Exodus 12:28
וַיֵּלְכוּ וַיַּֽעֲשׂוּ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל כַּאֲשֶׁר צִוָּה יְהוָה אֶת־מֹשֶׁה וְאַהֲרֹן כֵּן עָשֽׂוּ׃ ס
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וַיֵּלְכ֥וּ וַיַּֽעֲשׂ֖וּ בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל כַּאֲשֶׁ֨ר צִוָּ֧ה יְהוָ֛ה אֶת־מֹשֶׁ֥ה וְאַהֲרֹ֖ן כֵּ֥ן עָשֽׂוּ׃ ס
καὶ ἀπελθόντες ἐποίησαν οἱ υἱοὶ Ἰσραὴλ καθὰ ἐνετείλατο κύριος τῷ Μωσῇ, οὕτως ἐποίησαν.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Et egressi filii Israël fecerunt sicut præceperat Dominus Moysi et Aaron.
Los israelitas fueron e hicieron todo tal como Yehová se lo había ordenado a Moisés y a Aarón.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y los hijos de Israel se fueron, é hicieron puntualmente así; como Jehová había mandado á Moisés y á Aarón.
And the Israelites went and did just what the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron. The Tenth Plague: Death of the Firstborn
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse reports that the Israelites went and acted in compliance with the instructions Yehovah had given to Moses and Aaron. The action is stated twice, first as a general notice ("they went and did") and then confirmed with a closing formula ("so they did").
Key words
- va-yye.le.Khu ("and they went", H1980G) — qal narrative verb, 3rd person masculine plural, marking sequential action in the story.
- va-yya.'a.Su ("and they did", H6213A) — qal narrative verb, paired with the previous verb; the two together form a hendiadys-like sequence "went and did."
- tzi.Vah ("he had commanded", H6680) — piel perfect of the root for "command," denoting a completed, intensive act of instruction attributed to Yehovah.
- ken ("so", H3651C) — adverb that introduces the closing restatement of compliance.
- 'a.Su ("they did", H6213A) — qal perfect, repeating the same root used in word 4, now closing the verse with a summary statement.
What the text says
The Hebrew sentence opens with two narrative (vav-consecutive) verbs in sequence: va-yye.le.Khu ("and they went", H1980G) and va-yya.'a.Su ("and they did", H6213A), both governing the subject be.Nei Yis.ra.'El ("sons/people of Israel", H1121G + H3478). This pairing of "go" and "do" is a common Hebrew narrative construction indicating that action followed immediately upon the preceding instructions, without necessarily implying two separate discrete acts.
The comparative clause ka.'a.Sher tzi.Vah Yah.weh 'et-Mo.sheh ve-'A.ha.Ron ("just as Yehovah had commanded Moses and Aaron") uses the relative particle 'a.Sher (H0834D) with the piel perfect tzi.Vah (H6680), a verb form used elsewhere in the Torah for authoritative commands. The object marker 'et (H0853) marks Moses as the direct recipient of the command, with Aaron joined via the conjunction ve (H9002).
The verse closes with ken 'a.Su ("so they did", H3651C + H6213A), a perfect-tense restatement using the same root 'a.Su as in the opening verb va-yya.'a.Su. This repetition creates an inclusio, framing the verse: action reported, standard cited, action confirmed as matching the standard.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders the command clause with τῷ Μωσῇ only ("to Moses"), omitting Aaron's name, where the Hebrew includes both 'et-Mo.sheh ve-'A.ha.Ron ("Moses and Aaron"). The Vulgate follows the Hebrew more closely, retaining "Moysi et Aaron." The LXX also renders the opening verbs with a participle plus finite verb (ἀπελθόντες ἐποίησαν, "having departed, they did") rather than two coordinated finite verbs as in the Hebrew va-yye.le.Khu... va-yya.'a.Su.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.