Exodus 1:22

Summary

Pharaoh issues a command to his entire people: every son born is to be thrown into the Nile, while every daughter is to be kept alive. The verse reports the content of a royal decree through indirect/quoted speech introduced by le'mor ("saying", H0559).

Key words

• yeTzav ("he commanded", H6680) — piel narrative verb; the intensive stem marks this as a formal, forceful royal order, not a casual request.
• hayyillod ("born", H3209) — masculine singular adjective with definite article, modifying ha-Ben ("the son", H1121A); it specifies "the son who is born," i.e., every male infant at birth.
• tashlikhuhu ("you will throw him", H7993) — hiphil (causative) imperfect, second person plural, with object suffix "him"; the causative stem conveys forced casting/throwing, and the imperfect gives it command force ("you shall throw").
• techayyun ("you will let live", H2421) — piel imperfect plural with paragogic nun (H9013); the piel stem is intensive ("cause to live, keep alive" rather than simple "live"), and the paragogic nun adds emphasis to the final verb of the decree.
• ha-ye'orah ("the River", H2975G) + directional he (H9011) — the directional suffix marks motion "toward/into" the river, specifying the destination of the throwing.

What the text says

The verse is built as a main clause (vayeTzav Par'oh le-khol-ammo le'mor, "and Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying") followed by the quoted decree itself, structured as two parallel clauses. Each clause opens with kol ("every/all", H3605) in construct form — kol-ha-Ben ha-yillod ("every son that is born") and ve-khol-ha-Bat ("and every daughter") — creating a balanced antithetical structure: sons versus daughters, destruction versus preservation. The verbs governing each half are both second-person plural imperfects addressed to "all his people" (le-khol-ammo), meaning the command falls on the general population, not a specialized group. The hiphil stem of tashlikhuhu frames the throwing as a caused action upon the infant (the object suffix -hu, "him," H9033), while the piel of techayyun frames survival as something actively caused or maintained, not merely allowed to happen — both stems intensify the contrast between destroying and actively sustaining life. The paragogic nun on the final verb is a stylistic emphasis marker, common in Biblical Hebrew imperfects, adding weight to the concluding instruction.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew text and the Vulgate address the decree to "all his people" without specifying whose infants are targeted. The Septuagint inserts τοῖς Ἑβραίοις ("to the Hebrews"), a phrase not present in the Hebrew wording given, explicitly limiting the scope of the decree to Hebrew infants. The BSB and SBLIBRE translations follow the LXX's addition ("born to the Hebrews" / "niño hebreo"), while the RV1909 and the Vulgate's Latin phrasing stay closer to the unspecified Hebrew formulation, referring simply to "todo hijo" / "quidquid masculini sexus."