Keluaran 4:19

4:19 The Lord said to Moses in Midian, “Go back ¹  to Egypt, because all the men who were seeking your life are dead.” ² 

Keluaran 12:33

12:33 The Egyptians were urging ³  the people on, in order to send them out of the land quickly, ⁴  for they were saying, “We are all dead!”

Keluaran 18:3-4

18:3 and her two sons, one of whom was named Gershom (for Moses ⁵  had said, “I have been a foreigner in a foreign land”), 18:4 and the other Eliezer (for Moses had said, ⁶  “The God of my father has been my help ⁷  and delivered ⁸  me from the sword of Pharaoh”).

Keluaran 19:11

19:11 and be ready for the third day, for on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.

Keluaran 34:27

34:27 The Lord said to Moses, “Write down ⁹  these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.”

[4:19]  ¹ tn The text has two imperatives, “Go, return”; if these are interpreted as a hendiadys (as in the translation), then the second is adverbial.

[4:19]  ² sn The text clearly stated that Pharaoh sought to kill Moses; so this seems to be a reference to Pharaoh’s death shortly before Moses’ return. Moses was forty years in Midian. In the 18th dynasty, only Pharaoh Thutmose III had a reign of the right length (1504-1450 b.c.) to fit this period of Moses’ life. This would place Moses’ returning to Egypt near 1450 b.c., in the beginning of the reign of Amenhotep II, whom most conservatives identify as the pharaoh of the exodus. Rameses II, of course, had a very long reign (1304-1236). But if he were the one from whom Moses fled, then he could not be the pharaoh of the exodus, but his son would be – and that puts the date of the exodus after 1236, a date too late for anyone. See E. H. Merrill, Kingdom of Priests, 62.

[12:33]  ³ tn The verb used here (חָזַק, khazaq) is the same verb used for Pharaoh’s heart being hardened. It conveys the idea of their being resolved or insistent in this – they were not going to change.

[12:33]  ⁴ tn The phrase uses two construct infinitives in a hendiadys, the first infinitive becoming the modifier.

[18:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity (also in the following verse).

[18:4]  ⁶ tn The referent (Moses) and the verb have been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:4]  ⁷ tn Now is given the etymological explanation of the name of Moses’ other son, Eliezer (אֱלִיעֶזֶר, ’eli’ezer), which means “my God is a help.” The sentiment that explains this name is אֱלֹהֵי אָבִי בְּעֶזְרִי (’elohe ’avi bÿ’ezri, “the God of my father is my help”). The preposition in the sentiment is the bet (ב) essentiae (giving the essence – see GKC 379 §119.i). Not mentioned earlier, the name has become even more appropriate now that God has delivered Moses from Pharaoh again. The word for “help” is a common word in the Bible, first introduced as a description of the woman in the Garden. It means to do for someone what he or she cannot do for himself or herself. Samuel raised the “stone of help” (Ebenezer) when Yahweh helped Israel win the battle (1 Sam 7:12).

[18:4]  ⁸ sn The verb “delivered” is an important motif in this chapter (see its use in vv. 8, 9, and 10 with reference to Pharaoh).

[34:27]  ⁹ tn Once again the preposition with the suffix follows the imperative, adding some emphasis to the subject of the verb.