Exodus 12:41

Summary

The verse states that at the completion of 430 years, on the exact day marked by that count, "all the hosts of Yehovah" left the land of Egypt. The Hebrew text frames this departure with a double temporal marker, emphasizing precision in timing.

Key words

• vayehi ("and it was", H1961) — appears twice (positions 2 and 12), each time as a qal narrative verb opening a new temporal clause; this repetition structures the verse into two linked statements about time.
• ketz ("end of", H7093) — construct noun beginning the phrase "end of thirty years and four hundred years," marking the completion of a duration.
• 'etzem ("substance of", H6106H) — construct noun combined with hai.yom hazZeh ("this day"), forming an idiom that intensifies "day" into "this very day," stressing exactness.
• tziv'ot ("hosts of", H6635A) — plural construct noun governing Yehovah, describing a collective, organized group ("hosts of Yehovah") rather than a single army.
• yatze'u ("they went out", H3318G) — qal perfect, third-person plural, denoting a completed collective action of departure.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built in two halves, each opened by vayehi (H1961). The first half establishes a time span: mi-ketz shelishim shanah ve-arba' me'ot shanah — "from the end of thirty years and four hundred years," i.e., 430 years counted as a completed period. The second half, introduced by the second vayehi, narrows the focus to a single day: be-'etzem ha-yom ha-zeh — literally "in the substance of this day," an idiom that Biblical Hebrew uses to mean "on this very day," reinforcing precision about timing rather than approximation.

The main clause, yatze'u kol-tziv'ot Yehovah me-'eretz Mitzrayim ("all the hosts of Yehovah went out from the land of Egypt"), uses the perfect verb yatze'u (H3318G) to mark the departure as a completed, unified event. The noun tziv'ot (H6635A), plural and in construct with Yehovah, presents the departing group as organized "hosts," a term distinct from a generic word for "people."

Differences between versions

The LXX (Swete) reads τετρακόσια τριάκοντα πέντε ("four hundred thirty-five") where the Hebrew gives arba' me'ot shanah + shelishim shanah ("four hundred and thirty years"), and the LXX adds νυκτός ("at night"), a detail absent from the Hebrew clause. The Vulgate collapses the Hebrew's double vayehi structure into a single subordinate clause ("Quibus expletis, eadem die"), and renders tziv'ot (plural "hosts") as exercitus (singular "army"), differing from the Hebrew's plural construct form.