarah), which has a basic meaning of “to point, show, direct.” It then came to mean “to teach”; it is the verb behind the noun “Law” (תּוֹרָה, torah).

[15:25]  sn U. Cassuto notes that here is the clue to the direction of the narrative: Israel needed God’s instruction, the Law, if they were going to enjoy his provisions (Exodus, 184).

[15:25]  ¹⁰ tn Or “a [piece of] wood” (cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV, TEV, CEV); NLT “a branch.”

[15:25]  sn S. R. Driver (Exodus, 143) follows some local legends in identifying this tree as one that is supposed to have – even to this day – the properties necessary for making bitter water sweet. B. Jacob (Exodus, 436) reports that no such tree has ever been found, but then he adds that this does not mean there was not such a bush in the earlier days. He believes that here God used a natural means (“showed, instructed”) to sweeten the water. He quotes Ben Sira as saying God had created these things with healing properties in them.

[15:25]  ¹¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[15:25]  ¹² tn Heb “there he”; the referent (the Lord) is supplied for clarity.

[15:25]  ¹³ tn Heb “for him” (referring to Israel as a whole).

[15:25]  ¹⁴ tn This translation interprets the two nouns as a hendiadys: “a statute and an ordinance” becomes “a binding ordinance.”

[15:25]  ¹⁵ tn The verb נִסָּהוּ (nissahu, “and he tested him [them]”) is from the root נָסָה (nasah). The use of this word in the Bible indicates that there is question, doubt, or uncertainty about the object being tested.

[15:25]  sn The whole episode was a test from God. He led them there through Moses and let them go hungry and thirsty. He wanted to see how great their faith was.

[16:23]  ¹⁶ tn The noun שַׁבָּתוֹן (shabbaton) has the abstract ending on it: “resting, ceasing.” The root word means “cease” from something, more than “to rest.” The Law would make it clear that they were to cease from their normal occupations and do no common work.

[16:23]  ¹⁷ tn The technical expression is now used: שַׁבַּת־קֹדֶשׁ (shabbat-qodesh, “a holy Sabbath”) meaning a “cessation of/for holiness” for Yahweh. The rest was to be characterized by holiness.

[16:23]  ¹⁸ tn The two verbs in these objective noun clauses are desiderative imperfects – “bake whatever you want to bake.”

[16:23]  ¹⁹ tn The word “today” is implied from the context.

[18:19]  ²⁰ tn Heb “hear my voice.”

[18:19]  ²¹ tn The line reads “Be you to the people before God.” He is to be their representative before God. This is introducing the aspect of the work that only Moses could do, what he has been doing. He is to be before God for the people, to pray for them, to appeal on their behalf. Jethro is essentially saying, I understand that you cannot delegate this to anyone else, so continue doing it (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 219-20).

[18:19]  ²² tn The form is the perfect tense with the vav (ו) consecutive; following the imperative it will be instruction as well. Since the imperative preceding this had the idea of “continue to be” as you are, this too has that force.

[18:19]  ²³ tn Heb “words”; KJV, ASV “the causes”; NRSV “cases”; NLT “questions.”

[21:6]  ²⁴ tn The word is הָאֱלֹהִים (ha’elohim). S. R. Driver (Exodus, 211) says the phrase means “to God,” namely the nearest sanctuary in order that the oath and the ritual might be made solemn, although he does say that it would be done by human judges. That the reference is to Yahweh God is the view also of F. C. Fensham, “New Light on Exodus 21:7 and 22:7 from the Laws of Eshnunna,” JBL 78 (1959): 160-61. Cf. also ASV, NAB, NASB, NCV, NRSV, NLT. Others have made a stronger case that it refers to judges who acted on behalf of God; see C. Gordon, “אלהים in its Reputed Meaning of Rulers, Judges,” JBL 54 (1935): 134-44; and A. E. Draffkorn, “Ilani/Elohim,” JBL 76 (1957): 216-24; cf. KJV, NIV.

[21:6]  ²⁵ tn Or “till his life’s end” (as in the idiom: “serve him for good”).

[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.

[31:6]  ²⁸ tn The expression uses the independent personal pronoun (“and I”) with the deictic particle (“behold”) to enforce the subject of the verb – “and I, indeed I have given.”

[31:6]  ²⁹ tn Heb “and in the heart of all that are wise-hearted I have put wisdom.”

[31:6]  sn The verse means that there were a good number of very skilled and trained artisans that could come to do the work that God wanted done. But God’s Spirit further endowed them with additional wisdom and skill for the work that had to be done.

[31:6]  ³⁰ tn The form is a perfect with vav (ו) consecutive. The form at this place shows the purpose or the result of what has gone before, and so it is rendered “that they may make.”

[31:17]  ³¹ tn The expression again forms an adverbial accusative of time.

[31:17]  ³² sn The word “rest” essentially means “to cease, stop.” So describing God as “resting” on the seventh day does not indicate that he was tired – he simply finished creation and then ceased or stopped. But in this verse is a very bold anthropomorphism in the form of the verb וַיִּנָּפַשׁ (vayyinnafash), a Niphal preterite from the root נָפַשׁ (nafash), the word that is related to “life, soul” or more specifically “breath, throat.” The verb is usually translated here as “he was refreshed,” offering a very human picture. It could also be rendered “he took breath” (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 345). Elsewhere the verb is used of people and animals. The anthropomorphism is clearly intended to teach people to stop and refresh themselves physically, spiritually, and emotionally on this day of rest.

[33:11]  ³³ tn “Face to face” is circumstantial to the action of the verb, explaining how they spoke (see GKC 489-90 §156.c). The point of this note of friendly relationship with Moses is that Moses was “at home” in this tent speaking with God. Moses would derive courage from this when he interceded for the people (B. Jacob, Exodus, 966).

[33:11]  ³⁴ tn The verb in this clause is a progressive imperfect.

[33:11]  ³⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[33:11]  ³⁶ sn Moses did not live in the tent. But Joshua remained there most of the time to guard the tent, it seems, lest any of the people approach it out of curiosity.