Exodus 11:4

Summary

Moses reports to Pharaoh a message from Yehovah: at a specific point near midnight, Yehovah himself will move through the territory of Egypt. The verse functions as an introduction to the announcement of the final plague, framed as direct divine speech relayed by Moses.

Key words

• amar ("he says", H0559) — perfect verb form used here as a fixed prophetic formula ("thus says Yehovah"), even though grammatically it marks a completed action; this is the standard messenger-speech introduction.
• chatzot ("middle of", H2676) — feminine singular noun in construct state, requiring a following noun ("night") to complete its meaning: "the middle of the night."
• yotze' ("about to go out", H3318) — qal participle, masculine singular. The participle in Hebrew narrative can express an action about to occur or in progress, giving the sense of imminent, near-future action rather than a simple future tense.
• ani ("I", H0589) — independent personal pronoun, grammatically unnecessary since the verb form already implies a subject; its presence adds emphasis on the identity of the one acting.
• tokh ("midst of", H8432) — masculine singular noun in construct state, paired with the preposition be ("in") to form "in the midst of," describing location of the action rather than a destination.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative chain va-yomer ("and he said", H0559) attached to Mosheh ("Moses", H4872), establishing that Moses is the speaker who transmits what follows. The formula koh amar Yehovah ("thus says Yehovah") uses the perfect form of amar not to denote past action in translation but as a fixed introductory phrase marking the words that follow as a direct divine message.

The temporal marker ka-chatzot ha-laylah ("about the middle of the night") uses the construct chain chatzot ha-laylah ("middle of the night") preceded by the preposition ka ("about/like"), which introduces approximation rather than a precise moment.

The core clause ani yotze be-tokh Mitzrayim combines the emphatic pronoun ani with the participle yotze' ("going out"). The participle construction, without an explicit tense marker, conveys an action understood as imminent or about to unfold from the standpoint of the speech. The phrase be-tokh Mitzrayim ("in the midst of Egypt") describes the sphere within which the action occurs, rather than a point of arrival.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew verb yotze' ("about to go out", H3318) expresses movement outward, and the Vulgate’s egrediar ("I will go out") preserves this same directional sense. The LXX, however, uses εἰσπορεύομαι ("I am entering into"), which expresses inward motion — the opposite directional nuance from the Hebrew. This corresponds with the LXX’s εἰς μέσον Αἰγύπτου ("into the midst of Egypt"), using a preposition of entry, where the Hebrew be-tokh Mitzrayim ("in the midst of Egypt") indicates location within, not entry into.