Discovery BoxExodus 4:15 
Context4:15 “So you are to speak to him and put the words in his mouth. And as for me, I will be with your mouth 1 and with his mouth, 2 and I will teach you both 3 what you must do. 4
Exodus 7:15
Context7:15 Go to Pharaoh in the morning when 5 he goes out to the water. Position yourself 6 to meet him by the edge of the Nile, 7 and take 8 in your hand the staff 9 that was turned into a snake.
Exodus 23:33
Context23:33 They must not live in your land, lest they make you sin against me, for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare 10 to you.”
1 tn Or “I will help you speak.” The independent pronoun puts emphasis (“as for me”) on the subject (“I”).
2 tn Or “and will help him speak.”
3 tn The word “both” is supplied to convey that this object (“you”) and the subject of the next verb (“you must do”) are plural in the Hebrew text, referring to Moses and Aaron. In 4:16 “you” returns to being singular in reference to Moses.
4 tn The imperfect tense carries the obligatory nuance here as well. The relative pronoun with this verb forms a noun clause functioning as the direct object of “I will teach.”
5 tn The clause begins with הִנֵּה (hinneh); here it provides the circumstances for the instruction for Moses – he is going out to the water so go meet him. A temporal clause translation captures the connection between the clauses.
6 tn The instruction to Moses continues with this perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive following the imperative. The verb means “to take a stand, station oneself.” It seems that Pharaoh’s going out to the water was a regular feature of his day and that Moses could be there waiting to meet him.
7 sn The Nile, the source of fertility for the country, was deified by the Egyptians. There were religious festivals held to the god of the Nile, especially when the Nile was flooding. The Talmud suggests that Pharaoh in this passage went out to the Nile to make observations as a magician about its level. Others suggest he went out simply to bathe or to check the water level – but that would not change the view of the Nile that was prevalent in the land.
8 tn The verb תִּקַּח (tiqqakh), the Qal imperfect of לָקַח (laqakh), functions here as the imperfect of instruction, or injunction perhaps, given the word order of the clause.
9 tn The final clause begins with the noun and vav disjunctive, which singles this instruction out for special attention – “now the staff…you are to take.”
10 tn The idea of the “snare” is to lure them to judgment; God is apparently warning about contact with the Canaanites, either in worship or in business. They were very syncretistic, and so it would be dangerous to settle among them.
