36:2 Moses summoned 16 Bezalel and Oholiab and every skilled person in whom 17 the Lord had put skill – everyone whose heart stirred him 18 to volunteer 19 to do the work,
1 tn Heb “a man…his brother.”
2 tn The perfect tense in this context requires the somewhat rare classification of a potential perfect.
3 tn Heb “one law will be to.”
4 tn Heb “morning by morning.” This is an example of the repetition of words to express the distributive sense; here the meaning is “every morning” (see GKC 388 §121.c).
5 tn The perfect tenses here with vav (ו) consecutives have the frequentative sense; they function in a protasis-apodosis relationship (GKC 494 §159.g).
6 tn Heb “and it happened/was.”
7 tn This construction is an exception to the normal rule for the numbers 2 through 10 taking the object numbered in the plural. Here it is “two of the omer” or “the double of the omer” (see GKC 433 §134.e).
8 tn Heb “for one.”
9 tn The word suggests “the ones lifted up” above others, and therefore the rulers or the chiefs of the people.
10 tn Or “congregation” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV).
11 sn The meaning here is probably that these leaders, the natural heads of the families in the clans, saw that people were gathering twice as much and they reported this to Moses, perhaps afraid it would stink again (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 197).
12 tn The verb is וְיִקְחוּ (vÿyiqkhu), the Qal imperfect or jussive with vav; after the imperative “speak” this verb indicates the purpose or result: “speak…that they may take” and continues with the force of a command.
13 tn The “offering” (תְּרוּמָה, tÿrumah) is perhaps better understood as a contribution since it was a freewill offering. There is some question about the etymology of the word. The traditional meaning of “heave-offering” derives from the idea of “elevation,” a root meaning “to be high” lying behind the word. B. Jacob says it is something sorted out of a mass of material and designated for a higher purpose (Exodus, 765). S. R. Driver (Exodus, 263) corrects the idea of “heave-offering” by relating the root to the Hiphil form of that root, herim, “to lift” or “take off.” He suggests the noun means “what is taken off” from a larger mass and so designated for sacred purposes. The LXX has “something taken off.”
14 tn The verb יִדְּבֶנּוּ (yiddÿvennu) is related to the word for the “freewill offering” (נְדָבָה, nÿdavah). The verb is used of volunteering for military campaigns (Judg 5:2, 9) and the willing offerings for both the first and second temples (see 1 Chr 29:5, 6, 9, 14, 17).
15 tn The pronoun is plural.
16 tn The verb קָרָא (qara’) plus the preposition “to” – “to call to” someone means “to summon” that person.
17 tn Here there is a slight change: “in whose heart Yahweh had put skill.”
18 tn Or “whose heart was willing.”
19 sn The verb means more than “approach” or “draw near”; קָרַב (qarav) is the word used for drawing near the altar as in bringing an offering. Here they offer themselves, their talents and their time.