Discovery BoxExodus 4:9 
Context4:9 And if 1 they do not believe even these two signs or listen to you, 2 then take 3 some water from the Nile and pour it out on the dry ground. The water you take out of the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.” 4
Exodus 19:9
Context19:9 The Lord said to Moses, “I am going to come 5 to you in a dense cloud, 6 so that the people may hear when I speak with you and so that they will always believe in you.” 7 And Moses told the words of the people to the Lord.
1 tn Heb “and it will be if.”
2 tn Heb “listen to your voice.”
3 tn The verb form is the perfect tense with the vav (ו) consecutive; it functions then as the equivalent of the imperfect tense – here as an imperfect of instruction.
4 sn This is a powerful sign, for the Nile was always known as the source of life in Egypt, but now it will become the evidence of death. So the three signs were alike, each consisting of life and death. They would clearly anticipate the struggle with Egypt through the plagues. The point is clear that in the face of the possibility that people might not believe, the servants of God must offer clear proof of the power of God as they deliver the message of God. The rest is up to God.
5 tn The construction uses the deictic particle and the participle to express the imminent future, what God was about to do. Here is the first announcement of the theophany.
6 tn Heb “the thickness of the cloud”; KJV, ASV, NASB, NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT “in a thick cloud.”
7 tn Since “and also in you” begins the clause, the emphasis must be that the people would also trust Moses. See Exod 4:1-9, 31; 14:31.
