Exodus 18:16

Summary

Moses explains to Jethro the process he follows when Israelites bring him a case: when a davar ("matter", H1697L) comes before him, he judges between the parties and makes known to them God's statutes and laws. The verse uses a chain of Hebrew verb forms that together describe a habitual, repeated procedure rather than a single event.

Key words

• yihyeh ("it will be[long]", H1961) — qal imperfect, opening the conditional clause "when there is a matter"; the imperfect aspect marks this as recurring, not a one-time event.
• ba' ("[it is] coming", H0935G) — qal perfect describing the matter's arrival; despite being formally "perfect," it functions within the ongoing pattern set up by yihyeh.
• shafatti ("I judge", H8199) — qal sequential perfect (vav + perfect), continuing the narrative chain begun by the imperfect; expresses Moses' habitual judicial action.
• hoda'ti ("I make known", H3045) — hiphil sequential perfect, causative form: Moses does not merely know the statutes, he causes the parties to know them.
• torotav — construct noun torot ("laws", H8451) + suffix "his" (H9023), i.e. "his laws," referring back to ha-Elohim ("God", H0430G).

What the text says

The sentence begins with a conditional structure: ki ("for/if", H3588A) + yihyeh (imperfect) sets up a recurring scenario — "whenever there is a matter for them." The verb ba' (perfect) then states that the matter "comes" to Moses, and from there the text shifts into two sequential perfects, veshafatti ("and I judge") and vehoda'ti ("and I make known"), a common Biblical Hebrew pattern in which an initial imperfect is followed by vav-consecutive perfects to describe a repeated or customary action. The effect in Hebrew is procedural: this is what habitually happens, not a single past event.

The judged parties are marked by bein ish uvein re'ehu ("between a man and between his neighbor", H0996G twice, H0376I, H7453), a doubled preposition construction typical of reciprocal expressions in Hebrew, emphasizing the two-sided nature of the dispute. The object of Moses' teaching is expressed through two construct chains: chuqqei ha-Elohim ("statutes of God", H2706G + H0430G) and torotav ("his laws", H8451 + suffix), both governed by the causative hoda'ti, meaning Moses actively causes the parties to know these statutes and laws.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the Hebrew perfect/imperfect chain with present-tense verbs (γίνηται, ἔλθωσι, διακρίνω, συμβιβάζω), shifting the sense toward a generalizing present rather than the Hebrew's habitual-narrative sequence. Where the Hebrew has torotav ("his laws", plural, H8451), the LXX gives τὸν νόμον αὐτοῦ, singular "his law." The Vulgate's ostendam ("I will show") is future tense, differing from the Hebrew sequential perfect hoda'ti ("I make known").