Thus is added by Revised Standard Version in order to show the form of the Hebrew and mark the division of two clauses with the semicolon. This is unnecessary and sounds unnatural in English. The Hebrew for they did is the same word in both clauses, but Good News Translation changes the first one to “obeyed” and combines the two clauses into one. New Revised Standard Version also combines both clauses quite naturally without repeating the main verb: “All the Israelites did just as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron.”

As is emphatic, meaning “exactly as” (Revised English Bible). The LORD commanded may be expressed more naturally with the pluperfect, “the LORD had commanded” (Good News Translation). It must be assumed that Moses and Aaron first repeated these instructions (verses 43-49) to the people, and then the people “obeyed.” Contemporary English Version has “The Israelites obeyed everything the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron to tell them.”

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 .