Discovery BoxExodus 15:15 
Context15:15 Then the chiefs of Edom will be terrified, 1
trembling will seize 2 the leaders of Moab,
and the inhabitants of Canaan will shake.
Exodus 16:22
Context16:22 And 3 on the sixth day they gathered twice as much food, two omers 4 per person; 5 and all the leaders 6 of the community 7 came and told 8 Moses.
Exodus 24:11
Context24:11 But he did not lay a hand 9 on the leaders of the Israelites, so they saw God, 10 and they ate and they drank. 11
Exodus 34:31
Context34:31 But Moses called to them, so Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and Moses spoke to them.
1 tn This is a prophetic perfect.
2 tn This verb is imperfect tense.
3 tn Heb “and it happened/was.”
4 tn This construction is an exception to the normal rule for the numbers 2 through 10 taking the object numbered in the plural. Here it is “two of the omer” or “the double of the omer” (see GKC 433 §134.e).
5 tn Heb “for one.”
6 tn The word suggests “the ones lifted up” above others, and therefore the rulers or the chiefs of the people.
7 tn Or “congregation” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV).
8 sn The meaning here is probably that these leaders, the natural heads of the families in the clans, saw that people were gathering twice as much and they reported this to Moses, perhaps afraid it would stink again (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 197).
9 tn Heb “he did not stretch out his hand,” i.e., to destroy them.
10 tn The verb is חָזָה (khazah); it can mean “to see, perceive” or “see a vision” as the prophets did. The LXX safeguarded this by saying, “appeared in the place of God.” B. Jacob says they beheld – prophetically, religiously (Exodus, 746) – but the meaning of that is unclear. The fact that God did not lay a hand on them – to kill them – shows that they saw something that they never expected to see and live. Some Christian interpreters have taken this to refer to a glorious appearance of the preincarnate Christ, the second person of the Trinity. They saw the brilliance of this manifestation – but not the detail. Later, Moses will still ask to see God’s glory – the real presence behind the phenomena.
11 sn This is the covenant meal, the peace offering, that they are eating there on the mountain. To eat from the sacrifice meant that they were at peace with God, in covenant with him. Likewise, in the new covenant believers draw near to God on the basis of sacrifice, and eat of the sacrifice because they are at peace with him, and in Christ they see the Godhead revealed.
