Exodus 11:5

Summary

Exodus 11:5 announces the death of every firstborn in Egypt, spanning the full social range from the firstborn of Pharaoh on his throne to the firstborn of the lowest maidservant at the millstone, and extending even to the firstborn of livestock.

Key words

• Met ("he will die", H4191) — qal sequential perfect (vav-consecutive), continuing the narrative sequence begun earlier in the divine speech; grammatically it projects the verb's action forward in time as a certain future event tied to what precedes.
• bekhor ("firstborn", H1060) — appears five times in the verse, each time as a masculine singular construct noun ("firstborn of..."), the repeated construct chain being the structural backbone that links Pharaoh, the maidservant, and the livestock into one scope of the calamity.
• yoshev ("sits", H3427) — qal participle, masculine singular, used substantivally with the definite article ha- (H9009) to mean "the one who sits/is sitting," describing Pharaoh's ongoing state on the throne rather than a single completed act.
• rechayim ("hand-mill", H7347) — masculine dual noun, reflecting the paired grinding stones that made up a single hand-mill, marking the lowly domestic labor site of the maidservant.
• shifchah ("maidservant", H8198) — feminine singular noun with definite article, denoting female servant/slave status, contrasted structurally with Pharaoh at the top of the social scale.

What the text says

The verse is built as a single long clause governed by the initial verb Met ("he will die", H4191), a sequential perfect continuing the chain of the divine announcement. The subject is kol-bekhor ("every firstborn", H3605 + H1060), located be'erets Mitzrayim ("in the land of Egypt", H0776G + H4714G). After stating the general subject, the text specifies its range using two prepositions of extent: mi- ("from", H9006) marking the starting point at "the firstborn of Pharaoh" and 'ad ("unto", H5704) marking the endpoint at "the firstborn of the maidservant." This min...'ad construction is a merism, a rhetorical device using two extremes to indicate the whole spectrum in between — here spanning the entire social hierarchy of Egypt from throne to millstone.

Pharaoh is further described with a participial clause, ha-yoshev 'al-kis'o ("who sits on his throne", H3427 + H5921A + H3678G + H9023), presenting his royal position as a continuous state. The maidservant is located with a relative clause, 'asher 'achar ha-rechayim ("who is behind the hand-mill", H0834A + H0310A + H7347), her labor at the grinding stones marking the opposite end of the social scale. A final clause, introduced by the conjunction ve- ("and", H9002), adds kol bekhor behemah ("every firstborn of livestock", H3605 + H1060 + H0929), extending the scope beyond human firstborns to animals.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the maidservant's location as τῆς παρὰ τὸν μύλον ("who is beside the mill"), using a different preposition than the Hebrew 'achar ("behind", H0310A), which more precisely indicates a position "behind" or "after" the millstone. The Vulgate's ad molam ("at the mill") similarly softens this spatial nuance to a general proximity rather than the specific "behind" of the Hebrew.