Keluaran 5:9

5:9 Make the work harder ¹  for the men so they will keep at it ²  and pay no attention to lying words!” ³ 

Keluaran 37:9

37:9 The cherubim were spreading their wings ⁴  upward, overshadowing the atonement lid with their wings. The cherubim ⁵  faced each other, ⁶  looking toward the atonement lid. ⁷ 

[5:9]  ¹ tn Heb “let the work be heavy.”

[5:9]  ² tn The text has וְיַעֲשׂוּ־בָהּ (vÿya’asu-vah, “and let them work in it”) or the like. The jussive forms part of the king’s decree that the men not only be required to work harder but be doing it: “Let them be occupied in it.”

[5:9]  sn For a discussion of this whole section, see K. A. Kitchen, “From the Brickfields of Egypt,” TynBul 27 (1976): 137-47.

[5:9]  ³ sn The words of Moses are here called “lying words” (דִבְרֵי־שָׁקֶר, divre-shaqer). Here is the main reason, then, for Pharaoh’s new policy. He wanted to discredit Moses. So the words that Moses spoke Pharaoh calls false and lying words. The world was saying that God’s words were vain and deceptive because they were calling people to a higher order. In a short time God would reveal that they were true words.

[37:9]  ⁴ tn The construction is a participle in construct followed by the genitive “wings” – “spreaders of wings.”

[37:9]  ⁵ tn “The cherubim” has been placed here instead of in the second clause to produce a smoother translation.

[37:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “and their faces a man to his brother.”

[37:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “to the atonement lid were the faces of the cherubim.”