Exodus 12:31

Summary

The unnamed subject (identifiable from context as Pharaoh) summons Moses and Aaron at night and orders them to leave with all the Israelites, to go and serve YHWH ("Yehovah", H3068G) exactly as they had spoken.

Key words

• va-yiqra ("and he summoned", H7121G) — qal narrative form; the subject "he" is grammatically implicit, not named in the Hebrew clause itself, sequential with previous narrative.
• tokh ("among", H8432) — masculine singular construct noun, forming the phrase "from the midst of," governing "my people."
• ammi ("my people", H5971A + H9020) — construct noun with 1st person suffix "my," marking the speaker's own people, distinguishing them from Israel.
• gam...gam ("both...as well as", H1571 x2) — paired adverbs creating a "both X and Y" structure, linking "you" (Egyptians addressed?) and "sons of Israel."
• ke-dabberkhem ("as you all spoke", H1696G + H9046) — piel infinitive with 2nd person masculine plural suffix, meaning "according to your speaking," referencing prior words attributed to Moses and Aaron.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with the narrative vav-consecutive verb va-yiqra ("and he summoned", H7121G), whose subject is marked only by the 3rd person masculine singular verbal form — no proper noun appears in this verse to identify who "he" is. The identity of the speaker must be supplied from the surrounding narrative context, since the Hebrew text of this verse alone does not name him.

The command section uses three imperatives in sequence — qumu ("arise", H6965B), tze'u ("go out", H3318G), and later lekhu ("go", H1980G) with ivdu ("serve", H5647H) — building a rapid chain of directives. The phrase mi-tokh ammi ("from the midst of my people", H8432 + H5971A) uses a construct chain to specify separation "from the midst of" a group called "my people," with the 1st person suffix indicating the speaker claims ownership or association with these people.

The double gam...gam ("both...as well as", H1571) structure links "you" (attem, H0859D) together with "the sons of Israel" (bene Yisra'el, H1121G + H3478), grammatically pairing two groups as joint referents of the imperative "go out." The final clause anchors the command's legitimacy in prior speech: ke-dabberkhem ("as you all spoke", H1696G) uses a piel infinitive construct with pronominal suffix, meaning the action commanded matches words previously spoken by the addressees.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew text of this verse contains no explicit subject noun for va-yiqra ("he summoned", H7121G) — the summoner is grammatically implicit. The LXX renders this with an explicit subject, "Φαραὼ" ("Pharaoh"), and the Vulgate similarly reads "Pharao," both supplying the proper name that the Hebrew consecutive verb form leaves unstated in this clause.