Discovery BoxExodus 2:23 
Context2:23 1 During 2 that long period of time 3 the king of Egypt died, and the Israelites 4 groaned because of the slave labor. They cried out, and their desperate cry 5 because of their slave labor went up to God.
Exodus 7:21
Context7:21 When the fish 6 that were in the Nile died, the Nile began 7 to stink, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. There was blood 8 everywhere in the land of Egypt!
Exodus 9:7
Context9:7 Pharaoh sent representatives to investigate, 9 and indeed, not even one of the livestock of Israel had died. But Pharaoh’s heart remained hard, 10 and he did not release the people.
1 sn The next section of the book is often referred to as the “Call of Moses,” and that is certainly true. But it is much more than that. It is the divine preparation of the servant of God, a servant who already knew what his destiny was. In this section Moses is shown how his destiny will be accomplished. It will be accomplished because the divine presence will guarantee the power, and the promise of that presence comes with the important “I AM” revelation. The message that comes through in this, and other “I will be with you” passages, is that when the promise of God’s presence is correctly appropriated by faith, the servant of God can begin to build confidence for the task that lies ahead. It will no longer be, “Who am I that I should go?” but “I AM with you” that matters. The first little section, 2:23-25, serves as a transition and introduction, for it records the
2 tn The verse begins with the temporal indicator “And it was” (cf. KJV, ASV “And it came to pass”). This has been left untranslated for stylistic reasons.
3 tn Heb “in those many days.”
4 tn Heb “the sons of Israel.”
5 tn “They cried out” is from זָעַק (za’aq), and “desperate cry” is from שַׁוְעָה (shava’h).
6 tn The first clause in this verse begins with a vav disjunctive, introducing a circumstantial clause to the statement that the water stank. The vav (ו) consecutive on the next verb shows that the smell was the result of the dead fish in the contaminated water. The result is then expressed with the vav beginning the clause that states that they could not drink it.
7 tn The preterite could be given a simple definite past translation, but an ingressive past would be more likely, as the smell would get worse and worse with the dead fish.
8 tn Heb “and there was blood.”
9 tn Heb “Pharaoh sent.” The phrase “representatives to investigate” is implied in the context.
10 tn Heb “and the heart of Pharaoh was hardened.” This phrase translates the Hebrew word כָּבֵד (kaved; see S. R. Driver, Exodus, 53). In context this represents the continuation of a prior condition.
