Exodus 10:17

Summary

Pharaoh asks Moses and Aaron to lift his sin this one time and to intercede with Yehovah their God, so that he may remove "this death" from him. The verse combines a plea for pardon with a request for intercessory prayer regarding a lethal affliction.

Key words

• sa' ("forgive/lift", H5375I) — qal imperative, 2nd person masculine singular; a direct command addressed to one person (likely Moses), literally "lift" or "carry away" the sin.
• chatati ("my sin", H2403B) — feminine singular noun in construct form with the 1st person suffix -i ("my"), naming the offense to be lifted.
• ha'tiru ("pray/intercede", H6279) — hiphil (causative) imperative, 2nd person masculine plural; addressed to more than one person, asking them to cause entreaty to happen before Yehovah.
• yaser ("may he remove", H5493G) — hiphil jussive, 3rd person; expresses a wished-for causative action ("let him cause to turn aside") rather than a direct command, since the subject is Yehovah, not the addressees.
• ha-mavet ha-zeh ("this death", H4194 + H2088) — masculine singular noun with definite article, followed by the demonstrative zeh ("this", H2088), pointing to a specific, present lethal condition rather than death in general.

What the text says

The verse opens with ve-'atah ("and now/therefore", H9002+H6258), marking a shift to a request following prior action. The first imperative, sa' ("forgive", H5375I), is singular, suggesting Pharaoh addresses one figure directly (grammatically Moses, based on verb number) before switching to plural forms. The phrase chatati akh ha-pa'am ("my sin, only this time", H2403B + H0389 + H6471) limits the scope of the request to a single instance, using akh ("only", H0389) as a restrictive adverb.

The second command, ha'tiru ("pray", H6279), shifts to plural imperative, addressing both Moses and Aaron, and is directed la-Yehovah 'elohei-khem ("to Yehovah your God", H3068G + H0430G + H9026) — the possessive suffix "your" marking the deity as belonging to the addressees, not to Pharaoh himself. The final clause uses yaser ("may he remove", H5493G), a jussive form expressing a wish rather than a command, since the grammatical subject is Yehovah. The object is restricted by rak ("only", H7535) to ha-mavet ha-zeh ("this death", H4194+H2088), a specific demonstrative referring to a present, identifiable lethal circumstance rather than death as a general concept.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders la-Yehovah 'elohei-khem ("to Yehovah your God") as πρὸς Τύριον τὸν θεὸν ὑμῶν, using a transliterated form ("Tyrios") rather than a direct equivalent for the divine name found in the Hebrew. The Vulgate's dimittite peccatum mihi ("release the sin to me") uses a plural imperative for the initial plea, differing from the Hebrew's singular sa', effectively merging the first command into the same plural addressee group as the second command (rogate, "ask/pray").