Exodus 2:12

Summary

The verse narrates a sequence of four actions: the subject turns to look in both directions, sees that no one is present, strikes down the Egyptian, and hides him in the sand. The Hebrew presents these as a chain of consecutive events linked by the narrative vav.

Key words

• va-yiFen ("and he turned", H6437G) — qal narrative form; the initial vav connects this action to the preceding context as the next event in sequence.
• koh...va-khoh ("thus...and thus", H3541) — the adverb koh is repeated with a conjunction between, producing the idiomatic sense of looking "this way and that way."
• ein ("there not", H0369) — construct-state negative existential noun, used with ish to state the absence of a person.
• ish ("a person", H0376I) — masculine singular noun; combined with ein forms the clause "there was no man."
• va-yakh ("and he struck down", H5221) — hiphil (causative) narrative form; the causative stem marks the action as forcefully inflicting a blow, distinct from a simple qal "hit."
• va-yitmeneHU ("and he hid him", H2934) — qal narrative verb with the pronominal suffix hu ("him") attached directly, making the object grammatically inseparable from the verb.

What the text says

The verse is built entirely from four narrative vav-prefixed verbs (va-yiFen, va-yarʾ, va-yakh, va-yitmeneHU), each marking a discrete step in a temporal chain: "and he turned... and he saw... and he struck... and he hid." This verb form (the so-called vav-consecutive) is the standard narrative backbone in Biblical Hebrew prose, presenting events as sequential rather than merely coordinated.

The phrase koh va-khoh ("thus and thus", H3541 repeated) uses a doubled adverb to convey a scanning motion in two directions, an idiom the word-by-word gloss renders literally but which functions idiomatically as "this way and that." The clause ki ein ish ("that there was no man") uses the negative existential ein (H0369) in construct form followed by ish (H0376I), a common Hebrew construction for stating nonexistence or absence, here functioning as the object of "he saw" introduced by the particle ki (H3588A, "that").

The verb va-yakh (H5221) is in the hiphil stem, marking a causative or intensified action ("caused to strike," rendered "struck down"), distinguishing it from a plain qal verb of hitting. Finally, va-yitmeneHU attaches the direct object pronoun hu ("him") as a suffix directly on the verb yitmen (H2934, "he hid"), a common Hebrew practice of incorporating pronominal objects into the verb form itself rather than using a separate word.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders koh va-khoh as "huc atque illuc" ("hither and thither"), matching the directional sense of the Hebrew idiom. The Vulgate also renders ein ish as "nullum adesse" ("no one present"), consistent with the Hebrew's negative existential construction. The provided LXX text is fragmentary in this excerpt, showing only "...him in the sand," so no further comparison can be made from the given data.