Exodus 23:26

Summary

The verse promises that no woman in the land will suffer miscarriage or infertility, and states that the days of a person's life will be brought to their full number. It is framed as a direct declaration in the first person.

Key words

• tih.Yeh ("will be", H1961) — qal imperfect, third feminine singular; sets up the negated existence ("there will not be") that governs the following participle and adjective.
• me.sha.ke.Lah ("miscarrying", H7921A) — piel participle, feminine singular; the piel stem gives an intensive/causative nuance, describing one who habitually or actively experiences miscarriage rather than a single event.
• 'a.ka.Rah ("barren", H6135) — feminine singular adjective, paired with the participle by the conjunction va ("and", H9002), joining two distinct conditions (miscarriage and barrenness) under the single negated verb.
• 'ar.Tze.kha ("your land", H0776G + H9021) — construct noun with second-person masculine suffix, locating the promise within a specific "land of yours."
• 'a.ma.Le' ("I will complete", H4390) — piel imperfect, first person; the piel stem intensifies the basic sense of "to be full," yielding "to fill completely" or "to complete," with the subject being the speaker acting upon "the number of your days."

What the text says

The sentence divides into two clauses joined by a period in the Hebrew (here represented by the paragraph mark). The first clause uses lo' ("not", H3808) with tih.Yeh ("will be", H1961) to negate existence, and its subject is doubled: a feminine participle me.sha.ke.Lah ("miscarrying", H7921A) and a feminine adjective 'a.ka.Rah ("barren", H6135), connected by va ("and", H9002). Both terms are grammatically feminine singular, agreeing with the implied subject (a woman), and both are negated by the single verb tih.Yeh. The locative phrase be'ar.Tze.kha ("in your land", H9003 + H0776G + H9021) specifies where this condition applies, using the construct form of 'ar.Tze ("land", H0776G) with a second-person masculine possessive suffix.

The second clause shifts subject and voice: 'et-mis.Par ya.Mei.kha ("the number of your days", H0853 + H4557 + H3117G + H9021) is the object, marked by the untranslated object marker 'et, and 'a.ma.Le' ("I will complete", H4390) is a first-person piel imperfect verb. The piel stem here conveys a completive or intensive sense — not merely "to be full" but "to bring to completion." The construct chain mis.Par yamei.kha ("number of your days") ties the count of days directly to the addressee via the suffix -kha ("your", H9021).

Differences between versions

The LXX renders me.sha.ke.Lah ("miscarrying", H7921A) as ágonos ("childless/barren") and 'a.ka.Rah ("barren", H6135) as steîra ("sterile"), producing two terms both oriented toward infertility, whereas the Hebrew participle me.sha.ke.Lah specifically denotes the act of miscarrying (loss of offspring already conceived) rather than an inability to conceive. The Vulgate follows a similar pattern with infoecunda ("infertile") and sterilis ("sterile"), also collapsing the distinction between miscarriage and barrenness that the Hebrew maintains through its two distinct grammatical forms (participle vs. adjective).