Exodus 2:20

Summary

Jethro (referred to only as "he") asks his daughters where the man is, questions why they left him, and instructs them to invite him to eat. The verse consists of three quick statements: a question of location, a question of reproach, and a command.

Key words

• va-yomer ("and he said", H0559) — qal narrative form marking the next event in sequence, introducing direct speech.
• ve-'ai-vo ("and where [is] he", H0335 + suffix H9043) — the interrogative particle 'ay combined with a pronominal suffix, producing "and where is he?" as a single compact phrase rather than a separate pronoun and verb.
• lammah zeh ("why [is] this", H4100 + H2088) — the interrogative mah intensified by the demonstrative zeh, giving emphasis to the question, closer to "why on earth" than a plain "why."
• 'azavten ("you all have left", H5800A) — qal perfect, second person feminine plural, marking the daughters' action as completed before the moment of speaking.
• qir'en ("invite", H7121G) — qal imperative, feminine plural, a direct command to the daughters to summon the man.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with the narrative verb va-yomer ("and he said", H0559), which does not name the subject explicitly — the subject "he" is carried only in the verb's third-person masculine form, with the audience being benotav ("his daughters", H1323G + H9023). The first question, ve-'ai-vo ("and where [is] he", H0335 + H9043), fuses the interrogative and pronoun into one word, a construction Hebrew allows but which the target languages must expand into two words ("where is he").

The second question uses lammah zeh ("why [is] this", H4100 + H2088), where the demonstrative zeh adds rhetorical force to the question "why," a nuance not distinctly rendered by a simple "why" in translation. The verb 'azavten ("you have left", H5800A) is a qal perfect addressed to the daughters as a group (feminine plural), describing their action as already completed at the time of speaking.

The final clause shifts to command and purpose: qir'en lo ("invite him", H7121G) is a feminine plural imperative, followed by ve-yokhal lachem ("so he may eat food/bread", H0398 + H3899H), an imperfect verb with the conjunctive vav expressing the intended result of the invitation — that the man may eat.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the opening question as "Καὶ ποῦ ἐστι" ("And where is he?"), matching the Hebrew's combined interrogative-pronoun construction with two separate words. The Vulgate's "Ubi est?" similarly separates the interrogative and verb "to be." The Hebrew lechem ("food/bread", H3899H) is rendered as "ἄρτον" (bread) in the LXX and "panem" (bread) in the Vulgate, both narrowing the broader Hebrew term to the specific sense of "bread," a narrowing also reflected in the BSB's "something to eat," which does not use "bread" at all.