translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: EXO

label: NET translator note

text: The verb is וְיִקְחוּ ( vÿyiqkhu ), the Qal imperfect or jussive with vav ; after the imperative “speak” this verb indicates the purpose or result: “speak…that they may take” and continues with the force of a command.


text: The “offering” ( תְּרוּמָה , tÿrumah ) is perhaps better understood as a contribution since it was a freewill offering. There is some question about the etymology of the word. The traditional meaning of “heave-offering” derives from the idea of “elevation,” a root meaning “to be high” lying behind the word. B. Jacob says it is something sorted out of a mass of material and designated for a higher purpose ( Exodus , 765). S. R. Driver ( Exodus , 263) corrects the idea of “heave-offering” by relating the root to the Hiphil form of that root, herim , “to lift” or “take off.” He suggests the noun means “what is taken off” from a larger mass and so designated for sacred purposes. The LXX has “something taken off.”


text: The verb יִדְּבֶנּוּ ( yiddÿvennu ) is related to the word for the “freewill offering” ( נְדָבָה , nÿdavah ). The verb is used of volunteering for military campaigns ( Judg 5:2, 9 ) and the willing offerings for both the first and second temples (see 1 Chr 29:5, 6, 9, 14, 17 ).


text: The pronoun is plural.


text: The meaning of the word תְּחָשִׁים ( tÿkhashim ) is debated. The Arabic tuhas or duhas is a dolphin, and so some think a sea animal is meant – something like a dolphin or porpoise (cf. NASB; ASV “sealskins”; NIV “hides of sea cows”). Porpoises are common in the Red Sea; their skins are used for clothing by the bedouin. The word has also been connected to an Egyptian word for “leather” ( ths ); see S. R. Driver, Exodus , 265. Some variation of this is followed by NRSV (“fine leather”) and NLT (“fine goatskin leather”). Another suggestion connects this word to an Akkadian one that describes a precious stone that is yellow or ornge and also leather died with the color of this stone (N. M. Sarna, Exodus [JPSTC], 157-58).


text: The verb is a perfect with vav ( ו ) consecutive; it follows in the sequence initiated by the imperative in v. 2 and continues with the force of a command.


text: The word here is מִקְדּשׁ ( miqdash ), “a sanctuary” or “holy place”; cf. NLT “sacred residence.” The purpose of building it is to enable Yahweh to reside ( וְשָׁכַנְתִּי , vÿshakhanti ) in their midst. U. Cassuto reminds the reader that God did not need a place to dwell, but the Israelites needed a dwelling place for him, so that they would look to it and be reminded that he was in their midst ( Exodus , 327).


text: The pronoun is singular.


text: The word “ark” has long been used by English translations to render אָרוֹן (’ aron ), the word used for the wooden “box,” or “chest,” made by Noah in which to escape the flood and by the Israelites to furnish the tabernacle.


text: The size is two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high. The size in feet and inches is estimated on the assumption that the cubit inches (see S. R. Driver, Exodus , 267).


text: The verbs throughout here are perfect tenses with the vav ( ו ) consecutives. They are equal to the imperfect tense of instruction and/or injunction.


text: Here the verb is an imperfect tense; for the perfect sequence to work the verb would have to be at the front of the clause.


text: The word זֵר ( zer ) is used only in Exodus and seems to describe something on the order of a crown molding, an ornamental border running at the top of the chest on all four sides. There is no indication of its appearance or function.


text: The noun is כַּפֹּרֶת ( kapporet ), translated “atonement lid” or “atonement plate.” The traditional translation “mercy-seat” (so KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV) came from Tyndale in 1530 and was also used by Luther in 1523. The noun is formed from the word “to make atonement.” The item that the Israelites should make would be more than just a lid for the ark. It would be the place where atonement was signified. The translation of “covering” is probably incorrect, for it derives from a rare use of the verb, if the same verb at all (the evidence shows “cover” is from another root with the same letters as this). The value of this place was that Yahweh sat enthroned above it, and so the ark essentially was the “footstool.” Blood was applied to the lid of the box, for that was the place of atonement (see S. R. Driver, Exodus , 269-270).


text: After verbs of making or producing, the accusative (like “gold” here) may be used to express the material from which something is made (see GKC 371 §117. hh ).


text: The evidence suggests that the cherubim were composite angelic creatures that always indicated the nearness of God. So here images of them were to be crafted and put on each end of the ark of the covenant to signify that they were there. describes four cherubim as each having human faces, four wings, and parts of different animals for their bodies. Traditions of them appear in the other cultures as well. They serve to guard the holy places and to bear the throne of God. Here they were to be beaten out as part of the lid.


text: The text now shifts to use an imperative with the vav ( ו ) conjunction.


text: The use of זֶה ( zeh ) repeated here expresses the reciprocal ideas of “the one” and “the other” (see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax , 26, §132).


text: The verb means “overshadowing, screening” in the sense of guarding (see 1 Kgs 8:7 ; 1 Chr 28:18 ; see also the account in Gen 3:24 ). The cherubim then signify two things here: by their outstretched wings they form the throne of God who sits above the ark (with the Law under his feet), and by their overshadowing and guarding they signify this as the place of atonement where people must find propitiation to commune with God. Until then they are barred from his presence. See U. Cassuto, Exodus , 330-35.


text: Heb “their faces a man to his brother.”


text: Heb “the faces of the cherubim will be” (“the cherubim” was moved to the preceding clause for smoother English).


text: The verb is placed here in the text: “and I will speak”; it has been moved in this translation to be closer to the direct object clause.


text: “Gold” is an adverbial accusative of material.


text: Heb “give.”


text: Heb “which [are] to four of its feet.”


text: Heb “houses”; NAB, NASB “holders.”


text: The verb is a Niphal perfect with vav consecutive, showing here the intended result: “so that [the table] might be lifted up [by them].” The noun “the table” is introduced by what looks like the sign of the accusative, but here it serves to introduce or emphasize the nominative (see GKC 365 §117. i ).


text: Or “a deep gold dish.” The four nouns in this list are items associated with the table and its use.


text: Or “cups” (NAB, TEV).


text: The expression “for pouring out offerings” represents Hebrew אֲשֶׁר יֻסַּךְ בָּהֵן (’ asher yussakh bahen ). This literally says, “which it may be poured out with them,” or “with which [libations] may be poured out.”


text: The word is מְנֹרָה ( mÿnorah ) – here in construct to a following genitive of material. The main piece was one lampstand, but there were seven lamps on the shaft and its branches. See E. Goodenough, “The Menorah among the Jews of the Roman World,” HUCA 23 (1950/51): 449-92.


text: Heb “will be from/of it”; the referent (“the same piece” of wrought metal) has been specified in the translation for clarity.


text: Heb “from the sides of it.”


text: Heb “from the second side.”


text: The text uses “one” again; “the one…the one” means “the one…and the next” in the distributive sense.


text: Heb “thus.”


text: For clarity the phrase “the first” has been supplied.


text: For clarity the phrase “the next” has been supplied.


text: For clarity the phrase “the third” has been supplied.


text: Heb “will be from it.”


text: The word for “lamps” is from the same root as the lampstand, of course. The word is נֵרוֹת ( nerot ). This probably refers to the small saucer-like pottery lamps that are made very simply with the rim pinched over to form a place to lay the wick. The bowl is then filled with olive oil as fuel.


text: The translation “set up on” is from the Hebrew verb “bring up.” The construction is impersonal, “and he will bring up,” meaning “one will bring up.” It may mean that people were to fix the lamps on to the shaft and the branches, rather than cause the light to go up (see S. R. Driver, Exodus , 277).


text: This is a Hiphil perfect with vav consecutive, from אוֹר (’ or , “light”), and in the causative, “to light, give light.”


text: “are to be” has been supplied.


text: Heb “a talent.”


text: The text has “he will make it” or “one will make it.” With no expressed subject it is given a passive translation.


text: The text uses two imperatives: “see and make.” This can be interpreted as a verbal hendiadys, calling for Moses and Israel to see to it that they make these things correctly.


text: The participle is passive, “caused to see,” or, “shown.”