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 14:5
Context14:5 When it was reported 6 to the king of Egypt that the people had fled, 7 the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people, and the king and his servants said, 8 “What in the world have we done? 9 For we have released the people of Israel 10 from serving us!”
Exodus 18:8
Context18:8 Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to Egypt for Israel’s sake, and all the hardship 11 that had come on them 12 along the way, and how 13 the Lord had delivered them.
Exodus 34:10
Context34:10 He said, “See, I am going to make 14 a covenant before all your people. I will do wonders such as have not been done 15 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. 16
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 Heb “and it was told.” The present translation uses “reported,” since this involves information given to a superior.
7 tn The verb must be given a past perfect translation because the fleeing occurred before the telling.
8 tn Heb “and they said.” The referent (the king and his servants) is supplied for clarity.
9 tn The question literally is “What is this we have done?” The demonstrative pronoun is used as an enclitic particle for emphasis (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 24, §118).
10 tn Heb “released Israel.” By metonymy the name of the nation is used collectively for the people who constitute it (the Israelites).
11 tn A rare word, “weariness” of the hardships.
12 tn Heb “found them.”
13 tn Here “how” has been supplied.
14 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.
15 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.
16 sn The idea is that God will be doing awesome things in dealing with them, i.e., to fulfill his program.
