1tn Heb “field.”

2tc The LXX adds “and their land swarmed with mice.”

3tc The LXX and a Qumran ms add “the covenant of the Lord.”

4tn Heb “your mice.” A Qumran ms has simply “the mice.”

5tn Heb “Perhaps he will lighten his hand from upon you and from upon your gods and from upon your land.”

6tn Heb “like Egypt and Pharaoh hardened their heart.”

7tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

8tn Heb “and they sent them away and they went.”

9tn Heb “and the men did so.”

10tc A few Hebrew mss and the LXX read “villages; the large rock…[is witness] until this very day.”

11tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

12tc The number 50,070 is surprisingly large, although it finds almost unanimous textual support in the MT and in the ancient versions. Only a few medieval Hebrew mss lack “50,000,” reading simply “70” instead. However, there does not seem to be sufficient external evidence to warrant reading 70 rather than 50,070, although that is done by a number of recent translations (e.g., NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT). The present translation (reluctantly) follows the MT and the ancient versions here.

13tn Heb “he” or “it”; the referent here (the ark) has been specified in the translation for clarity (cf. also NIV, CEV, NLT). Others, however, take the referent to be the Lord himself.