Exodus 2:4

Summary

The verse describes the sister of the child positioning herself at a distance to observe what would happen to him. The Hebrew emphasizes both her physical stance and her purpose of gaining knowledge about the outcome.

Key words

• tetaTzav ("she stood", H3320) — hithpael stem (reflexive/self-involved action) with narrative vav, indicating she placed herself in position, not simply that she happened to be standing.
• 'achoT ("sister", H0269) — feminine singular noun in construct state, linked to the following pronominal suffix to form "his sister."
• meraChok ("from a distance", H7350) — adjective preceded by the preposition me ("from"), describing the spatial separation between the sister and the scene.
• de'ah ("to know", H3045) — qal infinitive, expressing purpose ("in order to know"), the goal of her positioning.
• ye'aSeh ("will it be done", H6213A) — niphal imperfect (passive/reflexive voice), meaning the action happens to the child rather than being performed by an agent stated in the clause.

What the text says

The clause structure follows a narrative sequence typical of Biblical Hebrew: the vav-consecutive verb tetaTzav opens the sentence, establishing the sister's action as the next event in the story. The hithpael stem here conveys that she deliberately stationed herself — the reflexive nuance suggests intentional self-positioning rather than passive presence. This is reinforced by the prepositional phrase meraChok, which specifies the distance without which her observation could be discovered.

The purpose clause introduced by le-de'ah ("to know") is built on the qal infinitive of yada ("to know", H3045), a common Hebrew infinitive-of-purpose construction. It is followed by an embedded question: mah-ye'aSeh lo ("what will be done to him"). The verb ye'aSeh is in the niphal — a passive/reflexive stem — meaning the grammatical subject (the child, referenced by the pronominal suffix lo, "to him") undergoes the action rather than performing it. No agent is named in the Hebrew; the construction leaves open who or what will act upon the child, focusing attention on the outcome rather than the actor.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the initial verb as kateskopeuen ("she was watching/spying"), which shifts the semantic emphasis from the Hebrew's tetaTzav ("she stood" / "positioned herself") toward an activity of surveillance rather than simple positioning. The Vulgate's stante ("standing") aligns more closely with the Hebrew verb's stance, though it uses a participial construction rather than the reflexive hithpael. All versions agree on the distance (meraChok / procul / makrothen) and the purpose of observing the outcome for the child.