Exodus 10:11

Summary

Pharaoh rejects Moses' request for a full exodus, permitting only the men to go and worship Yehovah, since that is what he claims was actually requested. The verse ends with a narrative clause reporting that Moses and Aaron were driven out from Pharaoh's presence.

Key words

• ken ("so", H3651C) — combined with lo' ("not", H3808), forms the emphatic rejection "Not so!" opening Pharaoh's reply.
• na' ("please", H4994) — a particle of entreaty attached to the imperative lekhu, softening the command "go" without changing its force as an order.
• ha-gevarim ("the men", H1397) — plural noun with the definite article, singling out "the men" as opposed to the whole community (implied contrast with women and children, not stated explicitly in this clause).
• 'otah ("it/her", H0853+H9034) — the object marker carries a 3rd person feminine singular suffix; the antecedent is not an explicit feminine noun in this clause, so the referent (likely the act of "service/worship" mentioned just before) is inferred from context rather than stated.
• vayegaresh ("and someone drove out", H1644G) — a piel verb in narrative form (vav-consecutive), 3rd person masculine singular, with no explicit subject named — the "driver" of the expulsion is left grammatically unspecified in the Hebrew.

What the text says

The verse divides into two parts: Pharaoh's direct speech (word 1–15) and a narrative report (word 16–23). Pharaoh's speech opens with the negation lo' ken, then shifts to two imperatives — lekhu ("go") and 'ivdu ("serve") — both addressed to "you all" (masculine plural), softened by the particle na'. The clause ki 'otah 'atem mevaqshim uses a participle (mevaqshim, "requesting") rather than a finite verb, framing the men's departure as an ongoing state of seeking rather than a single event.

The closing narrative clause uses vayegaresh, a piel verb whose subject is grammatically unmarked — the Hebrew text does not specify who performs the expulsion. The double preposition me'et ("from with") plus penei Far'oh ("the face of Pharaoh") is a fixed idiom meaning "from Pharaoh's presence."

Differences between versions

The Hebrew vayegaresh is a singular verb with unspecified subject ("someone drove them out"). The LXX renders this as ἐξέβαλον ("they drove out"), a plural active form supplying an implicit plural agent. The Vulgate uses ejecti sunt ("they were driven out"), a passive construction, which the BSB follows ("were driven out"). The SBLIBRE follows the LXX pattern with an active plural, "los echaron" ("they threw them out").