Discovery BoxExodus 9:7 
Context9:7 Pharaoh sent representatives to investigate, 1 and indeed, not even one of the livestock of Israel had died. But Pharaoh’s heart remained hard, 2 and he did not release the people.
Exodus 20:17
Context20:17 “You shall not covet 3 your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that belongs to your neighbor.” 4
Exodus 20:20
Context20:20 Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, 5 that the fear of him 6 may be before you so that you do not 7 sin.”
Exodus 22:11
Context22:11 then there will be an oath to the Lord 8 between the two of them, that he has not laid his hand on his neighbor’s goods, and its owner will accept this, and he will not have to pay.
Exodus 23:24
Context23:24 “You must not bow down to their gods; you must not serve them or do according to their practices. Instead you must completely overthrow them and smash their standing stones 9 to pieces. 10
Exodus 30:15
Context30:15 The rich are not to increase it, 11 and the poor are not to pay less than the half shekel when giving 12 the offering of the Lord, to make atonement 13 for your lives.
Exodus 30:32
Context30:32 It must not be applied 14 to people’s bodies, and you must not make any like it with the same recipe. It is holy, and it must be holy to you.
Exodus 34:3
Context34:3 No one is to come up with you; do not let anyone be seen anywhere on the mountain; not even the flocks or the herds may graze in front of that mountain.”
Exodus 34:28
Context34:28 So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; 15 he did not eat bread, and he did not drink water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments. 16
1 tn Heb “Pharaoh sent.” The phrase “representatives to investigate” is implied in the context.
2 tn Heb “and the heart of Pharaoh was hardened.” This phrase translates the Hebrew word כָּבֵד (kaved; see S. R. Driver, Exodus, 53). In context this represents the continuation of a prior condition.
3 tn The verb חָמַד (khamad) focuses not on an external act but on an internal mental activity behind the act, the motivation for it. The word can be used in a very good sense (Ps 19:10; 68:16), but it has a bad connotation in contexts where the object desired is off limits. This command is aimed at curtailing the greedy desire for something belonging to a neighbor, a desire that leads to the taking of it or the attempt to take it. It was used in the story of the Garden of Eden for the tree that was desired.
4 sn See further G. Wittenburg, “The Tenth Commandment in the Old Testament,” Journal for Theology in South Africa 21 (1978): 3-17: and E. W. Nicholson, “The Decalogue as the Direct Address of God,” VT 27 (1977): 422-33.
5 tn נַסּוֹת (nassot) is the Piel infinitive construct; it forms the purpose of God’s coming with all the accompanying phenomena. The verb can mean “to try, test, prove.” The sense of “prove” fits this context best because the terrifying phenomena were intended to put the fear of God in their hearts so that they would obey. In other words, God was inspiring them to obey, not simply testing to see if they would.
6 tn The suffix on the noun is an objective genitive, referring to the fear that the people would have of God (GKC 439 §135.m).
7 tn The negative form לְבִלְתִּי (lÿvilti) is used here with the imperfect tense (see for other examples GKC 483 §152.x). This gives the imperfect the nuance of a final imperfect: that you might not sin. Others: to keep you from sin.
8 tn The construct relationship שְׁבֻעַת יְהוָה (shÿvu’at yÿhvah, “the oath of Yahweh”) would require a genitive of indirect object, “an oath [to] Yahweh.” U. Cassuto suggests that it means “an oath by Yahweh” (Exodus, 287). The person to whom the animal was entrusted would take a solemn oath to Yahweh that he did not appropriate the animal for himself, and then his word would be accepted.
9 tn The Hebrew is מַצֵּבֹתֵיהֶם (matsevotehem, “their standing stones”); these long stones were erected to represent the abode of the numen or deity. They were usually set up near the altar or the high place. To destroy these would be to destroy the centers of Canaanite worship in the land.
10 tn Both verbs are joined with their infinitive absolutes to provide the strongest sense to these instructions. The images of the false gods in Canaan were to be completely and utterly destroyed. This could not be said any more strongly.
11 tn Or “pay more.”
12 tn The form is לָתֵת (latet), the Qal infinitive construct with the lamed preposition. The infinitive here is explaining the preceding verbs. They are not to increase or diminish the amount “in paying the offering.” The construction approximates a temporal clause.
13 tn This infinitive construct (לְכַפֵּר, lÿkhapper) provides the purpose of the giving the offering – to atone.
14 tn Without an expressed subject, the verb may be treated as a passive. Any common use, as in personal hygiene, would be a complete desecration.
15 tn These too are adverbial in relation to the main clause, telling how long Moses was with Yahweh on the mountain.
16 tn Heb “the ten words,” though “commandments” is traditional.
