Exodus 11:3

Summary

The verse states that Yehovah caused the Egyptians to view the Israelite people favorably, and adds that Moses himself was regarded as very great in Egypt, both by Pharaoh's servants and by "the people."

Key words

• va-yiTen ("and he gave", H5414G) — qal verb with narrative vav, marking sequential action in the story: this is the next event after what precedes.
• chen ("favor of", H2580) — masculine singular noun in construct state, linked to ha-'am ("the people"), forming the phrase "the favor of the people."
• be-'einei ("in the eyes of", H5869H) — feminine dual noun in construct, literally "in the two eyes of," used idiomatically to mean "in the perception/view of" someone; it appears three times in this verse (Egypt, Pharaoh's servants, the people).
• ga.Dol ("great", H1419A) — masculine singular adjective describing ha-'ish Mosheh ("the man Moses"), intensified by me.'Od ("very", H3966).
• 'avdei ("servants of", H5650) — masculine plural noun in construct, joined to Par'oh ("Pharaoh", H6547J), specifying whose servants perceive Moses' greatness.

What the text says

The sentence opens with the narrative verb va-yiTen ("and he gave"), whose subject is Yehovah (H3068G). The direct object, marked by the untranslated particle 'et (H0853), is the construct phrase chen ha-'am — "the favor of the people" — literally "he gave the favor of the people," meaning the people received favorable treatment. This favor is located be-'einei Mitzrayim ("in the eyes of Egypt"), using the idiom of "eyes" (H5869H, dual construct) to express perception or judgment rather than literal sight.

The second half of the verse shifts subject to ha-'ish Mosheh ("the man Moses"), introduced by the adverb gam ("also", H1571), signaling an additional statement rather than a continuation of the same clause. Moses is described as gadol me'od ("very great") — an adjective plus intensifying numeral-adverb — located be-'eretz Mitzrayim ("in the land of Egypt", construct noun + place name). The greatness is then specified through two parallel "eyes" phrases: be-'einei 'avdei Far'oh ("in the eyes of the servants of Pharaoh") and u-ve-'einei ha-'am ("and in the eyes of the people"). The repetition of the construct "eyes of" three times in the verse creates a structural parallel between how the Egyptians as a whole, Pharaoh's servants specifically, and "the people" regard the Israelites and Moses respectively.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the opening as "the Lord gave grace/favor to his people" (τῷ λαῷ αὐτοῦ, "to his people") rather than the Hebrew's construct phrase "the favor of the people" (chen ha-'am), shifting the grammatical relationship between "favor" and "people." The LXX also adds a clause not present in the Hebrew data given: "and they lent to them" (καὶ ἔχρησαν αὐτοῖς). The Vulgate uses the future tense dabit ("he will give") where the Hebrew va-yiTen is a past narrative form, and it condenses the final phrase to "before the servants of Pharaoh and all the people" (omitting a repeated "eyes" construction that the Hebrew and LXX both preserve in parallel).