Discovery BoxExodus 3:8 
Context3:8 I have come down 1 to deliver them 2 from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a land that is both good and spacious, 3 to a land flowing with milk and honey, 4 to the region of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. 5
Exodus 8:3
Context8:3 The Nile will swarm 6 with frogs, and they will come up and go into your house, in your bedroom, and on your bed, and into the houses of your servants and your people, and into your ovens and your kneading troughs. 7
Exodus 16:16
Context16:16 “This is what 8 the Lord has commanded: 9 ‘Each person is to gather 10 from it what he can eat, an omer 11 per person 12 according to the number 13 of your people; 14 each one will pick it up 15 for whoever lives 16 in his tent.’”
Exodus 17:12
Context17:12 When 17 the hands of Moses became heavy, 18 they took a stone and put it under him, and Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side and one on the other, 19 and so his hands were steady 20 until the sun went down.
Exodus 19:13
Context19:13 No hand will touch him 21 – but he will surely be stoned or shot through, whether a beast or a human being; 22 he must not live.’ When the ram’s horn sounds a long blast they may 23 go up on the mountain.”
Exodus 21:19
Context21:19 and then 24 if he gets up and walks about 25 outside on his staff, then the one who struck him is innocent, except he must pay 26 for the injured person’s 27 loss of time 28 and see to it that he is fully healed.
Exodus 32:8
Context32:8 They have quickly turned aside 29 from the way that I commanded them – they have made for themselves a molten calf and have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt.’”
Exodus 33:5
Context33:5 For 30 the Lord had said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. If I went up among you for a moment, 31 I might destroy you. Now take off your ornaments, 32 that I may know 33 what I should do to you.’” 34
Exodus 33:12
Context33:12 Moses said to the Lord, “See, you have been saying to me, ‘Bring this people up,’ 35 but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. But you said, ‘I know you by name, 36 and also you have found favor in my sight.’
1 sn God’s coming down is a frequent anthropomorphism in Genesis and Exodus. It expresses his direct involvement, often in the exercise of judgment.
2 tn The Hiphil infinitive with the suffix is לְהַצִּילוֹ (lÿhatsilo, “to deliver them”). It expresses the purpose of God’s coming down. The verb itself is used for delivering or rescuing in the general sense, and snatching out of danger for the specific.
3 tn Heb “to a land good and large”; NRSV “to a good and broad land.” In the translation the words “that is both” are supplied because in contemporary English “good and” combined with any additional descriptive term can be understood as elative (“good and large” = “very large”; “good and spacious” = “very spacious”; “good and ready” = “very ready”). The point made in the Hebrew text is that the land to which they are going is both good (in terms of quality) and large (in terms of size).
4 tn This vibrant description of the promised land is a familiar one. Gesenius classifies “milk and honey” as epexegetical genitives because they provide more precise description following a verbal adjective in the construct state (GKC 418-19 §128.x). The land is modified by “flowing,” and “flowing” is explained by the genitives “milk and honey.” These two products will be in abundance in the land, and they therefore exemplify what a desirable land it is. The language is hyperbolic, as if the land were streaming with these products.
5 tn Each people group is joined to the preceding by the vav conjunction, “and.” Each also has the definite article, as in other similar lists (3:17; 13:5; 34:11). To repeat the conjunction and article in the translation seems to put more weight on the list in English than is necessary to its function in identifying what land God was giving the Israelites.
6 sn The choice of this verb שָׁרַץ (sharats) recalls its use in the creation account (Gen 1:20). The water would be swarming with frogs in abundance. There is a hint here of this being a creative work of God as well.
7 sn This verse lists places the frogs will go. The first three are for Pharaoh personally – they are going to touch his private life. Then the text mentions the servants and the people. Mention of the ovens and kneading bowls (or troughs) of the people indicates that food would be contaminated and that it would be impossible even to eat a meal in peace.
8 tn Heb “the thing that.”
9 tn The perfect tense could be taken as a definite past with Moses now reporting it. In this case a very recent past. But in declaring the word from Yahweh it could be instantaneous, and receive a present tense translation – “here and now he commands you.”
10 tn The form is the plural imperative: “Gather [you] each man according to his eating.”
11 sn The omer is an amount mentioned only in this chapter, and its size is unknown, except by comparison with the ephah (v. 36). A number of recent English versions approximate the omer as “two quarts” (cf. NCV, CEV, NLT); TEV “two litres.”
12 tn Heb “for a head.”
13 tn The word “number” is an accusative that defines more precisely how much was to be gathered (see GKC 374 §118.h).
14 tn Traditionally “souls.”
15 tn Heb “will take.”
16 tn “lives” has been supplied.
17 tn Literally “now the hands of Moses,” the disjunctive vav (ו) introduces a circumstantial clause here – of time.
18 tn The term used here is the adjective כְּבֵדִים (kÿvedim). It means “heavy,” but in this context the idea is more that of being tired. This is the important word that was used in the plague stories: when the heart of Pharaoh was hard, then the Israelites did not gain their freedom or victory. Likewise here, when the staff was lowered because Moses’ hands were “heavy,” Israel started to lose.
19 tn Heb “from this, one, and from this, one.”
20 tn The word “steady” is אֱמוּנָה (’emuna) from the root אָמַן (’aman). The word usually means “faithfulness.” Here is a good illustration of the basic idea of the word – firm, steady, reliable, dependable. There may be a double entendre here; on the one hand it simply says that his hands were stayed so that Israel might win, but on the other hand it is portraying Moses as steady, firm, reliable, faithful. The point is that whatever God commissioned as the means or agency of power – to Moses a staff, to the Christians the Spirit – the people of God had to know that the victory came from God alone.
21 sn There is some ambiguity here. The clause either means that no man will touch the mountain, so that if there is someone who is to be put to death he must be stoned or shot since they could not go into the mountain region to get him, or, it may mean no one is to touch the culprit who went in to the region of the mountain.
22 tn Heb “a man.”
23 tn The nuance here is permissive imperfect, “they may go up.” The ram’s horn would sound the blast to announce that the revelation period was over and it was permitted then to ascend the mountain.
24 tn “and then” has been supplied.
25 tn The verb is a Hitpael perfect with vav (ו) consecutive; it follows the sequence of the imperfect before it – “if he gets up and walks about.” This is proof of recovery.
26 tn The imperfect tense carries a nuance of obligatory imperfect because this is binding on the one who hit him.
27 tn Heb “his”; the referent (the injured person) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
28 tn The word appears to be the infinitive from the verb “to sit” with a meaning of “his sitting down”; some suggest it is from the verb “to rest” with a meaning “cease.” In either case the point in the context must mean compensation is due for the time he was down.
29 tn The verb is a perfect tense, reflecting the present perfect nuance: “they have turned aside” and are still disobedient. But the verb is modified with the adverb “quickly” (actually a Piel infinitive absolute). It has been only a matter of weeks since they heard the voice of God prohibiting this.
30 tn The verse simply begins “And Yahweh said.” But it is clearly meant to be explanatory for the preceding action of the people.
31 tn The construction is formed with a simple imperfect in the first half and a perfect tense with vav (ו) in the second half. Heb “[in] one moment I will go up in your midst and I will destroy you.” The verse is certainly not intended to say that God was about to destroy them. That, plus the fact that he has announced he will not go in their midst, leads most commentators to take this as a conditional clause: “If I were to do such and such, then….”
32 tn The Hebrew text also has “from on you.”
33 tn The form is the cohortative with a vav (ו) following the imperative; it therefore expresses the purpose or result: “strip off…that I may know.” The call to remove the ornaments must have been perceived as a call to show true repentance for what had happened. If they repented, then God would know how to deal with them.
34 tn This last clause begins with the interrogative “what,” but it is used here as an indirect interrogative. It introduces a noun clause, the object of the verb “know.”
35 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.
36 tn That is, “chosen you.”
