1 November 2022 draft-bible
As far as the Documentary Hypothesis goes, Driver attributed the chapter to J, except for verses 1, 2, and 4, which – he says – “most critics” including himself attribute to E (Driver, Exodus, in the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, 1911, p. 34).
1. feast. Hebrew ḥag. According to Driver, this “means not simply a religious ‘feast’ like our Easter or Christmas, for instance, but a feast accompanied by a pilgrimage to a sanctuary: such as, for instance, were the three ‘ḥaggim,’ at which every male Israelite was to appear before Jehovah (Ex. Xxiii. 14-17). The corresponding word in Arabic, ḥaj, denotes the pilgrimage to Mecca, which every faithful Mohammedan endeavours to make at least once in his life.”
6-9. Driver describes the manufacture of bricks in Egypt as follows: “Bricks in Egypt (which in the earlier periods were much larger than our bricks, generally about 15 x 7 x 4 ½ in.) were made (on i. 14) from the mud of the Nile, mixed usually with chopped straw or reed, to give it coherence and prevent cracks while drying, and then dried in the sun (EB. i. 609; cf. L. and B. i. 165). These bricks remained black. Burnt red brick was first introduced into Egypt by the Romans."
9. and pay no attention to lying words. WEB, through a misunderstanding of the obsolete expression, “let them not”, mistakenly reads, “Don’t let them pay any attention to lying words.”
12. to gather stubble. Driver points that this this "might be difficult to find, except immediately after the harvest."
16. but the fault [is in] your own people. Hebrew WḤTʾT ʿMK, vocalized wᵉḥatat ʿammeka. But if one adds one letter, and reads WḤTʾT LʿMK, vocalized wᵉḥ__atata lᵉʿammeka, then one may translate "but you sin against your own people" (see BHK 1909). According to Driver, "The text cannot be right: not only is the Heb. ungrammatical, but the fault was not in the people, but in the king." Driver goes on to endorse the emendation, which he claims is supported by the Septuagint and Peshitta.
19. trouble. Hebrew raʿ, well rendered as trouble by WEB. ASV reads “evil case”.
20. who stood there to meet them. Hebrew niṣabim liqra(ʾ)tam. ASV reads "who stood in the way", while WEB reads "who stood along the way". Neither, at least in today's English, makes clear what is perfectly clear in the Hebrew phrase -- that Moses and Aaron are standing there with the deliberate intent of speaking to the Hebrew officers, whom they know will be coming away from their meeting with Pharaoh.
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