Discovery BoxExodus 17:4 
Context17:4 Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What will I do with 1 this people? – a little more 2 and they will stone me!” 3
Exodus 21:18
Context21:18 “If men fight, and one strikes his neighbor with a stone or with his fist and he does not die, but must remain in bed, 4
Exodus 31:18
Context31:18 He gave Moses two tablets of testimony when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, tablets of stone written by the finger of God. 5
1 tn The preposition lamed (ל) is here specification, meaning “with respect to” (see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 49, §273).
2 tn Or “they are almost ready to stone me.”
3 tn The perfect tense with the vav (ו) consecutive almost develops an independent force; this is true in sentences where it follows an expression of time, as here (see GKC 334 §112.x).
4 tn Heb “falls to bed.”
5 sn The expression “the finger of God” has come up before in the book, in the plagues (Exod 8:15) to express that it was a demonstration of the power and authority of God. So here too the commandments given to Moses on stone tablets came from God. It too is a bold anthropomorphism; to attribute such a material action to Yahweh would have been thought provoking to say the least. But by using “God” and by stating it in an obviously figurative way, balance is maintained. Since no one writes with one finger, the expression simply says that the Law came directly from God.
