translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: EXO

label: NET translator note

text: The object “them” is implied in the context.


text: עוֹד (’ od ), an adverb meaning “yet, still,” can be inflected with suffixes and used as a predicator of existence, with the nuance “to still be, yet be” (T. O. Lambdin, Introduction to Biblical Hebrew , 171-72, §137). Then, it is joined here with the Hiphil participle מַחֲזִיק ( makhaziq ) to form the sentence “you are still holding them.”


text: The form used here is הוֹיָה ( hoyah ), the Qal active participle, feminine singular, from the verb “to be.” This is the only place in the OT that this form occurs. Ogden shows that this form is appropriate with the particle הִנֵּה ( hinneh ) to stress impending divine action, and that it conforms to the pattern in these narratives where five times the participle is used in the threat to Pharaoh ( 7:17; 8:2; 9:3, 14; 10:4 ). See G. S. Ogden, “Notes on the Use of הויה in Exodus IX. 3,” VT 17 (1967): 483-84.


text: The word דֶּבֶר ( dever ) is usually translated “pestilence” when it applies to diseases for humans. It is used only here and in Ps 78:50 for animals.


text: The verb פָּלָה ( palah ) in Hiphil means “to set apart, make separate, make distinct.” See also Exod 8:22 (18 HT); 11:7; 33:16 .


text: There is a wordplay in this section. A pestilence – דֶּבֶר ( dever ) – will fall on Egypt’s cattle, but no thing – דָּבָר ( davar ) – belonging to Israel would die. It was perhaps for this reason that the verb was changed in v. 1 from “say” to “speak” ( דִּבֶּר , dibber ). See U. Cassuto, Exodus , 111.


text: The lamed preposition indicates possession: “all that was to the Israelites” means “all that the Israelites had.”


text: Heb “and Yahweh set.”


text: Heb “this thing.”


text: Heb “on the morrow.”


text: The word “all” clearly does not mean “all” in the exclusive sense, because subsequent plagues involve cattle. The word must denote such a large number that whatever was left was insignificant for the economy. It could also be taken to mean “all [kinds of] livestock died.”


text: Heb “of Egypt.” The place is put by metonymy for the inhabitants.


text: Heb “Pharaoh sent.” The phrase “representatives to investigate” is implied in the context.


text: 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.


text: This word פִּיחַ ( piakh ) is a hapax legomenon , meaning “soot”; it seems to be derived from the verb פּוּחַ ( puakh , “to breathe, blow”). The “furnace” ( כִּבְשָׁן , kivshan ) was a special kiln for making pottery or bricks.


text: The verb זָרַק ( zaraq ) means “to throw vigorously, to toss.” If Moses tosses the soot into the air, it will symbolize that the disease is falling from heaven.


text: Heb “before the eyes of Pharaoh.”


text: The word שְׁחִין ( shÿkhin ) means “boils.” It may be connected to an Arabic cognate that means “to be hot.” The illness is associated with Job ( Job 2:7-8 ) and Hezekiah ( Isa 38:21 ); it has also been connected with other skin diseases described especially in the Law. The word connected with it is אֲבַעְבֻּעֹת (’ ava ’ bu ’ ot ); this means “blisters, pustules” and is sometimes translated as “festering.” The etymology is debated, whether from a word meaning “to swell up” or “to overflow” (W. C. Kaiser, Jr., “Exodus,” EBC 2:359).


text: This phrase translates the Hebrew word חָזַק ( khazaq ); see S. R. Driver, Exodus , 53.


text: Heb “and Yahweh said.”


text: The expression “all my plagues” points to the rest of the plagues and anticipates the proper outcome. Another view is to take the expression to mean the full brunt of the attack on the Egyptian people.


text: Heb “to your heart.” The expression is unusual, but it may be an allusion to the hard heartedness of Pharaoh – his stubbornness and blindness (B. Jacob, Exodus , 274).


text: The verb is the Qal perfect שָׁלַחְתִּי ( shalakhti ), but a past tense, or completed action translation does not fit the context at all. Gesenius lists this reference as an example of the use of the perfect to express actions and facts, whose accomplishment is to be represented not as actual but only as possible. He offers this for Exod 9:15 : “I had almost put forth” (GKC 313 §106. p ). Also possible is “I should have stretched out my hand.” Others read the potential nuance instead, and render it as “I could have…” as in the present translation.


text: The verb כָּחַד ( kakhad ) means “to hide, efface,” and in the Niphal it has the idea of “be effaced, ruined, destroyed.” Here it will carry the nuance of the result of the preceding verbs: “I could have stretched out my hand…and struck you…and (as a result) you would have been destroyed.”


text: The first word is a very strong adversative, which, in general, can be translated “but, howbeit”; BDB 19 s.v. אוּלָם suggests for this passage “but in very deed.”


text: The form הֶעֱמַדְתִּיךָ ( he ’ emadtikha ) is the Hiphil perfect of עָמַד (’ amad ). It would normally mean “I caused you to stand.” But that seems to have one or two different connotations. S. R. Driver ( Exodus , 73) says that it means “maintain you alive.” The causative of this verb means “continue,” according to him. The LXX has the same basic sense – “you were preserved.” But Paul bypasses the Greek and writes “he raised you up” to show God’s absolute sovereignty over Pharaoh. Both renderings show God’s sovereign control over Pharaoh.


text: The Hiphil infinitive construct הַרְאֹתְךָ ( har ’ otÿkha ) is the purpose of God’s making Pharaoh come to power in the first place. To make Pharaoh see is to cause him to understand, to experience God’s power.


text: Heb “in order to declare my name.” Since there is no expressed subject, this may be given a passive translation.


text: מִסְתּוֹלֵל ( mistolel ) is a Hitpael participle, from a root that means “raise up, obstruct.” So in the Hitpael it means to “raise oneself up,” “elevate oneself,” or “be an obstructionist.” See W. C. Kaiser, Jr., “Exodus,” EBC 2:363; U. Cassuto, Exodus , 116.


text: The infinitive construct with lamed here is epexegetical; it explains how Pharaoh has exalted himself – “by not releasing the people.”


text: הִנְנִי מַמְטִיר ( hinÿni mamtir ) is the futur instans construction, giving an imminent future translation: “Here – I am about to cause it to rain.”


text: Heb “which not was like it in Egypt.” The pronoun suffix serves as the resumptive pronoun for the relative particle: “which…like it” becomes “the like of which has not been.” The word “hail” is added in the translation to make clear the referent of the relative particle.


text: The form הִוָּסְדָה ( hivvasdah ) is perhaps a rare Niphal perfect and not an infinitive (U. Cassuto, Exodus , 117).


text: The object “instructions” is implied in the context.


text: הָעֵז ( ha ’ ez ) is the Hiphil imperative from עוּז (’ uz , “to bring into safety” or “to secure”). Although there is no vav ( ו ) linking the two imperatives, the second could be subordinated by virtue of the meanings. “Send to bring to safety.”


text: Heb “man, human.”


text: Heb “[who] may be found.” The verb can be the imperfect of possibility.


text: The text has “the one fearing.” The singular expression here and throughout vv. 20-21 refers to all who fit the description.


text: The Hebrew text again has the singular.


text: Heb “put to his heart.”


text: Or “the heavens” (also in the following verse). The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם ( shamayim ) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.


text: The jussive with the conjunction ( וִיהִי , vihi ) coming after the imperative provides the purpose or result.


text: Heb “on man and on beast.”


text: The noun refers primarily to cultivated grains. But here it seems to be the general heading for anything that grows from the ground, all vegetation and plant life, as opposed to what grows on trees.


text: The preterite with the vav ( ו ) consecutive is here subordinated to the next clause in view of the emphasis put on the subject, Yahweh, by the disjunctive word order of that clause.


text: By starting the clause with the subject (an example of disjunctive word order) the text is certainly stressing that Yahweh alone did this.


text: The expression נָתַן קֹלֹת ( natan qolot ) literally means “gave voices” (also “voice”). This is a poetic expression for sending the thunder. Ps 29:3 talks about the “voice of Yahweh” – the God of glory thunders!


text: The verb is the common preterite וַיְהִי ( vayÿhi ), which is normally translated “and there was” if it is translated at all. The verb הָיָה ( hayah ), however, can mean “be, become, befall, fall, fall out, happen.” Here it could be simply translated “there was hail,” but the active “hail fell” fits the point of the sequence better.


text: The form מִתְלַקַּחַת ( mitlaqqakhat ) is a Hitpael participle; the clause reads, “and fire taking hold of itself in the midst of the hail.” This probably refers to lightning flashing back and forth. See also Ezek 1:4 . God created a great storm with flashing fire connected to it.


text: Heb “very heavy” or “very severe.” The subject “the hail” is implied.


text: A literal reading of the clause would be “which there was not like it in all the land of Egypt.” The relative pronoun must be joined to the resumptive pronoun: “which like it (like which) there had not been.”


text: The exact expression is “from man even to beast.” R. J. Williams lists this as an example of the inclusive use of the preposition מִן ( min ) to be rendered “both…and” ( Hebrew Syntax , 57, §327).


text: Heb “all the cultivated grain of.”


text: The word רָשָׁע ( rasha ’) can mean “ungodly, wicked, guilty, criminal.” Pharaoh here is saying that Yahweh is right, and the Egyptians are not – so they are at fault, guilty. S. R. Driver says the words are used in their forensic sense (in the right or wrong standing legally) and not in the ethical sense of morally right and wrong ( Exodus , 75).


text: The expression וְרַב מִהְיֹת ( vÿrav mihyot , “[the mighty thunder and hail] is much from being”) means essentially “more than enough.” This indicates that the storm was too much, or, as one might say, “It is enough.”


text: The last clause uses a verbal hendiadys: “you will not add to stand,” meaning “you will no longer stay.”


text: כְּצֵאתִי ( kÿtse ’ ti ) is the Qal infinitive construct of יָצָא ( yatsa ’); it functions here as the temporal clause before the statement about prayer. sn There has been a good deal of speculation about why Moses would leave the city before praying. Rashi said he did not want to pray where there were so many idols. It may also be as the midrash in Exodus Rabbah 12:5 says that most of the devastation of this plague had been outside in the fields, and that was where Moses wished to go.


text: The verse begins with the disjunctive vav to mark a strong contrastive clause to what was said before this.


text: The adverb טֶרֶם ( terem , “before, not yet”) occurs with the imperfect tense to give the sense of the English present tense to the verb negated by it (GKC 314-15 §107. c ). Moses is saying that he knew that Pharaoh did not really stand in awe of God, so as to grant Israel’s release, i.e., fear not in the religious sense but “be afraid of” God – fear “before” him (S. R. Driver, Exodus , 76).


text: A disjunctive vav introduces the two verses that provide parenthetical information to the reader. Gesenius notes that the boldness of such clauses is often indicated by the repetition of nouns at the beginning (see GKC 452 §141. d ). Some have concluded that because they have been put here rather than back after v. 25 or 26, they form part of Moses’ speech to Pharaoh, explaining that the crops that were necessary for humans were spared, but those for other things were destroyed. This would also mean that Moses was saying there is more that God can destroy (see B. Jacob, Exodus , 279).


text: The unusual forms נֻכָּתָה ( nukkatah ) in v. 31 and נֻכּוּ ( nukku ) in v. 32 are probably to be taken as old Qal passives. There are no attested Piel uses of the root.


text: The words “by the hail” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied from context.


text: Heb “was in the ear” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); NIV “had headed.”


text: The word כֻּסֶּמֶת ( kussemet ) is translated “spelt”; the word occurs only here and in Isa 28:25 and Ezek 4:9 . Spelt is a grain closely allied to wheat. Other suggestions have been brought forward from the study of Egyptian crops (see a brief summary in W. C. Kaiser, Jr., “Exodus,” EBC 2:363-64).


text: Heb “for they are late.”


text: The clause beginning with the preterite and vav ( ו ) consecutive is here subordinated to the next, and main clause – that he hardened his heart again.


text: The construction is another verbal hendiadys: וַיֹּסֶף לַחֲטֹּא ( vayyosef lakhatto ’), literally rendered “and he added to sin.” The infinitive construct becomes the main verb, and the Hiphil preterite becomes adverbial. The text is clearly interpreting as sin the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart and his refusal to release Israel. At the least this means that the plagues are his fault, but the expression probably means more than this – he was disobeying Yahweh God.


text: This phrase translates the Hebrew word כָּבֵד ( kaved ); see S. R. Driver, Exodus , 53.


text: The verb about Pharaoh’s heart in v. 35 is וַיֶּחֱזַק ( vayyekhezaq ), a Qal preterite: “and it was hardened” or “strengthened to resist.” This forms the summary statement of this stage in the drama. The verb used in v. 34 to report Pharaoh’s response was וַיַּכְבֵּד ( vayyakhbed ), a Hiphil preterite: “and he hardened [his heart]” or made it stubborn. The use of two descriptions of Pharaoh’s heart in close succession, along with mention of his servants’ heart condition, underscores the growing extent of the problem.