Discovery BoxExodus 3:16 
Context3:16 “Go and bring together 1 the elders of Israel and tell them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, 2 appeared 3 to me – the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – saying, “I have attended carefully 4 to you and to what has been done 5 to you in Egypt,
Exodus 10:6
Context10:6 They will fill your houses, the houses of your servants, and all the houses of Egypt, such as 6 neither 7 your fathers nor your grandfathers have seen since they have been 8 in the land until this day!’” Then Moses 9 turned and went out from Pharaoh.
Exodus 33:12
Context33:12 Moses said to the Lord, “See, you have been saying to me, ‘Bring this people up,’ 10 but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. But you said, ‘I know you by name, 11 and also you have found favor in my sight.’
Exodus 34:10
Context34:10 He said, “See, I am going to make 12 a covenant before all your people. I will do wonders such as have not been done 13 in all the earth, nor in any nation. All the people among whom you live will see the work of the Lord, for it is a fearful thing that I am doing with you. 14
1 tn The form is the perfect tense with the sequential vav (ו) linking the nuance to the imperative that precedes it. Since the imperative calls for immediate action, this form either carries the same emphasis, or instructs action that immediately follows it. This applies likewise to “say,” which follows.
2 sn “The God of your fathers” is in simple apposition to the name “the
3 tn The form is the Niphal perfect of the verb “to see.” See the note on “appeared” in 3:2.
4 tn The verb פָּקַד (paqad) has traditionally been rendered “to visit.” This only partially communicates the point of the word. When God “visited” someone, it meant that he intervened in their lives to change their circumstances or their destiny. When he visited the Amalekites, he destroyed them (1 Sam 15:2). When he visited Sarah, he provided the long awaited child (Gen 21:1). It refers to God’s active involvement in human affairs for blessing or for cursing. Here it would mean that God had begun to act to deliver the Israelites from bondage and give them the blessings of the covenant. The form is joined here with the infinitive absolute to underscore the certainty – “I have indeed visited you.” Some translate it “remember”; others say “watch over.” These do not capture the idea of intervention to bless, and often with the idea of vengeance or judgment on the oppressors. If God were to visit what the Egyptians did, he would stop the oppression and also bring retribution for it. The nuance of the perfect tense could be a perfect of resolve (“I have decided to visit”), or an instantaneous perfect ( “I hereby visit”), or a prophetic perfect (“I have visited” = “I will visit”). The infinitive absolute reinforces the statement (so “carefully”), the rendering “attended to” attempts to convey the ideas of personal presence, mental awareness, and action, as when a nurse or physician “attends” a patient.
sn The same word was used in the same kind of construction at the end of Genesis (50:24) when Joseph promised, “God will surely visit you” (but there the imperfect tense with the infinitive absolute). Here is another link to the patriarchal narratives. This work of Moses would be interpreted as a fulfillment of Joseph’s prophecy.
5 tn The second object for the verb is the passive participle הֶעָשׂוּי (he’asuy). To say that God has visited the oppression (or “attended to” it) affirms that God has decided to judge the oppressing people as he blesses Israel.
6 tn The relative pronoun אֲשֶׁר (’asher) is occasionally used as a comparative conjunction (see GKC 499 §161.b).
7 tn Heb “which your fathers have not seen, nor your fathers’ fathers.”
8 tn The Hebrew construction מִיּוֹם הֱיוֹתָם (miyyom heyotam, “from the day of their being”). The statement essentially says that no one, even the elderly, could remember seeing a plague of locusts like this. In addition, see B. Childs, “A Study of the Formula, ‘Until This Day,’” JBL 82 (1963).
9 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
10 tn The Hiphil imperative is from the same verb that has been used before for bringing the people up from Egypt and leading them to Canaan.
11 tn That is, “chosen you.”
12 tn Here again is a use of the futur instans participle; the deictic particle plus the pronoun precedes the participle, showing what is about to happen.
13 tn The verb here is בָּרָא (bara’, “to create”). The choice of this verb is to stress that these wonders would be supernaturally performed, for the verb is used only with God as the subject.
14 sn The idea is that God will be doing awesome things in dealing with them, i.e., to fulfill his program.
