Exodus 3:9

And now indeed ¹  the cry ²  of the Israelites has come to me, and I have also seen how severely the Egyptians oppress them. ³ 

Ex 1:11,13,14,22; Ex 2:23; Ex 3:7; Ps 12:5; Pr 22:22,23; Ec 4:1; Ec 5:8; Jer 50:33,34; Am 4:1; Mic 2:1-3

¹ tn The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) focuses attention on what is being said as grounds for what follows.

² tn The word is a technical term for the outcry one might make to a judge. God had seen the oppression and so knew that the complaints were accurate, and so he initiated the proceedings against the oppressors (B. Jacob, Exodus, 59).

³ tn Heb “seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.” The word for the oppression is now לַחַץ (lakhats), which has the idea of pressure with the oppression – squeezing, pressuring – which led to its later use in the Semitic languages for torture. The repetition in the Hebrew text of the root in the participle form after this noun serves to stress the idea. This emphasis has been represented in the translation by the expression “seen how severely the Egyptians oppress them.”