Keluaran 8:21

8:21 If you do not release ¹  my people, then I am going to send ²  swarms of flies ³  on you and on your servants and on your people and in your houses. The houses of the Egyptians will be full of flies, and even the ground they stand on. ⁴ 

Keluaran 14:11

14:11 and they said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the desert? ⁵  What in the world ⁶  have you done to us by bringing ⁷  us out of Egypt?

Keluaran 21:6

21:6 then his master must bring him to the judges, ⁸  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. ⁹ 

Keluaran 32:19

32:19 When he approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses became extremely angry. ¹⁰  He threw the tablets from his hands and broke them to pieces at the bottom of the mountain. ¹¹ 

Keluaran 32:27

32:27 and he said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Each man fasten ¹²  his sword on his side, and go back and forth ¹³  from entrance to entrance throughout the camp, and each one kill his brother, his friend, and his neighbor.’” ¹⁴ 

Keluaran 33:11

33:11 The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, ¹⁵  the way a person speaks ¹⁶  to a friend. Then Moses ¹⁷  would return to the camp, but his servant, Joshua son of Nun, a young man, did not leave the tent. ¹⁸ 

Keluaran 35:10

35:10 Every skilled person ¹⁹  among you is to come and make all that the Lord has commanded:

[8:21]  ¹ tn The construction uses the predicator of nonexistence – אֵין (’en, “there is not”) – with a pronominal suffix prior to the Piel participle. The suffix becomes the subject of the clause. Heb “but if there is not you releasing.”

[8:21]  ² tn Here again is the futur instans use of the participle, now Qal with the meaning “send”: הִנְנִי מַשְׁלִיחַ (hinni mashliakh, “here I am sending”).

[8:21]  ³ tn The word עָרֹב (’arov) means “a mix” or “swarm.” It seems that some irritating kind of flying insect is involved. Ps 78:45 says that the Egyptians were eaten or devoured by them. Various suggestions have been made over the years: (1) it could refer to beasts or reptiles; (2) the Greek took it as the dog-fly, a vicious blood-sucking gadfly, more common in the spring than in the fall; (3) the ordinary house fly, which is a symbol of Egypt in Isa 7:18 (Hebrew זְבוּב, zÿvuv); and (4) the beetle, which gnaws and bites plants, animals, and materials. The fly probably fits the details of this passage best; the plague would have greatly intensified a problem with flies that already existed.

[8:21]  ⁴ tn Or perhaps “the land where they are” (cf. NRSV “the land where they live”).

[14:11]  ⁵ sn B. Jacob (Exodus, 396-97) notes how the speech is overly dramatic and came from a people given to using such exaggerations (Num 16:14), even using a double negative. The challenge to Moses brings a double irony. To die in the desert would be without proper burial, but in Egypt there were graves – it was a land of tombs and graves! Gesenius notes that two negatives in the sentence do not nullify each other but make the sentence all the more emphatic: “Is it because there were no graves…?” (GKC 483 §152.y).

[14:11]  ⁶ tn The demonstrative pronoun has the enclitic use again, giving a special emphasis to the question (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 24, §118).

[14:11]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew term לְהוֹצִּיאָנוּ (lÿhotsi’anu) is the Hiphil infinitive construct with a suffix, “to bring us out.” It is used epexegetically here, explaining the previous question.

[21:6]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Or “till his life’s end” (as in the idiom: “serve him for good”).

[32:19]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and the anger of Moses burned hot.”

[32:19]  ¹¹ sn See N. M. Waldham, “The Breaking of the Tablets,” Judaism 27 (1978): 442-47.

[32:27]  ¹² tn Heb “put.”

[32:27]  ¹³ tn The two imperatives form a verbal hendiadys: “pass over and return,” meaning, “go back and forth” throughout the camp.

[32:27]  ¹⁴ tn The phrases have “and kill a man his brother, and a man his companion, and a man his neighbor.” The instructions were probably intended to mean that they should kill leaders they knew to be guilty because they had been seen or because they failed the water test – whoever they were.

[33:11]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ tn The verb in this clause is a progressive imperfect.

[33:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[33:11]  ¹⁸ 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.

[35:10]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “wise of heart”; here also “heart” would be a genitive of specification, showing that there were those who could make skillful decisions.