Keluaran 6:19

6:19 The sons of Merari were Mahli and Mushi. These were the clans of Levi, according to their records.

Keluaran 14:22

14:22 So the Israelites went through the middle of the sea on dry ground, the water forming a wall ¹  for them on their right and on their left.

Keluaran 16:31

16:31 The house of Israel ²  called its name “manna.” ³  It was like coriander seed and was white, and it tasted ⁴  like wafers with honey.

Keluaran 25:9

25:9 According to all that I am showing you ⁵  – the pattern of the tabernacle ⁶  and the pattern of all its furnishings – you ⁷  must make it exactly so. ⁸ 

Keluaran 25:26

25:26 You are to make four rings of gold for it and attach ⁹  the rings at the four corners where its four legs are. ¹⁰ 

Keluaran 25:28

25:28 You are to make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold, so that the table may be carried with them. ¹¹ 

Keluaran 28:36

28:36 “You are to make a plate ¹²  of pure gold and engrave on it the way a seal is engraved: ¹³  “Holiness to the Lord.” ¹⁴ 

[14:22]  ¹ tn The clause literally reads, “and the waters [were] for them a wall.” The word order in Hebrew is disjunctive, with the vav (ו) on the noun introducing a circumstantial clause.

[14:22]  sn S. R. Driver (Exodus, 119), still trying to explain things with natural explanations, suggests that a northeast wind is to be thought of (an east wind would be directly in their face he says), such as a shallow ford might cooperate with an ebb tide in keeping a passage clear. He then quotes Dillmann about the “wall” of water: “A very summary poetical and hyperbolical (xv. 8) description of the occurrence, which at most can be pictured as the drying up of a shallow ford, on both sides of which the basin of the sea was much deeper, and remained filled with water.” There is no way to “water down” the text to fit natural explanations; the report clearly shows a miraculous work of God making a path through the sea – a path that had to be as wide as half a mile in order for the many people and their animals to cross between about 2:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. (W. C. Kaiser, Jr., “Exodus,” EBC 2:389). The text does not say that they actually only started across in the morning watch, however.

[16:31]  ² sn The name “house of Israel” is unusual in this context.

[16:31]  ³ tn Hebrew מָן (man).

[16:31]  ⁴ tn Heb “like seed of coriander, white, its taste was.”

[25:9]  ⁵ tn The pronoun is singular.

[25:9]  ⁶ sn The expression “the pattern of the tabernacle” (תַּבְנִית הַמִּשְׁכָּן, tavnit hammiskan) has been the source of much inquiry. The word rendered “pattern” is related to the verb “to build”; it suggests a model. S. R. Driver notes that in ancient literature there is the account of Gudea receiving in a dream a complete model of a temple he was to erect (Exodus, 267). In this passage Moses is being shown something on the mountain that should be the pattern of the earthly sanctuary. The most plausible explanation of what he was shown comes from a correlation with comments in the Letter to the Hebrews and the book of Revelation, which describe the heavenly sanctuary as the true sanctuary, and the earthly as the copy or shadow. One could say that Moses was allowed to see what John saw on the island of Patmos, a vision of the heavenly sanctuary. That still might not explain what it was, but it would mean he saw a revelation of the true tent, and that would imply that he learned of the spiritual and eternal significance of all of it. The fact that Israel’s sanctuary resembled those of other cultures does not nullify this act of revelation; rather, it raises the question of where the other nations got their ideas if it was not made known early in human history. One can conclude that in the beginning there was much more revealed to the parents in the garden than Scripture tells about (Cain and Abel did know how to make sacrifices before Leviticus legislated it). Likewise, one cannot but guess at the influence of the fallen Satan and his angels in the world of pagan religion. Whatever the source, at Sinai God shows the true, and instructs that it all be done without the pagan corruptions and additions. U. Cassuto notes that the existence of these ancient parallels shows that the section on the tabernacle need not be dated in the second temple period, but fits the earlier period well (Exodus, 324).

[25:9]  ⁷ tn The pronoun is plural.

[25:9]  ⁸ sn Among the many helpful studies on the tabernacle, include S. M. Fish, “And They Shall Build Me a Sanctuary,” Gratz College of Jewish Studies 2 (1973): 43-59; I. Hart, “Preaching on the Account of the Tabernacle,” EvQ 54 (1982): 111-16; D. Skinner, “Some Major Themes of Exodus,” Mid-America Theological Journal 1 (1977): 31-42; S. McEvenue, “The Style of Building Instructions,” Sem 4 (1974): 1-9; M. Ben-Uri, “The Mosaic Building Code,” Creation Research Society Quarterly 19 (1982): 36-39.

[25:26]  ⁹ tn Heb “give.”

[25:26]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “which [are] to four of its feet.”

[25:28]  ¹¹ tn The verb is a Niphal perfect with vav consecutive, showing here the intended result: “so that [the table] might be lifted up [by them].” The noun “the table” is introduced by what looks like the sign of the accusative, but here it serves to introduce or emphasize the nominative (see GKC 365 §117.i).

[28:36]  ¹² tn The word צִּיץ (tsits) seems to mean “a shining thing” and so here a plate of metal. It originally meant “flower,” but they could not write on a flower. So it must have the sense of something worn openly, visible, and shining. The Rabbinic tradition says it was two fingers wide and stretched from ear to ear, but this is an attempt to give details that the Law does not give (see B. Jacob, Exodus, 818).

[28:36]  ¹³ tn Heb “the engravings of a seal”; this phrase is an adverbial accusative of manner.

[28:36]  ¹⁴ sn The engraving was a perpetual reminder of the holiness that was due the Lord (Heb “Yahweh”), that all the clothing, the furnishings, and the activities were to come under that description. This corresponded to the symbolism for the whole nation of binding the law between the eyes. It was to be a perpetual reminder of commitment.