Exodus 11:2
דַּבֶּר־נָא בְּאָזְנֵי הָעָם וְיִשְׁאֲלוּ אִישׁ׀ מֵאֵת רֵעֵהוּ וְאִשָּׁה מֵאֵת רְעוּתָהּ כְּלֵי־כֶסֶף וּכְלֵי זָהָֽב׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
דַּבֶּר־נָ֖א בְּאָזְנֵ֣י הָעָ֑ם וְיִשְׁאֲל֞וּ אִ֣ישׁ׀ מֵאֵ֣ת רֵעֵ֗הוּ וְאִשָּׁה֙ מֵאֵ֣ת רְעוּתָ֔הּ כְּלֵי־כֶ֖סֶף וּכְלֵ֥י זָהָֽב׃
λάλησον οὖν κρυφῇ εἰς τὰ ὤτα τοῦ λαοῦ, καὶ αἰτησάτω ἕκαστος παρὰ τοῦ πλησίον σκεύη ἀργυρᾶ καὶ χρυσᾶ καὶ ἱματισμόν.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Dices ergo omni plebi ut postulet vir ab amico suo, et mulier a vicina sua, vasa argentea et aurea.
Habla ahora con el pueblo, y diles que cada hombre le pida a su vecino, y cada mujer a su vecina, objetos de plata y de oro.”
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Habla ahora al pueblo, y que cada uno demande á su vecino, y cada una á su vecina, vasos de plata y de oro.
Now announce to the people that men and women alike should ask their neighbors for articles of silver and gold.”
✦ What the text says
Summary
Moses is instructed to speak to the Israelite people so that, in turn, each man and each woman will request from their respective neighbors articles of silver and gold. The verse combines a command (to speak) with a resulting purpose (that the people ask).
Key words
- dabber ("speak", H1696G) — Piel imperative, an intensive command form directed at Moses (second person masculine singular), reinforced by the particle na ("please", H4994), which softens or urges the command.
- 'ozne ("ears of", H0241H) — construct dual noun, literally "the ears of the people," an idiom meaning to speak directly and audibly to them.
- yish'alu ("they may ask", H7592) — Qal imperfect with prefixed ve ("and"), functioning here as a purpose/result clause: "so that they may ask."
- re'ehu ("his neighbor", H7453 + H9023) and re'utah ("her neighbor", H7468 + H9024) — construct nouns with pronominal suffixes, distinguishing a male neighbor (for ish, "each man") from a female neighbor (for ishah, "each woman").
- kelei ("articles of", H3627) — masculine plural construct, repeated before both kesef ("silver", H3701G) and zahav ("gold", H2091), linking the noun to what follows it.
What the text says
The verse opens with the Piel imperative dabber plus na, a command form with an added particle of entreaty, directed at Moses. The phrase be'azne ha'am ("in the ears of the people", H9003+H0241H+H9009+H5971A) is a Hebrew idiom for direct, audible speech to an audience, rather than a private message.
The second clause begins with ve-yish'alu, a Qal imperfect verb prefixed with ve, which in this syntactic position expresses purpose or consequence: the speaking is meant to result in the people's asking. The subjects are distributed by gender: ish ("each man", H0376I) paired with re'ehu ("his neighbor", masculine), and ishah ("each woman", H0802G) paired with re'utah ("her neighbor", feminine). The direct object marker 'et (H0854) appears before each neighbor term but carries no independent meaning in translation.
The items requested are introduced by kelei ("articles of", construct plural) twice, once before kesef ("silver") and once before zahav ("gold"), giving two parallel construct phrases: "articles of silver" and "articles of gold."
Differences between versions
The Septuagint (LXXSWETE) adds κρυφῇ ("secretly"), a qualifier absent from the Hebrew text, which simply says dabber-na be'azne ha'am ("speak, please, in the ears of the people") without any notion of secrecy. The LXX also adds καὶ ἱματισμόν ("and clothing") after "silver and gold" articles, an item not present in the Hebrew word list provided. The Vulgate (VULCLEM) renders the purpose clause with a subjunctive ("ut postulet"), matching the Hebrew's purpose function of ve-yish'alu, but does not translate the particle na ("please") explicitly, rendering the imperative simply as "Dices ergo" ("You shall therefore say").
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.