Exodus 18:20

Summary

Jethro instructs Moses to warn the people about the statutes and laws, and to make known to them the way they should walk and the deeds they should perform. The verse uses two sequential perfect verbs describing Moses' ongoing duties toward the people.

Key words

• hizharTah ("you will warn", H2094B) — hiphil causative, sequential perfect; implies not just informing but actively cautioning or admonishing.
• chuKim ("statutes", H2706G) — masculine plural noun; paired with toRot to form a two-part legal category.
• toRot ("laws", H8451) — feminine plural noun; from the same root as torah, here in plural form indicating multiple instructions or teachings.
• Derekh ("way", H1870G) — common gender singular; followed by an imperfect verb clause describing future/ongoing walking.
• ya'aSun ("they will do", H6213A) — qal imperfect with paragogic nun (H9013), an archaic/emphatic verbal ending adding stress to the final clause.

What the text says

The verse is built on two parallel sequential-perfect verbs, hizharTah ("you will warn", H2094B) and ho.da'.Ta ("you will make known", H3045), both hiphil causatives addressed to Moses in the second-person masculine singular. Each verb governs a compound direct object introduced by the untranslated marker 'et (H0853): the first governs ha-chuKim ("the statutes", H2706G) and ha-toRot ("the laws", H8451); the second governs ha-Derekh ("the way", H1870G) and ha-ma'aSeh ("the work", H4639G). Both second objects are followed by relative clauses using the imperfect tense — yelekhu ("they will walk", H1980I) and ya'aSun ("they will do", H6213A) — describing future or habitual action rather than a single completed event. The final verb carries a paragogic nun (H9013), a grammatical ending that adds rhetorical weight without changing basic meaning.

The structure moves from fixed legal categories (statutes, laws) to practical conduct (way, deeds), each pair joined by the conjunction ve (H9002). The relative clauses lack an explicit relative pronoun before yelekhu, while the second clause explicitly uses 'asher ("which", H0834A) before ya'aSun, showing a syntactic variation between the two parallel clauses in the Hebrew.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders hizharTah ("you will warn") with διαμαρτυρῇ ("you shall testify/solemnly declare"), a different semantic emphasis than the Hebrew warning-sense. The LXX also adds τοῦ θεοῦ ("of God") to "the ordinances," a specification absent in the Hebrew chuKim. Where the Hebrew has plural toRot ("laws"), the LXX gives singular τὸν νόμον ("the law"). Conversely, where the Hebrew has singular ha-Derekh ("the way"), the LXX uses plural τὰς ὁδοὺς ("the ways"). The Vulgate renders the same objects as cæremonias et ritum colendi ("ceremonies and the rite of worship"), introducing a cultic nuance not explicit in the Hebrew chuKim/toRot, and adds debeant ("they ought/must") to both final clauses, an obligation marker not morphologically present in the Hebrew imperfects yelekhu and ya'aSun.