Our cattle also is literally “and also our cattle.” The first word, “and also,” is interpreted by some in connection with the “also” of verse 25, meaning “both … and,” that is, both the animals to be provided by the king and those belonging to the Israelites. This is option (a) explained in verse 25. However, the more probable meaning of also here, based on option (c), is in addition to the wives and children in verse 24. Good News Translation adds “No” for emphasis. Cattle is a more generic term for “possessions,” but here it means “animals,” or “livestock” (New Revised Standard Version). (See the discussion at 9.3.)

Must go with us is literally “will go with us,” but the idea of must go is suggested by the context. Good News Translation is perhaps just as affirmative: “No, we will take our animals with us.” Not a hoof shall be left behind is literal, but it is a figurative and emphatic way of saying “not one will be left behind” (Good News Translation).

For we must take of them places the emphasis on of them (literally “for from it we will take”). This refers to the animals (singular in the Hebrew) belonging to the Israelites rather than to any animals the king or his people might provide. Good News Translation emphasizes “we ourselves” at this point, but this is apparently on the basis of option (b) discussed in verse 25 above and the emphatic we in the following clause. We must is treated as “we may” in Revised English Bible, New English Bible, and New Jerusalem Bible, but this is based on option (a) in verse 25. To serve the LORD our God means to worship Yahweh, the Israelites’ God.

And we do not know is emphatic (“and we, we do not know”). It suggests that “we ourselves shall not know” (New American Bible), “so how could you know?” With what we must serve the LORD means “what animals to sacrifice to him.” Until we arrive there does not specify the place, but the there obviously refers to the place referred to in 3.18; 5.3; and 7.16, a place out in the desert about three day’s journey away.

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .