Discovery BoxExodus 6:25 
Context6:25 Now Eleazar son of Aaron married one of the daughters of Putiel and she bore him Phinehas.
These are the heads of the fathers’ households 1 of Levi according to their clans.
Exodus 10:1
Context10:1 2 The Lord said 3 to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, in order to display 4 these signs of mine before him, 5
Exodus 11:8
Context11:8 All these your servants will come down to me and bow down 6 to me, saying, ‘Go, you and all the people who follow 7 you,’ and after that I will go out.” Then Moses 8 went out from Pharaoh in great anger.
Exodus 18:18
Context18:18 You will surely wear out, 9 both you and these people who are with you, for this is too 10 heavy a burden 11 for you; you are not able to do it by yourself.
Exodus 24:8
Context24:8 So Moses took the blood and splashed it on 12 the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant 13 that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”
Exodus 29:24
Context29:24 You are to put all these 14 in Aaron’s hands 15 and in his sons’ hands, and you are to wave them as a wave offering 16 before the Lord.
Exodus 32:4
Context32:4 He accepted the gold 17 from them, 18 fashioned 19 it with an engraving tool, and made a molten calf. 20 Then they said, “These are your gods, 21 O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”
1 tn Heb “heads of the fathers” is taken as an abbreviation for the description of “households” in v. 14.
2 sn The Egyptians dreaded locusts like every other ancient civilization. They had particular gods to whom they looked for help in such catastrophes. The locust-scaring deities of Greece and Asia were probably looked to in Egypt as well (especially in view of the origins in Egypt of so many of those religious ideas). The announcement of the plague falls into the now-familiar pattern. God tells Moses to go and speak to Pharaoh but reminds Moses that he has hardened his heart. Yahweh explains that he has done this so that he might show his power, so that in turn they might declare his name from generation to generation. This point is stressed so often that it must not be minimized. God was laying the foundation of the faith for Israel – the sovereignty of Yahweh.
3 tn Heb “and Yahweh said.”
4 tn The verb is שִׁתִי (shiti, “I have put”); it is used here as a synonym for the verb שִׂים (sim). Yahweh placed the signs in his midst, where they will be obvious.
5 tn Heb “in his midst.”
6 sn Moses’ anger is expressed forcefully. “He had appeared before Pharaoh a dozen times either as God’s emissary or when summoned by Pharaoh, but he would not come again; now they would have to search him out if they needed help” (B. Jacob, Exodus, 289-90).
7 tn Heb “that are at your feet.”
8 tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
9 tn The verb means “to fall and fade” as a leaf (Ps 1:3). In Ps 18:45 it is used figuratively of foes fading away, failing in strength and courage (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 166). Here the infinitive absolute construction heightens the meaning.
10 tn Gesenius lists the specialized use of the comparative min (מ) where with an adjective the thought expressed is that the quality is too difficult for the attainment of a particular aim (GKC 430 §133.c).
11 tn Here “a burden” has been supplied.
12 tn Given the size of the congregation, the preposition might be rendered here “toward the people” rather than on them (all).
13 sn The construct relationship “the blood of the covenant” means “the blood by which the covenant is ratified” (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 254). The parallel with the inauguration of the new covenant in the blood of Christ is striking (see, e.g., Matt 26:28, 1 Cor 11:25). When Jesus was inaugurating the new covenant, he was bringing to an end the old.
14 tn Heb “the whole” or “the all.”
15 tn Heb “palms.”
16 tn The “wave offering” is תְּנוּפָה (tÿnufah); it is, of course, cognate with the verb, but an adverbial accusative rather than the direct object. In Lev 23 this seems to be a sacrificial gesture of things that are for the priests – but they present them first to Yahweh and then receive them back from him. So the waving is not side to side, but forward to Yahweh and then back to the priest. Here it is just an induction into that routine, since this is the ordination of the priests and the gifts are not yet theirs. So this will all be burned on the altar.
17 tn Here “the gold” has been supplied.
18 tn Heb “from their hand.”
19 tn The verb looks similar to יָצַר (yatsar), “to form, fashion” by a plan or a design. That is the verb used in Gen 2:7 for Yahweh God forming the man from the dust of the ground. If it is here, it is the reverse, a human – the dust of the ground – trying to form a god or gods. The active participle of this verb in Hebrew is “the potter.” A related noun is the word יֵצֶּר (yetser), “evil inclination,” the wicked designs or intent of the human heart (Gen 6:5). But see the discussion by B. S. Childs (Exodus [OTL], 555-56) on a different reading, one that links the root to a hollow verb meaning “to cast out of metal” (as in 1 Kgs 7:15).
20 sn The word means a “young bull” and need not be translated as “calf” (although “calf” has become the traditional rendering in English). The word could describe an animal three years old. Aaron probably made an inner structure of wood and then, after melting down the gold, plated it. The verb “molten” does not need to imply that the image was solid gold; the word is used in Isa 30:22 for gold plating. So it was a young bull calf that was overlaid with gold, and the gold was fashioned with the stylus.
21 tn The word could be singular here and earlier; here it would then be “this is your god, O Israel.” However, the use of “these” indicates more than one god was meant by the image. But their statement and their statue, although they do not use the holy name, violate the first two commandments.
