Exodus 2:9

Summary

Pharaoh's daughter instructs the woman (the child's mother) to take the child and nurse him, promising payment. The woman then takes the child and nurses him, exactly as instructed. The verse closes the negotiation begun in the previous verses with a report of compliance.

Key words

• heiLichi ("take", H1980J) — hiphil (causative) imperative, feminine singular: a direct command to the woman, causing her to "take/carry away" the child.
• heiniKi ("suckle", H3243H) — hiphil imperative, feminine singular, from the same root as later teniKe; frames nursing as a causative act ("cause to suck").
• li ("for me", H9030 with H9005) — first-person suffix attached to the preposition, marking Pharaoh's daughter as the beneficiary of the nursing arrangement.
• 'eTen ("I will pay/give", H5414N) — qal imperfect, first person: expresses a future/ongoing action, the promised wage.
• tiKach ("she took", H3947G) and teniKe ("she suckled", H3947G/H3243H) — both qal/hiphil narrative forms ("and then…"), continuing the storyline after the direct speech ends.

What the text says

The verse divides into two parts: direct speech (word-groups 2–23) and narrative resumption (24–32). The speech opens with va-Tomer ("and she said", H0559), introduced by the narrative vav that chains it to the prior verse. Inside the speech, Pharaoh's daughter gives two paired imperatives, heiLichi ("take") and heiniKi... li ("suckle... for me"), both hiphil causative forms addressed to a feminine singular "you" — the woman being spoken to. The object of both commands is ha-yeled ha-zeh ("the child, this", H3206 + H2088), marked by the untranslated direct-object particle 'et. The phrase veheiniKihu li uses the first-person suffix li ("to/for me") to indicate that although the woman performs the nursing, the benefit and authority belong to Pharaoh's daughter.

The second clause of the speech, va'aNi 'eTen 'et-sekhaRekh ("and I, I will give your wages"), places the independent pronoun 'aNi ("I", H0589) before the verb 'eTen ("I will pay", qal imperfect H5414N), creating an explicit contrast between the addressee who nurses and the speaker who pays — a construction marking emphasis on the subject "I" that a flatter translation may not preserve.

After the quotation, the narrative resumes with three verbs joined by the narrative vav: tiKach ("she took", H3947G), followed by hayeled ("the child") without the object marker this time, and teniKe ("she suckled him", H3243H) with the pronominal suffix hu ("him", H9033). The narration mirrors the commands given, reporting execution rather than merely stating compliance in general terms.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders heiLichi ("take") as Diatērēson ("keep safe/preserve"), a different semantic nuance from the Hebrew imperative "take" (H1980J, hiphil of "to walk/carry"). The Vulgate's Accipe... et nutri ("receive... and nourish") aligns more closely with the Hebrew commands. The Hebrew sekharekh ("your wages", H7939) appears in the LXX as ton misthon ("the wage") without the second-person suffix explicit on "wage" in the same construct form, though the sense of payment to "you" is retained via soi ("to you").