Exodus 32:34

Summary

God instructs Moses to go and lead the people to the place already designated, promising that a divine mal'akh ("angel/messenger", H4397) will go ahead of him. The verse closes with a warning that on a future "day of visiting," God will hold the people accountable for their sin.

Key words

• lekh ("go", H1980G) — qal imperative, second masculine singular; a direct command to Moses, paired immediately with a second imperative.
• nechei ("lead", H5148) — qal imperative, second masculine singular; together with lekh it forms a double command ("go, lead") rather than a single verb.
• mal'akhi ("my angel/messenger", H4397H + H9020) — construct noun with first-person suffix "my," identifying the figure who will go lefaneikha ("before you", H6440G + H9021).
• paqedi ("my visiting", H6485I) — qal infinitive with first-person suffix, functioning as a verbal noun inside the phrase "day of my visiting" (yom paqedi).
• u-faqadti ("and I will visit/punish", H6485I) — sequential (waw-consecutive) perfect, continuing the timeline set up by the infinitive paqedi; it marks the future act as the narrative continuation of the "day" just mentioned.

What the text says

The verse opens with the conjunction ve ("and", H9002) plus 'attah ("now", H6258), marking a transition in the divine speech. Two qal imperatives, lekh ("go") and nechei ("lead"), are stacked back-to-back, both addressed to Moses in the second masculine singular — a construction that in Hebrew intensifies the directive by combining motion ("go") with responsibility for the people ("lead"). The object ha-'am ("the people", H5971A) is marked by the untranslated direct-object particle 'et (H0853), a grammatical marker with no independent meaning in translation.

The destination is given not as a place-name but via the relative clause 'asher dibbarti lakh ("where I have spoken to you"), using the piel perfect dibbarti ("I have spoken", H1696G) — a completed act of prior speech referenced back to an earlier command. The phrase hinneh mal'akhi yelekh lefaneikha uses the interjection hinneh ("there!", H2009) to draw attention, followed by the qal imperfect yelekh ("he will go", H1980G), indicating ongoing or future accompaniment.

The final clause pivots on the construct pair yom paqedi ("day of my visiting"), where the infinitive paqedi (H6485I) functions nominally, "in my visiting." The same root reappears as the finite sequential perfect u-faqadti ("and I will visit", H6485I), continuing the temporal clause into a main assertion: the act of "visiting" (paqad) will fall specifically chattatam ("their sin", H2403B), a construct noun with a third-person plural suffix. The repetition of the root paqad in two different grammatical forms (infinitive, then finite verb) is a feature visible only in the Hebrew, linking the "day of visiting" directly to the act of visiting-as-punishment.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders lekh nechei ("go, lead") with two separate Greek imperatives, βάδιζε κατάβηθι ("go, go down") — adding a notion of descent not present in the Hebrew verbs. Where the Hebrew has mal'akhi yelekh lefaneikha ("my angel will go before you"), the Vulgate gives angelus meus praecedet te ("my angel will precede you"), a future tense rather than the Hebrew imperfect nuance of ongoing accompaniment. The Vulgate also renders yom paqedi as in die ultionis ("in the day of vengeance"), introducing the concept of "vengeance" where the Hebrew root paqad (H6485I) more broadly denotes "visiting" or "attending to."