Introduction
The word Exodus comes from the Greek word meaning ‘departure’ or ‘leaving’. Hebrew readers call this document ‘Shemōt’ which is the second word in the Hebrew and means ‘Names’ because it begins with a list of names. Some European and other translations call it ‘The second book of Mosheh/Moses’.
It should be noted that ‘Mosheh’ is the best English transliteration of the name of the hero of this account. Sadly, he’s commonly known in the English world as ‘Moses’, even though we have all the sounds in our language to be able to pronounce his name more accurately. Unfortunately, because the language of ‘the New Testament’ didn’t have the ‘sh’ sound and had no letter for ‘h’, his Hebrew version of his Egyptian name is corrupted as it goes through Greek ‘Mōsaʸs’ and then Latin ‘Moyses’ and then first entered English in the 1300’s as ‘Moises’. Now that we live in a modern era where we try to show more respect to the names of peoples from other cultures, the OET encourages the same for Biblical characters (especially the major ones), hence ‘Mosheh’. (Maybe a little bit of relearning could demonstrate a lot of respect to the Jewish people whose ancestors are recorded in these accounts.)
After God had used a famine to cause his people to go down into Egypt (Heb. Mitsrayim), this document records how they eventually become slaves, but then God works many miracles to enable them to leave again, and not only that, to be paid at the end for their work.
This story can be divided into three main parts: 1. their slavery in Egypt, and how God called Mosheh (Moses), the child who had been adopted by an Egyptian princess, to lead them out of slavery; 2. how God assisted them when they were chased by the Egyptian army, then when they reached Mt. Sinai, how they were miraculously given food and drink there at the mountain; 3. how Yahweh revealed himself to Mosheh there at Mt. Sinai, and gave him instructions to guide their lives and their nation, and God’s agreement with the people; 4. the ending is the construction of the sacred tent, complete with instructions about how they should worship.
An overview would be how God rescued his people from slavery and established them as a nation that was hopeful of a good future.
Mosheh is the most important person in this account. He was chosen by God to lead his people out of slavery and right out of Egypt. The ten commands are another well-known component of this document and can be found in chapter twenty.
Main components of this account
Yisrael’s descendants are driven out of Egypt 1:1-15:21
a. The people are enslaved there in Egypt 1:1-22
b. The birth and early life of Mosheh 2:1-4:31
c. Far’oh (Pharaoh) king of Egypt stands strongly against Mosheh and Aharon taking the people out of Egypt 5:1-11:10
d. God’s messenger of death that ‘passed-over’, and the exit of Yisra’el’s descendants from Egypt 12:1-15:21
Leaving the Red Sea and going to Mt. Sinai 15:22-18:27
God’s instructions and the agreement 19:1-24:18
The sacred tent and warnings concerning worshipping 25:1-40:38
This is still an early look into the unpolished text of the Open English Translation of the Bible. Please double-check the text in advance before using in public.