Exodus 14:7

14:7 He took six hundred select ¹  chariots, and all the rest of the chariots of Egypt, ²  and officers ³  on all of them.

Exodus 21:2

Hebrew Servants

21:2 ⁴ “If you buy ⁵  a Hebrew servant, ⁶  he is to serve you for six years, but in the seventh year he will go out free ⁷  without paying anything. ⁸ 

Exodus 26:9

26:9 You are to join five curtains by themselves and six curtains by themselves. You are to double over ⁹  the sixth curtain at the front of the tent.

Exodus 34:21

34:21 “On six days ¹⁰  you may labor, but on the seventh day you must rest; ¹¹  even at the time of plowing and of harvest ¹²  you are to rest. ¹³ 

Exodus 36:9

36:9 The length of one curtain was forty-two feet, and the width of one curtain was six feet – the same size for each of the curtains.

Exodus 36:15

36:15 The length of one curtain was forty-five feet, and the width of one curtain was six feet – one size for all eleven curtains.

Exodus 37:10

The Making of the Table

37:10 He made the table of acacia wood; its length was three feet, its width one foot six inches, and its height two feet three inches.

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¹ tn The passive participle of the verb “to choose” means that these were “choice” or superb chariots.

² tn Heb “every chariot of Egypt.” After the mention of the best chariots, the meaning of this description is “all the other chariots.”

³ tn The word שָׁלִשִׁם (shalishim) means “officers” or some special kind of military personnel. At one time it was taken to mean a “three man chariot,” but the pictures of Egyptian chariots only show two in a chariot. It may mean officers near the king, “men of the third rank” (B. Jacob, Exodus, 394). So the chariots and the crew represented the elite. See the old view by A. E. Cowley that linked it to a Hittite word (“A Hittite Word in Hebrew,” JTS 21 [1920]: 326), and the more recent work by P. C. Craigie connecting it to Egyptian “commander” (“An Egyptian Expression in the Song of the Sea: Exodus XV.4,” VT 20 [1970]: 85).

⁴ sn See H. L. Elleson, “The Hebrew Slave: A Study in Early Israelite Society,” EvQ 45 (1973): 30-35; N. P. Lemche, “The Manumission of Slaves – The Fallow Year – The Sabbatical Year – The Jobel Year,” VT 26 (1976): 38-59, and “The ‘Hebrew Slave,’ Comments on the Slave Law – Ex. 21:2-11,” VT 25 (1975): 129-44.

⁵ tn The verbs in both the conditional clause and the following ruling are imperfect tense: “If you buy…then he will serve.” The second imperfect tense (the ruling) could be taken either as a specific future or an obligatory imperfect. Gesenius explains how the verb works in the conditional clauses here (see GKC 497 §159.bb).

⁶ sn The interpretation of “Hebrew” in this verse is uncertain: (l) a gentilic ending, (2) a fellow Israelite, (3) or a class of mercenaries of the population (see W. C. Kaiser, Jr., “Exodus,” EBC 2:431). It seems likely that the term describes someone born a Hebrew, as opposed to a foreigner (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 210). The literature on this includes: M. P. Gray, “The Habiru-Hebrew Problem,” HUCA 29 (1958): 135-202.

⁷ sn The word חָפְשִׁי (khofshi) means “free.” It is possible that there is some connection between this word and a technical term used in other cultures for a social class of emancipated slaves who were freemen again (see I. Mendelsohn, “New Light on the Hupsu,” BASOR 139 [1955]: 9-11).

⁸ tn The adverb חִנָּם (hinnam) means “gratis, free”; it is related to the verb “to be gracious, show favor” and the noun “grace.”

⁹ sn The text seems to describe this part as being in front of the tabernacle, hanging down to form a valence at the entrance (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 284).

¹⁰ tn This is an adverbial accusative of time.

¹¹ tn Or “cease” (i.e., from the labors).

¹² sn See M. Dahood, “Vocative lamed in Exodus 2,4 and Merismus in 34,21,” Bib 62 (1981): 413-15.

¹³ tn The imperfect tense expresses injunction or instruction.