Keluaran 9:9

9:9 It will become fine dust over the whole land of Egypt and will cause boils to break out and fester ¹  on both people and animals in all the land of Egypt.”

Keluaran 9:23

9:23 When Moses extended ²  his staff toward the sky, the Lord ³  sent thunder ⁴  and hail, and fire fell to the earth; ⁵  so the Lord caused hail to rain down on the land of Egypt.

Keluaran 26:32

26:32 You are to hang it ⁶  with gold hooks ⁷  on four posts of acacia wood overlaid with gold, set in ⁸  four silver bases.

Keluaran 29:36

29:36 Every day you are to prepare a bull for a purification offering ⁹  for atonement. ¹⁰  You are to purge ¹¹  the altar by making atonement ¹²  for it, and you are to anoint it to set it apart as holy.

[9:9]  ¹ tn The word שְׁחִין (shÿkhin) means “boils.” It may be connected to an Arabic cognate that means “to be hot.” The illness is associated with Job (Job 2:7-8) and Hezekiah (Isa 38:21); it has also been connected with other skin diseases described especially in the Law. The word connected with it is אֲבַעְבֻּעֹת (’ava’bu’ot); this means “blisters, pustules” and is sometimes translated as “festering.” The etymology is debated, whether from a word meaning “to swell up” or “to overflow” (W. C. Kaiser, Jr., “Exodus,” EBC 2:359).

[9:23]  ² tn The preterite with the vav (ו) consecutive is here subordinated to the next clause in view of the emphasis put on the subject, Yahweh, by the disjunctive word order of that clause.

[9:23]  ³ tn By starting the clause with the subject (an example of disjunctive word order) the text is certainly stressing that Yahweh alone did this.

[9:23]  ⁴ tn The expression נָתַן קֹלֹת (natan qolot) literally means “gave voices” (also “voice”). This is a poetic expression for sending the thunder. Ps 29:3 talks about the “voice of Yahweh” – the God of glory thunders!

[9:23]  ⁵ sn This clause has been variously interpreted. Lightning would ordinarily accompany thunder; in this case the mention of fire could indicate that the lightning was beyond normal and that it was striking in such a way as to start fires on the ground. It could also mean that fire went along the ground from the pounding hail.

[26:32]  ⁶ tn Heb “put it.”

[26:32]  ⁷ tn This clause simply says “and their hooks gold,” but is taken as a circumstantial clause telling how the veil will be hung.

[26:32]  ⁸ tn Heb “on four silver bases.”

[29:36]  ⁹ tn The construction uses a genitive: “a bull of the sin offering,” which means, a bull that is designated for a sin (or better, purification) offering.

[29:36]  ¹⁰ sn It is difficult to understand how this verse is to be harmonized with the other passages. The ceremony in the earlier passages deals with atonement made for the priests, for people. But here it is the altar that is being sanctified. The “sin [purification] offering” seems to be for purification of the sanctuary and altar to receive people in their worship.

[29:36]  ¹¹ tn The verb is וְחִטֵּאתָ (vÿhitte’ta), a Piel perfect of the word usually translated “to sin.” Here it may be interpreted as a privative Piel (as in Ps 51:7 [9]), with the sense of “un-sin” or “remove sin.” It could also be interpreted as related to the word for “sin offering,” and so be a denominative verb. It means “to purify, cleanse.” The Hebrews understood that sin and contamination could corrupt and pollute even things, and so they had to be purged.

[29:36]  ¹² tn The construction is a Piel infinitive construct in an adverbial clause. The preposition bet (ב) that begins the clause could be taken as a temporal preposition, but in this context it seems to express the means by which the altar was purged of contamination – “in your making atonement” is “by [your] making atonement.”