Exodus 10:9

10:9 Moses said, “We will go with our young and our old, with our sons and our daughters, and with our sheep and our cattle we will go, because we are to hold ¹  a pilgrim feast for the Lord.”

Exodus 24:4

24:4 and Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. Early in the morning he built ²  an altar at the foot ³  of the mountain and arranged ⁴  twelve standing stones ⁵  – according to the twelve tribes of Israel.

Exodus 27:21

27:21 In the tent of meeting ⁶  outside the curtain that is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons are to arrange it from evening ⁷  to morning before the Lord. This is to be a lasting ordinance among the Israelites for generations to come. ⁸ 

Exodus 28:12

28:12 You are to put the two stones on the shoulders of the ephod, stones of memorial for the sons of Israel, and Aaron will bear their names before the Lord on his two shoulders for a memorial. ⁹ 

Exodus 35:22

35:22 They came, men and women alike, ¹⁰  all who had willing hearts. They brought brooches, earrings, rings and ornaments, all kinds of gold jewelry, ¹¹  and everyone came who waved ¹²  a wave offering of gold to the Lord.

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¹ tn Heb “we have a pilgrim feast (חַג, khag) to Yahweh.”

² tn The two preterites quite likely form a verbal hendiadys (the verb “to get up early” is frequently in such constructions). Literally it says, “and he got up early [in the morning] and he built”; this means “early [in the morning] he built.” The first verb becomes the adverb.

³ tn “under.”

⁴ tn The verb “arranged” is not in the Hebrew text but has been supplied to clarify exactly what Moses did with the twelve stones.

⁵ tn The thing numbered is found in the singular when the number is plural – “twelve standing-stone.” See GKC 433 §134.f. The “standing-stone” could be a small piece about a foot high, or a huge column higher than men. They served to commemorate treaties (Gen 32), or visions (Gen 28) or boundaries, or graves. Here it will function with the altar as a place of worship.

⁶ tn The LXX has mistakenly rendered this name “the tent of the testimony.”

⁷ sn The lamps were to be removed in the morning so that the wicks could be trimmed and the oil replenished (30:7) and then lit every evening to burn through the night.

⁸ sn This is the first of several sections of priestly duties. The point is a simple one here: those who lead the worship use the offerings of the people to ensure that access to God is illumined regularly. The NT will make much of the symbolism of light.

⁹ sn This was to be a perpetual reminder that the priest ministers on behalf of the twelve tribes of Israel. Their names would always be borne by the priests.

¹⁰ tn The expression in Hebrew is “men on/after the women,” meaning men with women, to ensure that it was clear that the preceding verse did not mean only men. B. Jacob takes it further, saying that the men came after the women because the latter had taken the initiative (Exodus, 1017).

¹¹ tn Heb “all gold utensils.”

¹² tn The verb could be translated “offered,” but it is cognate with the following noun that is the wave offering. This sentence underscores the freewill nature of the offerings people made. The word “came” is supplied from v. 21 and v. 22.