7:6 And Moses and Aaron did so; they did just as the Lord commanded them. 7:7 Now Moses was eighty years old and Aaron was eighty-three years old when they spoke to Pharaoh.
7:8 The Lord said 1 to Moses and Aaron, 2 7:9 “When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Do 3 a miracle,’ and you say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down 4 before Pharaoh,’ it will become 5 a snake.” 7:10 When 6 Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh, they did so, just as the Lord had commanded them – Aaron threw 7 down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants and it became a snake. 8
1 tn Heb “And Yahweh said.”
2 tn Heb “said to Moses and Aaron, saying.”
3 tn The verb is תְּנוּ (tÿnu), literally “give.” The imperative is followed by an ethical dative that strengthens the subject of the imperative: “you give a miracle.”
4 tn Heb “and throw it.” The direct object, “it,” is implied.
5 tn The form is the jussive יְהִי ( yÿhi). Gesenius notes that frequently in a conditional clause, a sentence with a protasis and apodosis, the jussive will be used. Here it is in the apodosis (GKC 323 §109.h).
6 tn The clause begins with the preterite and the vav (ו) consecutive; it is here subordinated to the next clause as a temporal clause.
7 tn Heb “and Aaron threw.”
8 tn The noun used here is תַּנִּין (tannin), and not the word for “serpent” or “snake” used in chap. 4. This noun refers to a large reptile, in some texts large river or sea creatures (Gen 1:21; Ps 74:13) or land creatures (Deut 32:33). This wonder paralleled Moses’ miracle in 4:3 when he cast his staff down. But this is Aaron’s staff, and a different miracle. The noun could still be rendered “snake” here since the term could be broad enough to include it.