Exodus 14:6

Summary

The verse describes an unnamed subject (Pharaoh, continuing from the preceding narrative) harnessing his chariot and taking his people with him. Two parallel clauses report these two actions, both marked by third-person masculine singular verbs and possessive suffixes referring to the same subject.

Key words

• ye'sor ("he harnessed", H0631) — qal wayyiqtol form, the standard narrative tense signaling the next sequential event in the story.
• rikhbo ("his chariot", H7393) — masculine singular noun in construct with the pronominal suffix -o ("his"), naming the object harnessed.
• 'et (H0853) — untranslatable direct object marker, appearing twice (before rikhbo and before ammo), marking each noun as the object of its verb.
• ammo ("his people", H5971) — masculine singular noun with suffix -o, referring to the group taken along; note this noun is fronted before its verb.
• laqach ("he took", H3947) — qal perfect (completed action), the second main verb of the verse.
• immo ("with him", H5973 + suffix) — preposition with pronominal suffix, closing the second clause by specifying that the people went "with him."

What the text says

The verse contains two short clauses linked by the conjunction va ("and", H9001). The first clause follows normal Hebrew word order: verb–object (va-ye'sor et-rikhbo, "and he harnessed his chariot"). The second clause reverses this order, placing the object et-ammo ("his people") before the verb laqach ("he took"), producing a structure object–verb rather than verb–object. This fronting of ammo gives it a marked position in the sentence, distinguishing the second action from the first even though both share the same grammatical subject (unexpressed in the Hebrew, understood from context as third-person singular).

Both objects — rikhbo ("his chariot") and ammo ("his people") — are marked with the object marker 'et, and both carry the third-person singular possessive suffix -o ("his"), tying the chariot and the people to the same possessor. The final word, immo ("with him"), reinforces that the people's movement is bound to the subject's own presence.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew text has no explicit subject noun in this verse (the actor is grammatically only "he"). The LXX supplies the proper noun Φαραὼ ("Pharaoh"), making the subject explicit, while the Vulgate's Junxit ergo also leaves the subject unstated, matching the Hebrew's implicit third-person form. The LXX renders ammo ("his people") as πάντα τὸν λαὸν αὐτοῦ ("all his people"), adding "all," an emphasis not present in the Hebrew noun itself.