Exodus 10:26

Summary

Exodus 10:26 records Moses' insistence that the Israelites' livestock must accompany them out of Egypt, with no animal left behind, because some of them will be needed to sacrifice to Yehovah. The verse closes with an admission that the exact nature of that offering remains unknown until they reach their destination.

Key words

• mikNenu ("our livestock", H4735) — construct noun with 1st person plural suffix, referring to herds/possessions as a collective unit tied to "us."
• tishaEr ("it will remain", H7604) — Niphal (passive/reflexive) imperfect: the hoof is the grammatical subject of a passive-toned verb, emphasizing that nothing will be "left remaining," not that someone leaves it.
• parSah ("a hoof", H6541) — singular feminine noun used idiomatically to represent the totality of the animals; "not a hoof" is a merism for "not a single animal."
• niqQach ("we will take", H3947) — Qal imperfect 1st plural, expressing a future/intended action: the community itself will select from the livestock.
• neda' ("we will know", H3045) — Qal imperfect 1st plural negated by lo' ("not", H3808), stating a present lack of knowledge about the future ritual requirement.

What the text says

The verse is built as a chain of short clauses joined by conjunction ve ("and", H9002), each asserting a necessity or an unknown. The first clause states that the livestock (mikNenu) "will go" (yeLekh, Qal imperfect) with "us" ('immaNu), followed immediately by a negated statement using the Niphal verb tishaEr — the hoof itself is framed as the subject of what "will not remain," a construction that centers the object (livestock) rather than the agent leaving it behind.

The causal clause introduced by ki ("for/because", H3588A) explains the reason: "some of it we will take" (niqQach) "to serve" (la'aVod, infinitive of H5647) Yehovah. The infinitive construction with the preposition la expresses purpose — the livestock is taken specifically for the act of service/worship.

The final section pivots with the independent pronoun 'anachnu ("we", H587), placed emphatically before the negated verb neda' ("we will know"). This emphatic use of the pronoun stresses the speaker's identity as the one who does not yet know "what" (mah, H4100) will be used to "serve" (na'aVod) Yehovah — the same root H5647 as before, now in a different imperfect form. The clause is bounded temporally by 'ad ("until", H5704) plus the infinitive bo'Enu ("our going/arriving", H935) with a directional he suffix on shamMah ("there", H8033), marking the endpoint of the uncertainty as arrival at the destination.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders parSah ("a hoof") with ὁπλήν (also "hoof"), matching the Hebrew merism closely. The Vulgate similarly uses ungula ("hoof"). However, the Vulgate adds an interpretive phrase, "quae necessaria sunt in cultum Domini Dei nostri" ("which are necessary for the worship of the Lord our God"), which explains the purpose of the livestock more explicitly than the Hebrew's more concise ki clause. The Vulgate also renders the final clause with "quid debeat immolari" ("what ought to be sacrificed"), introducing the specific verb "immolari" (to sacrifice), whereas the Hebrew na'aVod ("we will serve") is a more general verb of service/worship without specifying sacrifice.