Exodus 15:13

Summary

Exodus 15:13 declares that God has guided the people through his chesed ("covenant loyalty", H2617A) and has led them by his strength toward his holy dwelling place. The verse uses two verbs of movement/guidance to describe completed action toward a specific goal: the neveh qodesh ("abode of holiness", H5116A/H6944G).

Key words

• chasdekha — chesed ("covenant loyalty", H2617A) in construct form with the 2nd person suffix -kha ("your", H9021), meaning literally "in the covenant loyalty of you."
• ga'alta ("you have redeemed", H1350A) — qal perfect, 2nd person masculine singular, marking a completed act of redemption performed by the addressee (God).
• nehalta ("you have led [them]", H5095) — piel perfect, an intensive stem indicating a more forceful or sustained form of leading, distinct from the simple qal nachita used in the first verb.
• 'ozzekha — 'oz ("strength", H5797) in construct with -kha ("your", H9021), paralleling chasdekha in structure.
• neveh qodshekha — a construct chain: neveh ("abode of", H5116A) + qodesh ("holiness", H6944G) + -kha ("your", H9021), literally "abode of the holiness of you."

What the text says

The verse is built on two parallel clauses, each beginning with a perfect-tense verb of guidance followed by a prepositional phrase with be- ("in/by", H9003) plus a possessed quality of God, and each verb governs the people as object. The first clause uses nachita ("you have guided", H5148) in the qal stem with bechasdekha ("in your covenant loyalty"). The second clause intensifies this with nehalta ("you have led", H5095) in the piel stem, paired with be'ozzekha ("by your strength"). The shift from qal to piel suggests an escalation in the description of the leading action, though the grammatical data alone shows only the stem difference, not a specific semantic distinction beyond the qal/piel contrast.

The object of guidance is introduced by 'am zu ("the people which", H5971A + H2098), where zu functions as a relative particle introducing the following relative clause ga'alta ("you have redeemed"). The destination of the second leading verb is marked by 'el ("to", H0413) followed by the construct chain neveh qodshekha ("abode of your holiness"), a triple-layered construct expressing the goal of the movement.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders chasdekha ("your covenant loyalty") as tē dikaiosynē sou ("your righteousness"), a semantic shift from loyalty/faithfulness to justice/righteousness. The Vulgate renders it as misericordia tua ("your mercy"), another distinct nuance. The BSB translates the perfect-tense verbs nachita and nehalta as future ("You will lead," "You will guide"), where the Hebrew grammar shows completed (perfect) action, unlike the SBLIBRE and RV1909 which preserve past/present readings ("has guided," "condujiste").