Keluaran 5:16

5:16 No straw is given to your servants, but we are told, ¹  ‘Make bricks!’ Your servants are even ²  being beaten, but the fault ³  is with your people.”

Keluaran 21:28

Laws about Animals

21:28 ⁴ “If an ox ⁵  gores a man or a woman so that either dies, ⁶  then the ox must surely ⁷  be stoned and its flesh must not be eaten, but the owner of the ox will be acquitted.

Keluaran 21:32

21:32 If the ox gores a male servant or a female servant, the owner ⁸  must pay thirty shekels of silver, ⁹  and the ox must be stoned. ¹⁰ 

Keluaran 28:9

28:9 “You are to take two onyx stones and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel, ¹¹ 

Keluaran 39:6

39:6 They set the onyx stones in gold filigree settings, engraved as with the engravings of a seal ¹²  with the names of the sons of Israel. ¹³ 

[5:16]  ¹ tn Heb “[they] are saying to us,” the line can be rendered as a passive since there is no expressed subject for the participle.

[5:16]  ² tn הִנֵּה (hinneh) draws attention to the action reflected in the passive participle מֻכִּים (mukkim): “look, your servants are being beaten.”

[5:16]  ³ tn The word rendered “fault” is the basic OT verb for “sin” – וְחָטָאת (vÿkhata’t). The problem is that it is pointed as a perfect tense, feminine singular verb. Some other form of the verb would be expected, or a noun. But the basic word-group means “to err, sin, miss the mark, way, goal.” The word in this context seems to indicate that the people of Pharaoh – the slave masters – have failed to provide the straw. Hence: “fault” or “they failed.” But, as indicated, the line has difficult grammar, for it would literally translate: “and you [fem.] sin your people.” Many commentators (so GKC 206 §74.g) wish to emend the text to read with the Greek and the Syriac, thus: “you sin against your own people” (meaning the Israelites are his loyal subjects).

[21:28]  ⁴ sn The point that this section of the laws makes is that one must ensure the safety of others by controlling the circumstances.

[21:28]  ⁵ tn Traditionally “ox,” but “bull” would also be suitable. The term may refer to one of any variety of large cattle.

[21:28]  ⁶ tn Heb “and he dies”; KJV “that they die”; NAB, NASB “to death.”

[21:28]  ⁷ tn The text uses סָקוֹל יִסָּקֵל (saqol yissaqel), a Qal infinitive absolute with a Niphal imperfect. The infinitive intensifies the imperfect, which here has an obligatory nuance or is a future of instruction.

[21:32]  ⁸ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the owner) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:32]  ⁹ sn A shekel was a unit for measure by means of a scale. Both the weight and the value of a shekel of silver are hard to determine. “Though there is no certainty, the shekel is said to weigh about 11,5 grams” (C. Houtman, Exodus, 3:181). Over four hundred years earlier, Joseph was sold into Egypt for 20 shekels. The free Israelite citizen was worth about 50 shekels (Lev 27:3f.).

[21:32]  ¹⁰ sn See further B. S. Jackson, “The Goring Ox Again [Ex. 21,28-36],” JJP 18 (1974): 55-94.

[28:9]  ¹¹ tn Although this is normally translated “Israelites,” here a more literal translation is clearer because it refers to the names of the twelve tribes – the actual sons of Israel.

[39:6]  ¹² tn Or “as seals are engraved.”

[39:6]  ¹³ sn The twelve names were those of Israel’s sons. The idea was not the remembrance of the twelve sons as such, but the twelve tribes that bore their names.