Keluaran 10:2

10:2 and in order that in the hearing of your son and your grandson you may tell ¹  how I made fools ²  of the Egyptians ³  and about ⁴  my signs that I displayed ⁵  among them, so that you may know ⁶  that I am the Lord.”

Hakim-hakim 6:13

6:13 Gideon said to him, “Pardon me, ⁷  but if the Lord is with us, why has such disaster ⁸  overtaken us? Where are all his miraculous deeds our ancestors told us about? They said, ⁹  ‘Did the Lord not bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to Midian.”

Mazmur 44:2

44:2 You, by your power, ¹⁰  defeated nations and settled our fathers on their land; ¹¹ 

you crushed ¹²  the people living there ¹³  and enabled our ancestors to occupy it. ¹⁴ 

[10:2]  ¹ tn The expression is unusual: תְּסַפֵּר בְּאָזְנֵי (tÿsapper bÿ’ozne, “[that] you may declare in the ears of”). The clause explains an additional reason for God’s hardening the heart of Pharaoh, namely, so that the Israelites can tell their children of God’s great wonders. The expression is highly poetic and intense – like Ps 44:1, which says, “we have heard with our ears.” The emphasis would be on the clear teaching, orally, from one generation to another.

[10:2]  ² tn The verb הִתְעַלַּלְתִּי (hit’allalti) is a bold anthropomorphism. The word means to occupy oneself at another’s expense, to toy with someone, which may be paraphrased with “mock.” The whole point is that God is shaming and disgracing Egypt, making them look foolish in their arrogance and stubbornness (W. C. Kaiser, Jr., “Exodus,” EBC 2:366-67). Some prefer to translate it as “I have dealt ruthlessly” with Egypt (see U. Cassuto, Exodus, 123).

[10:2]  ³ tn Heb “of Egypt.” The place is put by metonymy for the inhabitants.

[10:2]  ⁴ tn The word “about” is supplied to clarify this as another object of the verb “declare.”

[10:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “put” or “placed.”

[10:2]  ⁶ tn The form is the perfect tense with vav consecutive, וִידַעְתֶּם (vida’tem, “and that you might know”). This provides another purpose for God’s dealings with Egypt in the way that he was doing. The form is equal to the imperfect tense with vav (ו) prefixed; it thus parallels the imperfect that began v. 2 – “that you might tell.”

[6:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “But my lord.”

[6:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “all this.”

[6:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “saying.”

[44:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “you, your hand.”

[44:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “dispossessed nations and planted them.” The third masculine plural pronoun “them” refers to the fathers (v. 1). See Ps 80:8, 15.

[44:2]  ¹² tn The verb form in the Hebrew text is a Hiphil preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive) from רָעַע (ra’a’, “be evil; be bad”). If retained it apparently means, “you injured; harmed.” Some prefer to derive the verb from רָעַע (“break”; cf. NEB “breaking up the peoples”), in which case the form must be revocalized as Qal (since this verb is unattested in the Hiphil).

[44:2]  ¹³ tn Or “peoples.”

[44:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and you sent them out.” The translation assumes that the third masculine plural pronoun “them” refers to the fathers (v. 1), as in the preceding parallel line. See Ps 80:11, where Israel, likened to a vine, “spreads out” its tendrils to the west and east. Another option is to take the “peoples” as the referent of the pronoun and translate, “and you sent them away,” though this does not provide as tight a parallel with the corresponding line.