Exodus 5:5

5:5 Pharaoh was thinking, ¹  “The people of the land are now many, and you are giving them rest from their labor.”

Exodus 17:11

17:11 Whenever Moses would raise his hands, ²  then Israel prevailed, but whenever he would rest ³  his hands, then Amalek prevailed.

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¹ tn Heb “And Pharaoh said.” This is not the kind of thing that Pharaoh is likely to have said to Moses, and so it probably is what he thought or reasoned within himself. Other passages (like Exod 2:14; 3:3) show that the verb “said” can do this. (See U. Cassuto, Exodus, 67.)

² tn The two verbs in the temporal clauses are by וְהָיָה כַּאֲשֶׁר (vÿhaya ka’asher, “as long as” or, “and it was that whenever”). This indicates that the two imperfect tenses should be given a frequentative translation, probably a customary imperfect.

³ tn Or “lower.”