Exodus 11:8

Summary

Moses tells Pharaoh that all of Pharaoh's servants will come down and bow before him, quoting what they will say: that Moses and the people should leave, after which Moses will go out. The verse closes with a narrative note that Moses left Pharaoh's presence in fierce anger.

Key words

• yaredu ("they will come down", H3381) — qal sequential perfect; continues the narrative chain begun by the vav, describing a future action tied to what precedes it.
• hishtachavu ("they will bow down", H7812) — hishtaphel stem (a form specific to this verb for prostration); also sequential perfect, paired with yaredu as the second act in the servants' predicted behavior.
• tze' ("go out", H3318) — qal imperative, second-person masculine singular; the command quoted as coming from Pharaoh's servants to Moses.
• 'etze' ("I will go out", H3318) — qal imperfect, first-person singular, same root as tze'; the imperfect aspect marks this as Moses' stated intention rather than a completed or commanded act.
• bechori-'af ("in heat of anger", H2750 + H0639) — construct noun phrase, literally "in the heat of nose/anger", describing the manner of Moses' departure.

What the text says

The verse is built as embedded speech: Moses addresses Pharaoh, and within his speech he quotes the anticipated words of Pharaoh's own servants. The two sequential perfects yaredu ("they will come down") and hishtachavu ("they will bow down") describe what those servants will do, introduced by the narrative vav that carries forward a hypothetical future scene as though it were part of the ongoing narrative. The infinitive lemor ("saying") then opens direct speech attributed to the servants, which contains the imperative tze' ("go out") — a command addressed to Moses and, by extension, "all the people who are at your feet" ('asher beragleicha, the people under Moses' authority, literally "at your feet").

The switch from the imperative tze' to the imperfect 'etze' is notable: the servants command Moses to leave, but Moses then states in the first person that he will leave ('etze'), using the same verbal root but a different form to mark his own future action as distinct from a command. The final clause shifts from quoted speech back to narration with vayetze' ("and he went out"), a vav-consecutive imperfect marking a completed narrative event, followed by the phrase bechori-'af ("in heat of anger"), which qualifies the manner of his exit from Pharaoh's presence.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew 'etze' is first-person singular ("I will go out"). The Vulgate renders this as plural, egrediemur ("we will go out"), differing from the Hebrew's singular form. The LXX, by contrast, keeps a singular verb (ἐξελεύσομαι, "I will go out") but adds the explicit name "Μωυσης" (Moses) in the final narrative clause, where the Hebrew text only has the unnamed verb vayetze' ("and he went out") without stating the subject by name.