Exodus 9:30

Footnotes

1. 70 The verse begins with the disjunctive vav to mark a strong contrastive clause to what was said before this.
2. 71 The adverb טֶרֶם (terem, “before, not yet”) occurs with the imperfect tense to give the sense of the English present tense to the verb negated by it ( §107.c). Moses is saying that he knew that Pharaoh did not really stand in awe of God, so as to grant Israel’s release, i.e., fear not in the religious sense but “be afraid of” God—fear “before” him (S. R. Driver, Exodus, ).