Exodus 2:16

2:16 Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and began to draw ¹  water ²  and fill ³  the troughs in order to water their father’s flock.

Exodus 7:21

7:21 When the fish ⁴  that were in the Nile died, the Nile began ⁵  to stink, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. There was blood ⁶  everywhere in the land of Egypt!

Exodus 16:20

16:20 But they did not listen to Moses; some ⁷  kept part of it until morning, and it was full ⁸  of worms and began to stink, and Moses was angry with them.

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¹ tn The preterites describing their actions must be taken in an ingressive sense, since they did not actually complete the job. Shepherds drove them away, and Moses watered the flocks.

² tn The object “water” is not in the Hebrew text, but is implied.

³ tn This also has the ingressive sense, “began to fill,” but for stylistic reasons is translated simply “fill” here.

⁴ tn The first clause in this verse begins with a vav disjunctive, introducing a circumstantial clause to the statement that the water stank. The vav (ו) consecutive on the next verb shows that the smell was the result of the dead fish in the contaminated water. The result is then expressed with the vav beginning the clause that states that they could not drink it.

⁵ tn The preterite could be given a simple definite past translation, but an ingressive past would be more likely, as the smell would get worse and worse with the dead fish.

⁶ tn Heb “and there was blood.”

⁷ tn Heb “men”; this usage is designed to mean “some” (see GKC 447 §138.h, n. 1).

⁸ tn The verb וַיָּרֻם (vayyarum) is equivalent to a passive – “it was changed” – to which “worms” is added as an accusative of result (GKC 388-89 §121.d, n. 2).