Exodus 18:15

Summary

Moses answers his father-in-law Jethro, explaining why people come to him: the people seek him out in order to consult God. The verse functions as Moses's direct reply within the narrative frame introduced by the previous exchange.

Key words

• va-yomer ("and he said", H0559) — narrative vav plus a qal imperfect (used as narrative past) marks this as the next event in the story sequence: Moses speaks in response to Jethro's question.
• choteno ("his father-in-law", H2859A) — a qal participle functioning as a noun ("the one who is father-in-law"), in construct form with the pronominal suffix -o ("his"), producing "his father-in-law."
• ki ("that/if/because", H3588A) — a flexible subordinating particle that can introduce a causal clause ("because") or a content clause ("that"); it links Moses's statement to the reason people approach him.
• yavo ("it comes / he comes", H0935G) — qal imperfect, denoting an action seen as ongoing, repeated, or future rather than a single completed past event — the people's coming to Moses is presented as a recurring pattern.
• lidrosh ("to consult/seek", H1875) — qal infinitive construct with the prefixed preposition le- ("to"), expressing purpose: the people come "in order to consult."
• Elohim ("God", H0430G) — a plural-form noun used here with singular reference, the object of the seeking/consulting.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as: "and-he-said Moses to-his-father-in-law, that/because comes to-me the-people to-consult God." The particle ki (H3588A) is grammatically ambiguous between a causal sense ("because the people come to me...") and a declarative sense ("that the people come to me..."), which is why translations render it differently — some as "because," others treating it as introducing the content of what Moses says. The imperfect verb yavo (H0935G) does not simply report a single past visit; its aspect suggests a habitual or ongoing situation — people regularly come. The purpose clause is formed with the infinitive lidrosh (H1875) preceded by le-, a common Hebrew construction for expressing "in order to." The object of this seeking is Elohim (H0430G), a grammatically plural noun that in this construction takes singular reference.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the purpose clause as ἐκζητῆσαι κρίσιν παρὰ τοῦ θεοῦ ("to seek out a judgment/decision from God"), inserting κρίσιν ("judgment"), a noun with no direct equivalent in the Hebrew clause lidrosh Elohim ("to consult God"). The Vulgate similarly adds sententiam ("verdict, sentence") — "quærens sententiam Dei" — where the Hebrew simply states the people come "to consult God" without naming a judgment or verdict as the object sought. The Hebrew ki is rendered by the LXX with ὅτι ("that/because"), while modern translations split between "because" (BSB) and "es que" (SBLIBRE, roughly "the fact is that"), reflecting the same ambiguity present in the particle itself.