OET interlinear EXO 4:22

uW Translation Notes:

כֹּ֚ה אָמַ֣ר יְהוָ֔ה

thus he/it_had_said YHWH

This is the first of hundreds of occurrences throughout the Old Testament of a standard phrase, Thus says Yahweh, used to introduce direct, authoritative instruction from Yahweh. It would be good for your team to have a standard way to translate this that makes it clear that the words that come next are directly from God. If your language has a standard way of introducing a new message from your rulers that alerts the hearers that these are the words of the rulers, that would be a good phrase to consider.

Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / quotesinquotes

כֹּ֚ה אָמַ֣ר יְהוָ֔ה

thus he/it_had_said YHWH

This begins a second-level quotation that continues until the end of 4:23. It may be helpful to your readers to indicate this with an opening second-level quotation mark or with whatever other punctuation or convention your language uses to indicate the beginning of a quotation within a quotation. However, you may want to translate this as an indirect quotation in order to reduce the levels of quotations in this passage. Alternative translation: “that Yahweh says”

Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / quotemarks

בְּנִ֥⁠י בְכֹרִ֖⁠י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃

son,my firstborn,my (Some words not found in UHB: and,say to/towards Farˊoh thus he/it_had_said YHWH son,my firstborn,my Yisrael )

This is the beginning of a third-level quotation that continues until the end of 4:23. It may be helpful to your readers to indicate this with an opening third-level quotation mark or with whatever other punctuation or convention your language uses to indicate the beginning of a quotation within a quotation within a quotation. (If you chose to translate, “Thus says Yahweh,” as an indirect quote, this will be a second- level quotation.)

Note 3 topic: figures-of-speech / metaphor

בְּנִ֥⁠י

son,my

Yahweh expresses his affection for the Israelites by calling them his son. Some languages may need to change the metaphor here into a simile. See the UST.

Note 4 topic: grammar-collectivenouns

יִשְׂרָאֵֽל

Yisrael

The word Israel here represents all the people of Israel as a group. It is important to keep the singular reference to Israel as son rather than change it to something like ‘the Israelites are my children,’ because God is making a particular contrast here between his son and Pharaoh’s son. Some languages may not be able to use “Israel” as a collective noun and may need to choose a translation like “the nation of Israel” or “the Israelite nation.”

Note 5 topic: figures-of-speech / metonymy

יִשְׂרָאֵֽל

Yisrael

The Israelite nation is often referred to simply by the name of the patriarch. If it would be helpful in your language, you could use an equivalent expression or plain language. Alternate translation: “The Israelites are”