7:1 So the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God 1 to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. 2
32:5 When 12 Aaron saw this, 13 he built an altar before it, 14 and Aaron made a proclamation 15 and said, “Tomorrow will be a feast 16 to the Lord.”
32:31 So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Alas, this people has committed a very serious sin, 17 and they have made for themselves gods of gold.
34:27 The Lord said to Moses, “Write down 18 these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.”
36:37 He made a hanging for the entrance of the tent of blue, purple, and scarlet yarn and fine twisted linen, the work of an embroiderer,
37:1 Bezalel made the ark of acacia wood; its length was three feet nine inches, its width two feet three inches, and its height two feet three inches.
37:6 He made 23 an atonement lid of pure gold; its length was three feet nine inches, and its width was two feet three inches.
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.
38:8 He made the large basin of bronze and its pedestal of bronze from the mirrors of the women who served 33 at the entrance of the tent of meeting.
38:9 He made the courtyard. For the south side 34 the hangings of the courtyard were of fine twisted linen, one hundred fifty feet long,
39:8 He made the breastpiece, the work of an artistic designer, in the same fashion as the ephod, of gold, blue, purple, and scarlet, and fine twisted linen.
1 tn The word “like” is added for clarity, making explicit the implied comparison in the statement “I have made you God to Pharaoh.” The word אֱלֹהִים (’elohim) is used a few times in the Bible for humans (e.g., Pss 45:6; 82:1), and always clearly in the sense of a subordinate to GOD – they are his representatives on earth. The explanation here goes back to 4:16. If Moses is like God in that Aaron is his prophet, then Moses is certainly like God to Pharaoh. Only Moses, then, is able to speak to Pharaoh with such authority, giving him commands.
2 tn The word נְבִיאֶךָ (nÿvi’ekha, “your prophet”) recalls 4:16. Moses was to be like God to Aaron, and Aaron was to speak for him. This indicates that the idea of a “prophet” was of one who spoke for God, an idea with which Moses and Aaron and the readers of Exodus are assumed to be familiar.
3 tn Heb “this night.”
4 sn Bread made without yeast could be baked quickly, not requiring time for the use of a leavening ingredient to make the dough rise. In Deut 16:3 the unleavened cakes are called “the bread of affliction,” which alludes to the alarm and haste of the Israelites. In later Judaism and in the writings of Paul, leaven came to be a symbol of evil or corruption, and so “unleavened bread” – bread made without yeast – was interpreted to be a picture of purity or freedom from corruption or defilement (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 90-91).
5 tn Heb “Seven days.”
6 tn The imperfect tense functions with the nuance of instruction or injunction. It could also be given an obligatory nuance: “you must eat” or “you are to eat.” Some versions have simply made it an imperative.
7 tn The phrase “there is to be” has been supplied.
8 sn S. R. Driver (Exodus, 254) wishes to safeguard the traditional idea that God could not be seen by reading “they saw the place where the God of Israel stood” so as not to say they saw God. But according to U. Cassuto there is not a great deal of difference between “and they saw the God” and “the
9 sn S. R. Driver suggests that they saw the divine Glory, not directly, but as they looked up from below, through what appeared to be a transparent blue sapphire pavement (Exodus, 254).
10 tn Or “tiles.”
11 tn Heb “and like the body of heaven for clearness.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven” or “sky” depending on the context; here, where sapphire is mentioned (a blue stone) “sky” seems more appropriate, since the transparent blueness of the sapphire would appear like the blueness of the cloudless sky.
12 tn The preterite with the vav (ו) consecutive is subordinated as a temporal clause to the next preterite.
13 tn The word “this” has been supplied.
14 tn “Before it” means before the deity in the form of the calf. Aaron tried to redirect their worship to Yahweh, but the people had already broken down the barrier and were beyond control (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 413).
15 tn Heb “called.”
16 sn The word is חַג (khag), the pilgrim’s festival. This was the word used by Moses for their pilgrimage into the wilderness. Aaron seems here to be trying to do what Moses had intended they do, make a feast to Yahweh at Sinai, but his efforts will not compete with the idol. As B. Jacob says, Aaron saw all this happening and tried to rescue the true belief (Exodus, 941).
17 tn As before, the cognate accusative is used; it would literally be “this people has sinned a great sin.”
18 tn Once again the preposition with the suffix follows the imperative, adding some emphasis to the subject of the verb.
19 tn Heb “one.”
20 tn See the note on this phrase in Exod 25:5.
21 tn Literally “houses”; i.e., places to hold the bars.
22 tn Heb “and their hooks gold.”
23 tn Heb “and he made.”
24 tn Heb “from/at [the] end, from this.”
25 tn The repetition of the expression indicates it has the distributive sense.
26 tn Heb “roof.”
27 tn Heb “its walls around.”
28 tn Heb “and he made for it border gold around.”
29 tn Heb “and he made.”
30 sn Since it was a small altar, it needed only two rings, one on either side, in order to be carried. The second mention of their location clarifies that they should be on the sides, the right and the left, as one approached the altar.
31 tn Heb “for houses.”
32 tn Heb “it”; the referent (the altar) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
33 sn The word for “serve” is not the ordinary one. It means “to serve in a host,” especially in a war. It appears that women were organized into bands and served at the tent of meeting. S. R. Driver thinks that this meant “no doubt” washing, cleaning, or repairing (Exodus, 391). But there is no hint of that (see 1 Sam 2:22; and see Ps 68:11 [12 Hebrew text]). They seem to have had more to do than what Driver said.
34 tn Heb “south side southward.”
35 tn Here “upper” has been supplied.