Exodus 12:50

Summary

The verse closes the Passover instructions narrative with a frame structure: the Israelites act, then Moses and Aaron are named as recipients of Yehovah's command, and the narrative repeats that the Israelites acted accordingly. The repetition of "they did" (once at the start, once at the end) forms an envelope that brackets the reference to the divine command.

Key words

• va-ya'asu ("and they did", H6213A) — qal narrative form, third person plural, opening the verse and establishing the main storyline verb.
• kol-bene Yisra'el ("all the sons/people of Israel", H3605 + H1121G) — construct chain, the collective subject performing the action.
• ka'asher ("just as", H0834D with H9004) — relative particle with comparative prefix, introducing the standard against which the action is measured.
• tzivvah ("he commanded", H6680) — piel perfect, intensive stem denoting a formal, authoritative command, completed prior to the main action.
• ken 'asu ("so they did", H3651C + H6213A) — adverb + qal perfect, closing the inclusio by restating the same verb root used at the opening.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a chiastic frame: va-ya'asu kol-bene Yisra'el ("and the Israelites did") opens the clause, and ken 'asu ("so they did") closes it, with the comparative clause ka'asher tzivvah Yehovah 'et-Mosheh ve'et-Aharon ("as Yehovah commanded Moses and Aaron") sitting between them. This repetition of the same verbal root (H6213A) at both edges of the verse is a common Hebrew narrative device to emphasize exact compliance — the action performed matches the command given, with no addition or subtraction implied by the grammar itself.

The direct object marker 'et (H0853) appears twice, once before Mosheh and once before Aharon, marking both names as direct recipients of Yehovah's command (tzivvah, H6680, piel perfect). The piel stem here carries the sense of a decisive, formal instruction rather than a casual suggestion. Grammatically, both Moses and Aaron are objects of the same verb tzivvah, meaning the Hebrew presents Yehovah's command as directed to both figures jointly.

Differences between versions

The LXX reads ἐνετείλατο κύριος τῷ Μωυσῇ καὶ Ἀαρὼν πρὸς αὐτούς — "the Lord commanded Moses, and Aaron [spoke/commanded] to them." This places Aaron in a different grammatical role than the Hebrew: rather than being a co-recipient of Yehovah's command (as the double 'et in the Hebrew indicates), the Greek syntax can be read as making Aaron a secondary agent addressing "them" (presumably the Israelites). The Vulgate, sicut præceperat Dominus Moysi et Aaron, follows the Hebrew structure more closely, keeping both Moses and Aaron as dative objects of the Lord's command, matching the double 'et construction in the Hebrew text.