Exodus 1:14

1:14 They made their lives bitter 1  by 2  hard service with mortar and bricks and by all kinds of service 3  in the fields. Every kind of service the Israelites were required to give was rigorous. 4 

Exodus 30:15-16

30:15 The rich are not to increase it, 5  and the poor are not to pay less than the half shekel when giving 6  the offering of the Lord, to make atonement 7  for your lives. 30:16 You are to receive the atonement money 8  from the Israelites and give it for the service 9  of the tent of meeting. It will be a memorial 10  for the Israelites before the Lord, to make atonement 11  for your lives.”

1 sn The verb מָרַר (marar) anticipates the introduction of the theme of bitterness in the instructions for the Passover.

2 tn The preposition bet (ב) in this verse has the instrumental use: “by means of” (see GKC 380 §119.o).

3 tn Heb “and in all service.”

4 tn The line could be more literally translated, “All their service in which they served them [was] with rigor.” This takes the referent of בָּהֶם (bahem) to be the Egyptians. The pronoun may also resume the reference to the kinds of service and so not be needed in English: “All their service in which they served [was] with rigor.”

5 tn Or “pay more.”

6 tn The form is לָתֵת (latet), the Qal infinitive construct with the lamed preposition. The infinitive here is explaining the preceding verbs. They are not to increase or diminish the amount “in paying the offering.” The construction approximates a temporal clause.

7 tn This infinitive construct (לְכַפֵּר, lÿkhapper) provides the purpose of the giving the offering – to atone.

8 tn Heb “the silver of the atonements.” The genitive here is the result (as in “sheep of slaughter”) telling what the money will be used for (see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 11, §44).

9 sn The idea of “service” is maintenance and care of the sanctuary and its service, meaning the morning and evening sacrifices and the other elements to be used.

10 sn S. R. Driver says this is “to keep Jehovah in continual remembrance of the ransom which had been paid for their lives” (Exodus, 334).

11 tn The infinitive could be taken in a couple of ways here. It could be an epexegetical infinitive: “making atonement.” Or it could be the infinitive expressing result: “so that atonement will be made for your lives.”