⁴ tn Heb “for a memorial.”

¹ tn Heb “for their memory is forgotten.” The pronominal suffix is an objective genitive, “memory of them.”

² tn The expression “will be for a memorial” means “will become a memorial.”

¹ tn Heb “for an eternal memorial a just [one] will be.”

² tn Heb “a memorial he had made for his amazing deeds.”

⁵ tn Heb “name.” Here the “name” is figurative for the memory of those who bear it.

¹ tn Heb “outside.” Cf. ESV, “in the street,” referring to absence from his community’s memory.

¹ sn “Memory” (זֵכֶר, zekher) and “name” are often paired as synonyms. “Memory” in this sense has to do with reputation, fame. One’s reputation will be good or bad by righteousness or wickedness respectively.

³ sn To say the wicked’s name will rot means that the name will be obliterated from memory (Exod 17:14; Deut 25:19), leaving only a bad memory for a while.

¹ tn Heb “[is] his memorial name” (so ASV); cf. TEV “the name by which he is to be worshipped.”

² tn Heb “but you do not guard [i.e., retain in your memory]”; NIV “but have paid no attention.”

⁵ tn Heb “and he shall offer up in smoke [on] the altar a soothing aroma, its memorial portion, to the Lord.”

⁵ sn This would seem to be defeated by the preceding statement that the events would be written in a book for a memorial. If this war is recorded, then the Amalekites would be remembered. But here God was going to wipe out the memory of them. But the idea of removing the memory of a people is an idiom for destroying them—they will have no posterity and no lasting heritage.

² tn Heb “their memory.” The plural pronominal suffix probably refers back to the children mentioned in v. 13, and for clarity this has been specified in the translation.

¹ tn Heb “the face of the Lord [is] against the doers of evil to cut off from the earth memory of them.”

¹ tn The verb is זָכַר (zakhar, “to remember”). Here it has the sense of “to keep in memory; to meditate; to think upon.”

⁴ tn The final verbal form, מַזְכֶּרֶת (mazkeret), explains what the memorial was all about—it was causing iniquity to be remembered.

¹ sn As with all who complain in such situations, their memory was selective. It was their bitter cries to the Lord from the suffering in bondage that God heard and answered. And now, shortly after being set free, their memory of Egypt is for things they do not now have. It is also somewhat unlikely that they as slaves had such abundant foods in Egypt.

⁵ sn The language used in the expression gone up as a memorial before God parallels what one would say of acceptable sacrifices (Ps 141:2; Sir 35:6; 50:16).

¹ tn The precise referent of זִכָּרוֹן (zikkaron) in this context is uncertain. Elsewhere the word refers to a memorial or commemorative sign. Here it likely refers to some type of idolatrous symbol.