Keluaran 3:3

3:3 So Moses thought, ¹  “I will turn aside to see ²  this amazing ³  sight. Why does the bush not burn up?” ⁴ 

Keluaran 3:9

3:9 And now indeed ⁵  the cry ⁶  of the Israelites has come to me, and I have also seen how severely the Egyptians oppress them. ⁷ 

Keluaran 8:15

8:15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, ⁸  he hardened ⁹  his heart and did not listen to them, just as the Lord had predicted. ¹⁰ 

Keluaran 11:6

11:6 There will be a great cry throughout the whole land of Egypt, such as there has never been, ¹¹  nor ever will be again. ¹² 

Keluaran 18:13

18:13 On the next day ¹³  Moses sat to judge ¹⁴  the people, and the people stood around Moses from morning until evening.

[3:3]  ¹ tn Heb “And Moses said.” The implication is that Moses said this to himself.

[3:3]  ² tn The construction uses the cohortative אָסֻרָה־נָּא (’asura-nna’) followed by an imperfect with vav (וְאֶרְאֶה, vÿ’er’eh) to express the purpose or result (logical sequence): “I will turn aside in order that I may see.”

[3:3]  ³ tn Heb “great.” The word means something extraordinary here. In using this term Moses revealed his reaction to the strange sight and his anticipation that something special was about to happen. So he turned away from the flock to investigate.

[3:3]  ⁴ tn The verb is an imperfect. Here it has the progressive nuance – the bush is not burning up.

[3:9]  ⁵ tn The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) focuses attention on what is being said as grounds for what follows.

[3:9]  ⁶ tn The word is a technical term for the outcry one might make to a judge. God had seen the oppression and so knew that the complaints were accurate, and so he initiated the proceedings against the oppressors (B. Jacob, Exodus, 59).

[3:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.” The word for the oppression is now לַחַץ (lakhats), which has the idea of pressure with the oppression – squeezing, pressuring – which led to its later use in the Semitic languages for torture. The repetition in the Hebrew text of the root in the participle form after this noun serves to stress the idea. This emphasis has been represented in the translation by the expression “seen how severely the Egyptians oppress them.”

[8:15]  ⁸ tn The word רְוָחָה (rÿvakhah) means “respite, relief.” BDB 926 relates it to the verb רָוַח (ravakh, “to be wide, spacious”). There would be relief when there was freedom to move about.

[8:15]  ⁹ tn וְהַכְבֵּד (vÿhakhbed) is a Hiphil infinitive absolute, functioning as a finite verb. The meaning of the word is “to make heavy,” and so stubborn, sluggish, indifferent. It summarizes his attitude and the outcome, that he refused to keep his promises.

[8:15]  ¹⁰ sn The end of the plague revealed clearly God’s absolute control over Egypt’s life and deities – all at the power of the man who prayed to God. Yahweh had made life unpleasant for the people by sending the plague, but he was also the one who could remove it. The only recourse anyone has in such trouble is to pray to the sovereign Lord God. Everyone should know that there is no one like Yahweh.

[11:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “which like it there has never been.”

[11:6]  ¹² tn Heb “and like it it will not add.”

[18:13]  ¹³ tn Heb “and it was/happened on the morrow.”

[18:13]  ¹⁴ sn This is a simple summary of the function of Moses on this particular day. He did not necessarily do this every day, but it was time now to do it. The people would come to solve their difficulties or to hear instruction from Moses on decisions to be made. The tradition of “sitting in Moses’ seat” is drawn from this passage.