Exodus 1:13

Summary

The verse states that the Egyptians forced the people of Israel into hard labor, using the phrase be-farekh ("with harshness") to characterize the nature of this compelled work. The sentence has a single main verb governing the entire clause, with Egypt as subject and "the sons of Israel" as direct object.

Key words

• ya'avidu ("they compelled to labor", H5647G) — Hiphil (causative) stem: the basic sense of "serving" or "working" (Qal) is turned causative, meaning "to make someone serve/work," not merely "to serve."
• Mitzrayim ("Egypt", H4713) — a proper name in singular form functioning here as the grammatical subject of a plural verb, referring to the Egyptians collectively.
• bene ("[the] people of", H1121G) — masculine plural noun in construct state, linking to the following name to form "sons/people of Israel."
• be-farekh ("with harshness", H6531) — noun preceded by the preposition be (H9003), forming an adverbial phrase that qualifies how the labor was imposed.

What the text says

The Hebrew clause is built on one finite verb, ya'avidu, in the Hiphil stem. This causative form is significant: the root behind H5647G in its basic (Qal) stem would mean "to serve" or "to work," but the Hiphil shifts the meaning to "to cause to serve" or "to force to work." The grammatical subject is Mitzrayim, a proper name that is morphologically singular but is treated here as a collective agent matching the plural verb form — "Egypt" functioning as "the Egyptians" acting together.

The direct object is marked by 'et (H0853, untranslated) followed by the construct phrase bene Yisra'el, "the sons/people of Israel." The construct state of bene ties it grammatically to Yisra'el, producing a single compound expression for the object of the forced labor.

The final element, be-farekh, is a prepositional phrase attached to the verb, specifying manner rather than adding a second action. The noun farekh denotes harsh or severe treatment; combined with the preposition be ("with/in"), it describes the quality of the labor imposed, not a separate act. The sentence structure is thus compact: one subject, one causative verb, one object, and one adverbial qualifier of manner.

Differences between versions

The Septuagint renders be-farekh with the noun βίᾳ ("by force/violence"), a single abstract term paralleling the Hebrew's one-word manner phrase. The Vulgate diverges more substantially: it adds the verb "oderant" ("they hated") and "illudentes" ("mocking"), elements not present in the Hebrew clause, where only one verb (ya'avidu) and one manner phrase (be-farekh) occur.