Exodus 4:8

4:8 “If ¹  they do not believe you or pay attention to ²  the former sign, then they may ³  believe the latter sign. ⁴ 

Exodus 19:22

19:22 Let the priests also, who approach the Lord, sanctify themselves, lest the Lord break through ⁵  against them.”

Exodus 34:5

34:5 The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the Lord by name. ⁶ 

Exodus 40:23

40:23 And he set the bread in order on it ⁷  before the Lord, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

Exodus 40:25

40:25 Then he set up the lamps before the Lord, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

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¹ tn Heb “and it will be if.”

² tn Heb “listen to the voice of,” meaning listen so as to respond appropriately.

³ tn The nuance of this perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive will be equal to the imperfect of possibility – “they may believe.”

⁴ tn Heb “believe the voice of the latter sign,” so as to understand and accept the meaning of the event.

⁵ tn The verb יִפְרֹץ (yifrots) is the imperfect tense from פָּרַץ (parats, “to make a breach, to break through”). The image of Yahweh breaking forth on them means “work destruction” (see 2 Sam 6:8; S. R. Driver, Exodus, 174).

⁶ tn Some commentaries wish to make Moses the subject of the second and the third verbs, the first because he was told to stand there and this verb suggests he did it, and the last because it sounds like he was worshiping Yahweh (cf. NASB). But it is clear from v. 6 that Yahweh was the subject of the last clause of v. 5 – v. 6 tells how he did it. So if Yahweh is the subject of the first and last clauses of v. 5, it seems simpler that he also be the subject of the second. Moses took his stand there, but God stood by him (B. Jacob, Exodus, 981; U. Cassuto, Exodus, 439). There is no reason to make Moses the subject in any of the verbs of v. 5.

⁷ tn Heb uses a cognate accusative construction, “he arranged the arrangement.”