Exodus 13:19

Summary

The verse states that Moses took the bones of Joseph with him when leaving Egypt, explaining this action with a causal clause: Joseph had made the Israelites swear an oath that when God "visited" them, they would carry his bones out with them.

Key words

• hashBea' hishBia' ("certainly he made swear", H7650) — infinitive absolute followed by the perfect of the same root; this doubling is a grammatical device that intensifies or confirms the verb's action, here rendered in translations as "had solemnly made swear" or "certainly."
• paKod yifKod ("certainly he will visit", H6485I) — the same construction (infinitive absolute + imperfect) applied to a different verb, marking the future action of "visiting/attending to" as emphatic or certain.
• 'atzMot ("bones of", H6106G) — feminine plural noun in construct state, linking to Yosef to form "the bones of Joseph"; the same word reappears in construct with the 1st-person suffix ('atzmoTai, "my bones").
• 'Elohim ("God", H0430G) — grammatically plural noun functioning as the subject of the singular verb yifKod ("he will visit"), the standard pattern for this term as a divine name.
• miZeh ("from here", H2088) — demonstrative particle combined with the preposition mi ("from"), specifying the location from which the bones are to be carried up.

What the text says

The verse opens with a narrative vav attached to yiqqach ("he took"), continuing the sequence of the exodus account with Moses as subject. The direct object, 'et-'atzmot Yosef ("the bones of Joseph"), is marked by the untranslated object particle 'et, and the phrase 'immo ("with him") closes the main clause.

The causal clause beginning with ki ("for/because") explains this action through a quoted oath. Two verbs in this clause use the infinitive absolute + finite verb pattern (hashBea' hishBia' and paKod yifKod), a construction that grammatically marks certainty or emphasis on the verbal action itself, independent of tense. The oath's content is introduced by le'mor ("saying"), and its final clause uses a sequential perfect (ha'aliTem, "you will bring up") to continue the sequence of required future action tied to the divine "visiting."

Differences between versions

The LXX renders 'Elohim ("God") as κύριος ("Lord"), where the Hebrew text uses the plural noun 'Elohim. The LXX and Hebrew both use emphatic doubling for "swear" (ὅρκῳ ὥρκισεν / hashBea' hishBia') and "visit" (Ἐπισκοπῇ ἐπισκέψεται / paKod yifKod), though the Vulgate's adjurasset and Visitabit do not preserve this doubled emphatic structure, presenting the actions as single verbs.