Exodus 16:6

Summary

Moses and Aaron address all the Israelites, announcing that "in the evening" they will come to know that it was Yehovah who brought them out of the land of Egypt. The verse functions as an introduction to the sign that will follow (the quail in the evening, manna in the morning).

Key words

• va-yYomer — "and he said" (H0559): qal verb in narrative form, introduces the direct speech of Moses and Aaron as a single joint utterance (singular verb form governing two subjects).
• 'Erev — "evening" (H6153): masculine singular noun functioning adverbially, marking the time when knowledge will be given.
• vi-da'Tem — "and you will know" (H3045): qal sequential perfect, continues the narrative chain and expresses a future action that will occur as a consequence of what precedes.
• ki — "that / if" (H3588A): subordinating particle introducing the content of what will be known.
• hoTzi' — "he brought out" (H3318H): hiphil (causative) perfect, marks Yehovah as the causative agent of the exodus from Egypt, a completed action.

What the text says

The sentence opens with the narrative verb va-yYomer ("and he said", H0559) in the singular, even though it has two grammatical subjects, mo.sheh ("Moses", H4872) and ve-'aharon ("and Aaron", H0175). This singular agreement with a compound subject is a feature of the Hebrew verbal syntax in this clause. The addressees are marked by 'el ("to", H0413) plus the construct chain kol beney Yisra'el ("all the sons/people of Israel"), where kol (H3605) and beney (H1121G) are both in construct state, meaning "the totality of the sons of Israel" as a single grouped audience.

The temporal noun 'Erev ("evening", H6153) stands without a preposition, functioning adverbially to set the moment of the announced knowledge. The verb vi-da'Tem ("and you will know", H3045) is a sequential perfect continuing the narrative chain begun by va-yYomer, and it expresses a future realization tied to that evening. The particle ki (H3588A) introduces what will be known: that YHWH (H3068G) is the one who hoTzi' ("brought out", H3318H) — a hiphil form denoting causation, "caused to go out" — the people me-'Eretz mitzRayim ("from the land of Egypt", H0776G/H4714G). The direct object marker 'et (H0853) with the suffix -khem ("you", H9036) explicitly marks the Israelites as the object of this causative action.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders kol beney Yisra'el ("all the sons of Israel") as πᾶσαν συναγωγὴν υἱῶν Ἰσραήλ ("all the congregation of the sons of Israel"), inserting the term "congregation" (συναγωγήν) not present as a separate lexeme in the Hebrew construct phrase. The Vulgate's scietis ("you will know") and eduxerit (subjunctive, "he might have led out") reflect the Hebrew's vi-da'Tem and hoTzi', though the Vulgate's subjunctive mood for eduxerit differs from the Hebrew perfect hoTzi', which presents the action as a completed fact rather than a subordinated possibility.