Exodus 15:18

Summary

This verse closes the Song of the Sea with a declaration about Yehovah ("Yehovah", H3068G): he will reign perpetually. The Hebrew expresses this endless duration through a doubled temporal phrase rather than a single word for "eternity."

Key words

• Yehovah ("Yehovah", H3068G) — the divine proper name, subject of the verb, placed first in the clause for emphasis.
• yimlokh ("he will reign", H4427A) — qal imperfect, third person masculine singular; the imperfect aspect marks the action as ongoing or not-yet-completed, suited to describing continuous or future reign rather than a single completed act.
• le ("for", H9005) — preposition attached to the following noun, marking duration ("for/unto").
• 'olam ("ever", H5769G) — masculine singular noun denoting a long, indefinite stretch of time; here it is the object of the preposition le.
• 'ed ("ever", H5703) — masculine singular noun, joined to 'olam by the conjunction va ("and", H9002), reinforcing the idea of duration.

What the text says

The clause has a simple subject-verb structure: Yehovah ("Yehovah", H3068G) is the subject, and yimlokh ("he will reign", H4427A) is the verb, a qal imperfect form. The imperfect conjugation in Biblical Hebrew does not correspond neatly to English future tense; it marks an action viewed as incomplete, habitual, or ongoing, which is why translations render it as "will reign" but the underlying aspect allows for a sense of continuous, unbroken kingship rather than a single future event.

The temporal phrase le'olam va'ed ("for ever and ever") is built from two nouns, 'olam ("ever", H5769G) and 'ed ("ever", H5703), joined by the conjunction va ("and", H9002). Both nouns individually denote long or indefinite duration; their combination through the conjunction intensifies the sense of continuity, producing an idiomatic doubling rather than two distinct time periods. The preposition le ("for", H9005) governs this whole phrase, marking it as the extent of the reigning described by the verb.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the Hebrew verbal clause yimlokh ("he will reign", H4427A) with a participle, basileuōn ("reigning"), shifting from a finite verb to a participial construction. The LXX also expands the temporal phrase into three elements — "the age, and upon age, and still" — where the Hebrew has only two nouns ('olam and 'ed). The Vulgate's regnabit in æternum et ultra ("he will reign forever and beyond") uses a future finite verb, closer to the Hebrew's verbal structure, and renders the doubled Hebrew phrase with a single term plus "and beyond," compressing the two Hebrew nouns into a different two-part construction.