Hot answers tagged exodus
14
Sticking just to the text:
In the earlier passage, God commanded Moshe to strike the rock and he obeyed. In the present passage, God commanded Moshe to speak and he struck instead. (It's been 39 years, so "that's what we did last time" probably doesn't apply.)
Why is this a problem? Look at what Moshe said:
shall we bring water for you out of this ...
9
Tractate Sanhedrin, chapter 6, fourth mishna states:
MISHNA IV.: The stoning-place was two heights of a man. One of the witnesses pushed him on his thighs (that he should fall with the back to the surface), but if he fell face down, he had to be turned over. If he died from the effects of the first fall, nothing more was to be done. If not, the second ...
8
I believe your first option is the best but with a little modification. Moses originally had an Egyptian name that sounded almost exactly like a Hebrew name.
The pun involved in the name is elaborate and crosses languages. Names like Tutmose, Ramose, Amenmose are well attested from Egypt. The addition of -mose makes it "born of Amen," "child of Tut," or ...
8
As Frank Luke points out, the Hebrew word "kinah" (קנאה) as in "El kanna" in Exodus 20:5 (אל קנא) in both in OT Hebrew and in modern, is both jealous and zealous at the same time, and can have either positive or negative moral value depending on the subtext.
The name "Cain" in the story of Creation apparently comes from the same root, meaning someone who ...
7
Gesenius in his Hebrew Grammar (Kautzsch/Cowley edition, commonly GKC) spends several pages on "Agreement between Members of a Sentence, especially between Subject and Predicate in respect of Gender and Number." He gives many examples of when the number of the verb and the noun disagree. This is section 145 of the book. In my edition, this is page ...
5
See the Encyclopedia Judaica on taḥash for the earliest ancient translations—"blue", "purple", "violet" (Volume 19, page 435), and the reference links at Wikipedia's tachash article (e.g. Living Torah on Exodus 25:5 footnotes "blue-processed" citing ancient sources; and Natan Slifkin's Sacred Monsters on "The Tachash" also citing the ancients "leather ...
5
Thesis
The Mosaic law for a woman suffering the violent end of her pregnancy covers an exception to the "eye for an eye" principle. This law was not able, nor did it claim, to restore circumstances to their prior state. Rather, it was intended to provide a measure of justice and deterrence.
To requote a more modern translation with a bit more context:
...
5
The confusion comes in part from imperfect translation. The commandment, in both Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5, reads as follows:
לֹא-תַעֲשֶׂה לְךָ פֶסֶל, וְכָל-תְּמוּנָה, אֲשֶׁר בַּשָּׁמַיִם מִמַּעַל, וַאֲשֶׁר בָּאָרֶץ מִתָּחַת--וַאֲשֶׁר בַּמַּיִם, מִתַּחַת לָאָרֶץ.
Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any manner of likeness, of any ...
4
The Hebrew word is qanna. The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament has a fairly long entry on it. The word can be used positively or negatively. They suggest "zeal" to be a better translation of the word as it has the same negative or positive aspects. If one is zealous for another's property, this is envy and a sin. However, if one is zealous of ...
4
The text just says "make" (in the Hebrew too) and this does not imply overlaying some other material, but the text provides an interesting hint.
Ex. 30:1-5 is the command, as quoted in the question. The actual construction is described in 37:25-27, where the same language is used:
25 And he made the altar of incense of acacia-wood [...] 27 And he made ...
4
I believe the OP is referring to the pomegranates that form the hem of the me'il [robe] of the Kohen Gadhol [high priest]. See Exodus 28:33-34 and 39:24-26.
My understanding of these verses is the simplest, contextual meaning of what they looked like would be tassels: the blue, purple, and crimson threads that form the robe gathered and tied together. A ...
4
My sense is that the Hebrew here is poetic and ambiguous. However, I think the verse should not be understood as referring to the time period in Egypt before the Exodus. Instead, the verse references God taking his people out of Egypt and the forty years spent in the desert/wilderness prior to their entrance into the land of Israel.
Hosea 13:4-5 is similar ...
3
I can't answer why New JPS did that, but here's a breakdown of the Hebrew.
כִּי נַעַר יִשְׂרָאֵל
When (or as) a child [was] Yisrael (verb is implied)
וָאֹהֲבֵהוּ
and I loved him
וּמִמִּצְרַיִם
and from Mitzrayim (Egypt)
קָרָאתִי לִבְנִי
I called to my son.
The word "and I loved him" is the same root as Deut 6:5, "and you shall love ...
3
Most excellent question.
Although כִּי (ki) more often possesses the sense of "because, since" (see Gesenius, p. 458, §2a), there are some instances where it possesses the sense of "although" (see Gesenius, p. 461, §4 (just above §5)).
It seems that context will have to determine the appropriate translation.
In Exo. 33:2-3, YHVH informs Moshe,
"And I ...
3
When the Israelites entered the Promised Land the Amalekites had “tripped them up.” That is, they attacked the Israelites at their weak spot, or at their hindermost part or "tail," which was comprised of those who had lagged behind (Deut 25:17).
The Hebrew word for the hindermost part of the body is עָקֵב, which is used in the Hebrew Bible to refer to the ...
3
In the Jewish understanding, every negative commandment of the Torah (the Five Books of Moses, i.e. Genesis through Deuteronomy) consists of two parts, a notice of what a violation would encompass, and a second mention to indicate the punishment. If you have additional references to a command, they must be teaching something else. See Introduction to ...
3
It is not plain to me that ehyeh and Yahweh are related at all.The footnote in the NIV says something like "the two words sound the same and can be derived from each other", which always struck me as a rather dishonest comment. They certainly don't sound alike, regardless of the vocalization you choose for the tetragrammaton, and it is far from obvious what ...
3
The verb נֹודַעְתִּי (noda'ti) is exceptionally rare. It is conjugated in binyan Nif'il, 1st person, singular number. It only occurs twice in scripture, the other instance being in Eze. 20:9 which actually has a similar context.
In Eze. 20:9, it is written,
And I did for the sake of My name, in order to prevent it from being dishonored in the eyes of ...
3
(This answer is from a Christian perspective.)
Since this question deals with the significance of the imagery, it is helpful to look at other places in Scripture that use similar imagery.
1) 1 Kings 18:30-32 recounts a time when Elijah rebuilt one of these altars after it had been torn down:
Then Elijah said to all the people, “Now come to me.” So ...
3
If their gold casting techniques had not changed from the time they left Mt. Sinai, then the gold was not pure.
Ex 32:4 And he received [them] at their hand, and fashioned it with a
graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These
[be] thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of
Egypt.
Ex 32:20 And he ...
3
The Hebrew word קוֹל (kol) can be translated as both "voice" and "thunder." The word basically means "sound." While one may wonder at the notion of seeing voices, isn't seeing thunders/ thunderings just as peculiar? We tend to hear both, not see them. So, I'd chalk it up to translator preference/ bias. Considering the context, with הַלַּפִּידִם (which the AV ...
3
The three festivals (Pesach, Shavuot, Sukkot) were times when everybody was commanded to assemble in Jerusalem. They were celebrated with festive meals, including some of the meat that had been offered on the altar. (These offerings are listed throughout Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers.) The rabbis of the talmud understood that Shabbat should also include ...
2
I do not usually post answers I am not fully confident in, but in this case I do not foresee that I will become fully confident, so I will post anyway.
The truth is this verse is fraught with trouble. Much of traditional Rabbinic interpretation seems to be confirmed in the LXX translation, although even with the LXX the traditional Christian view can be ...
2
What Moses did wrong is exactly what the Hebrews did wrong when they sent the spies and they believed the pesimistic report given by the spies. In both cases, G-d told them that they could do something that in any other circumstance would be considered a miracle . . . and they didn't believe Him.
Consider these facts. At Exodus 6:8 G-d promises to the ...
2
Rashi, the major medieval compiler of rabbinic interpretation, wrote:
of those who hate Me: As the Targum [Onkelos paraphrases: when the sons continue to sin following their fathers, i.e.], when they cling to their fathers’ deeds. — [from Sanh. 27b]
I can't read Aramaic so can't verify how Targum Onkelos renders this, but if he's reporting that ...
2
Possibly an interpretation of this phrase 'punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me' will remove the questions you have. I am not sure whether you are questioning 'Why the children would be punished?' or 'Why parents would possibly go unpunished?' In either case this explanation will address ...
2
If the rings are on the bottom, as v12 seems to indicate, then I would see no problem with them being solid gold, since they're more for "containment" of the poles than to support then entire weight via suspension.
Gold is not the most structurally-sound material in tension, but in compression it's certainly strong enough for the purpose at hand.
2
See the Wikipedia page for Tabernacle for the jumping-off point to a large literature on this subject, including a modern model. Naḥmanides (Ramban) famously expounded on the subject, see 'Perush 'al ha-Torah' (Commentary on the Torah), Exodus 25:1 and also see the Midrash Exodus Rabbah 35a (for discussion of the planks of acacia wood).
Someone may convert ...
2
This seems to be a case where word play is lost in translation. As H3br3wHamm3r81 mentions, the Hebrew word קוֹל (kol) can be translated as both "voice" and "thunder." The nearness of both ideas when God speaks is seen in poetic parallelisms like 2 Samuel 22:14.
The Lord thundered from heaven;
the voice of the Most High ...
1
Blotting out the memory of Amalek can't mean completely eliminating any memory of same, because the torah itself tells us about Amalek and there is no indication that humans have permission to alter the text of the torah. So blotting out Amalek must mean something else.
The medieval commentator Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo ben Yitzchak) wrote on Deut 25:19:
you ...
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