Exodus 10:13-15

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Exodus 10:13 tn The clause begins וַיהוָה (vaʾdonay [vayhvah], “Now Yahweh….”). In contrast to a normal sequence, this beginning focuses attention on Yahweh as the subject of the verb.
2. Exodus 10:13 tn The verb נָהַג (nahag) means “drive, conduct.” It is elsewhere used for driving sheep, leading armies, or leading in processions.
3. Exodus 10:13 tn Heb “and all the night.”
4. Exodus 10:13 tn The text does not here use ordinary circumstantial clause constructions; rather, Heb “the morning was, and the east wind carried the locusts.” It clearly means “when it was morning,” but the style chosen gives a more abrupt beginning to the plague, as if the reader is in the experience—and at morning, the locusts are there!
5. Exodus 10:13 tn The verb here is a past perfect, indicting that the locusts had arrived before the day came.
6. Exodus 10:14 tn Heb “border.”
7. Exodus 10:14 tn This is an interpretive translation. The clause simply has כָּבֵד מְאֹד (kaved m^eʾod), the stative verb with the adverb—“it was very heavy.” The description prepares for the following statement about the uniqueness of this locust infestation.
8. Exodus 10:14 tn Heb “after them.”
9. Exodus 10:15 tn Heb “and they covered.”
10. Exodus 10:15 tn Heb “eye,” an unusual expression (see v. 5; Num 22:5, 11).
11. Exodus 10:15 tn The verb is וַתֶּחְשַׁךְ (vattekhshakh, “and it became dark”). The idea is that the ground had the color of the swarms of locusts that covered it.