Exodus 14:16

Summary

Exodus 14:16 records a divine command directed at a single addressee ("you," Moses in context) to perform three successive actions with staff and hand upon the sea, with the stated purpose that the people of Israel may pass through on dry ground.

Key words

• ha.Rem ("raise", H7311A) — hiphil (causative) imperative: the causative stem indicates the subject causes the staff to go up, rather than a simple lifting.
• ne.Teh ("stretch out", H5186) — qal imperative, second in a sequence of three commands, governing "your hand" as its object.
• ve.ka.'E.hu ("divide it", H1234 + H9033) — qal imperative with attached third-person masculine suffix ("it/him"), referring back to ha.Yam ("the sea", H3220G); the suffix ties the action of splitting directly to the sea just mentioned.
• ya.Vo.'u ("they may go", H0935G) — qal imperfect with prefixed ve (H9002), marking a purpose or resulting clause: "so that they may come/go," shifting from imperative to a consequence of the prior three commands.
• ba.Yabashah ("on the dry ground", H3004 with preposition+article H9003) — the definite noun for dry ground, marking the terrain as specific and already established ("the dry ground"), not merely generic dryness.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a chain of three second-person masculine singular imperatives — ha.Rem ("raise"), ne.Teh ("stretch out"), and ve.ka.'E.hu ("divide it") — each governing its own object marked by 'et (H0853, untranslated direct object marker): "your staff" (mat.te.kha), "your hand" (yad.kha), and the sea itself via the suffix on ve.ka.'E.hu. The repeated construct forms mat.te- ("staff of") and yad- ("hand of") followed by the second-person suffix -kha ("your") tie each instrument grammatically to the addressee, producing a rhythmic three-part instruction: raise, stretch, divide.

The clause introduced by ve.yaVo'u ("and let them come/go") shifts grammatical mood from imperative to imperfect, functioning as a purpose or result clause dependent on the preceding commands — the sense is "so that" the people may enter. The phrase be.tokh ha.Yam ("in the middle of the sea") uses the construct noun tokh ("middle of") to specify location, while ba.Yabashah uses the definite article, presenting "the dry ground" as a specific place rather than a general description of dryness.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the causative ha.Rem ("raise", hiphil) with the imperative ἔπαρον ("lift up"), and translates mat.te.kha ("your staff") with the dative τῇ ῥάβδῳ σου ("with your staff") rather than as a direct object, shifting the staff from object of the verb to an instrumental phrase. The LXX also renders be.tokh ha.Yam ("in the middle of the sea") as εἰς μέσον τῆς θαλάσσης, matching the Hebrew construct sense, but translates ba.Yabashah ("on the dry ground") as κατὰ τὸ ξηρόν ("according to/by the dry [place]"), using a different preposition than the Hebrew be ("in/on"). The Vulgate's per siccum ("through the dry [ground]") similarly shifts the preposition compared to the Hebrew ba ("on the/in the").