Exodus 10:28

Summary

Pharaoh speaks to Moses, ordering him to depart from his presence. He commands him to be careful never again to seek an audience, warning that on the day Moses sees his face again, he will die.

Key words

• va-yomer ("and he said", H0559) — qal narrative form, the standard formula that advances the story's dialogue sequence.
• lekh ("go", H1980G) — qal imperative, a direct command giving no room for negotiation.
• hishamer ("take heed", H8104J) — niphal imperative; the niphal stem gives a reflexive/passive nuance, closer to "guard yourself" than a simple active command.
• tosef ("may you repeat", H3254G) — hiphil jussive; the hiphil (causative) stem combined with the negation al ("not", within H0413 here functioning as negative particle) produces the sense "do not cause yourself to add/repeat."
• ta-mut ("you will die", H4191) — qal imperfect, expressing a future/ongoing consequence tied to the conditional clause introduced by ki ("for/if", H3588A).

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative chain va-yomer ("and he said"), followed by lo ("to him", H9033) and Pharaoh (H6547J) as subject, a standard Hebrew word order placing the verb before the subject. Pharaoh's speech contains two imperatives in sequence: lekh me-'alai ("go from with me") and hishamer lekha ("take heed to yourself"). The second imperative uses the niphal stem of shamar ("to guard/keep", H8104J), which in this reflexive form conveys a warning about self-protection rather than a simple transitive command.

The prohibition is built with al ("not") plus the hiphil jussive tosef ("may you add/repeat", H3254G), followed by the qal infinitive re'ot ("to see", H7200G) and the construct noun panai ("my face", H6440H + H9020). This construction — negative particle plus jussive plus infinitive — expresses "do not continue to see my face" rather than a flat imperative, giving the prohibition a nuance of ongoing or repeated action being forbidden.

The final clause is introduced by ki ("for/if", H3588A), which can function as either causal or conditional depending on context, followed by be-yom ("on the day of", H3117G) in construct with the infinitive re'otekha ("your seeing", H7200G + H9041) and panai ("my face") again. The apodosis tamut ("you will die", H4191) uses the qal imperfect, marking a future consequence tied grammatically to the temporal/conditional clause.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the double imperative differently, using Ἄπελθε ("depart") and πρόσεχε ("pay attention"), and shifts the final clause to a passive construction ὀφθῇς μοι ("you are seen by me") rather than the Hebrew's active re'otekha panai ("your seeing my face"). The Vulgate follows the Hebrew's active sense more closely with videas faciem meam ("you see my face") but renders hishamer as cave ("beware"), a general caution verb without the reflexive nuance carried by the Hebrew niphal stem.