Exodus 23:27

Summary

The verse describes YHWH sending "terror" ahead of the addressee, causing panic among peoples encountered, and making enemies turn their "neck" — an idiom for retreat — toward the speaker's people. Three first-person verbs describe sequential divine actions: sending, confusing, and giving.

Key words

• 'ei.ma.ti ("my terror", H0367) — feminine singular construct noun with 1st person suffix; placed first in the clause (before the verb) as the direct object, giving it emphasis.
• 'a.shal.lach ("I will send", H7971) — piel (intensive) imperfect, 1st person; the intensive stem suggests a forceful or deliberate sending, not a simple release.
• ha.mo.ti ("I will confuse", H2000) — qal sequential perfect, 1st person; this verb form continues a narrative chain begun by the initial imperfect, marking successive future actions.
• na.ta.ti ("I will give", H5414) — qal sequential perfect, 1st person; same chain-continuing form as hamoti, tying the third action to the first two.
• 'o.ref ("neck", H6203) — masculine singular noun; combined with 'elekha ("to you", H0413 + suffix), it forms the idiom "give neck to you," describing enemies presenting their backs.

What the text says

The verse opens with the direct object 'et-'eimati ("my terror") placed before its verb 'ashallach ("I will send"), a word-order choice that foregrounds the "terror" as the topic of the sentence rather than the act of sending itself. The following two verbs, hamoti ("I will confuse") and natati ("I will give"), both appear as sequential perfects (vav plus perfect), a common Biblical Hebrew construction where an initial imperfect sets up a future action and subsequent perfects with vav continue that same future sequence. This creates a three-part chain of action: sending terror, causing confusion among "all the people" (kol-ha'am, H3605 + H5971A) encountered, and giving over "all your enemies" (kol-'oyeveikha, H0341, participle "the ones being hostile") in a specific state.

That final state is expressed through the idiom 'elekha 'oref — literally "to you, neck." The construction pairs the preposition "to you" with the bare noun "neck," without an explicit verb of turning; the sense of enemies retreating or fleeing is carried by the idiom itself, relying on the physical image of presenting one's back/neck rather than one's face.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders hamoti ("I will confuse") with ἐκστήσω ("I will throw into amazement/confusion"), which corresponds closely to the Hebrew sense. However, for the "neck" idiom the LXX uses φυγάδας ("fugitives"), translating the idiom's meaning directly rather than preserving the "neck" image. The Vulgate's terga vertam ("I will turn their backs") keeps the physical imagery of the body turning away, closer to the Hebrew 'oref ("neck") than the LXX's abstract "fugitives." The Hebrew ha'am ("the people," singular collective) is rendered by the LXX with the plural τὰ ἔθνη ("the nations"), shifting from a singular collective noun to a plural form.