Discovery BoxExodus 12:31 
Context12:31 Pharaoh 1 summoned Moses and Aaron in the night and said, “Get up, get out 2 from among my people, both you and the Israelites! Go, serve the Lord as you have requested! 3
Exodus 12:33
Context12:33 The Egyptians were urging 4 the people on, in order to send them out of the land quickly, 5 for they were saying, “We are all dead!”
Exodus 12:39
Context12:39 They baked cakes of bread without yeast using the dough they had brought from Egypt, for it was made without yeast – because they were thrust out 6 of Egypt and were not able to delay, they 7 could not prepare 8 food for themselves either.
1 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Pharaoh) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 tn The urgency in Pharaoh’s words is caught by the abrupt use of the imperatives – “get up, go” (קוּמוּ צְּאוּ, qumu tsÿ’u), and “go, serve” (וּלְכוּ עִבְדוּ, ulÿkhu ’ivdu) and “take” and “leave/go” (וָלֵכוּ…קְחוּ, qÿkhu...valekhu).
3 tn Heb “as you have said.” The same phrase also occurs in the following verse.
sn It appears from this clause that Pharaoh has given up attempting to impose restrictions as he had earlier. With the severe judgment on him for his previous refusals he should now know that these people are no longer his subjects, and he is no longer sovereign. As Moses had insisted, all the Israelites would leave, and with all their possessions, to worship Yahweh.
4 tn The verb used here (חָזַק, khazaq) is the same verb used for Pharaoh’s heart being hardened. It conveys the idea of their being resolved or insistent in this – they were not going to change.
5 tn The phrase uses two construct infinitives in a hendiadys, the first infinitive becoming the modifier.
6 sn For the use of this word in developing the motif, see Exod 2:17, 22; 6:1; and 11:1.
7 tn Heb “and also.”
8 tn The verb is עָשׂוּ (’asu, “they made”); here, with a potential nuance, it is rendered “they could [not] prepare.”
