Exodus 33:14

Summary

The verse reports a divine reply, introduced simply as "he said," promising that "my presence" will accompany the addressee and that rest will be granted to him. The Hebrew centers on two verbal actions: going ahead and causing rest.

Key words

• panay ("my presence/face", H6440) — plural noun in construct with the suffix "my"; literally "my faces," idiomatically used for personal presence or front.
• yelekhu ("they will go", H1980) — qal imperfect, third person plural, agreeing grammatically with the plural noun panay; expresses future/ongoing motion.
• vahanichoti ("and I will give rest", H5117) — hiphil (causative) sequential perfect, first person; continues the narrative sequence begun by the vav on vayomer, shifting the causing of rest onto "I."
• lakh ("to you", H9005+H9031) — preposition with second-person masculine singular suffix, marking the recipient of the rest.
• vayomer ("and he said", H0559) — qal narrative verb, third person masculine singular; the subject "he" is not named in this verse, only implied by prior context.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence has no explicit subject for vayomer ("and he said"); the speaker is identified only by the verb's third-person masculine form, not by a stated name. The core promise is built on two clauses joined by the narrative vav-chain: panay yelekhu ("my presence/faces will go") and vahanichoti lakh ("and I will give rest to you"). Grammatically, panay is plural (a common feature of this noun in Hebrew, not indicating multiple faces) and functions as the grammatical subject of the plural verb yelekhu, which is itself in the imperfect, indicating ongoing or future action rather than a single completed event. The second clause switches subject to "I" via the hiphil perfect hanichoti, a causative form meaning to cause rest, directed at the addressee through the suffixed preposition lakh.

Differences between versions

The LXX (Swete) renders the sentence without a noun equivalent to panay ("presence/face"), instead using a first-person verb, "αὐτὸς προπορεύσομαί σου" ("I myself will go before you"), converting the noun-based Hebrew subject into a personal pronoun and verb. The Vulgate preserves the noun with "Facies mea praecedet te" ("my face will precede you"), matching the Hebrew panay more closely but choosing "precede" for yelekhu ("they will go") rather than a plain motion verb. Modern translations (BSB, SBLIBRE) supply the explicit subject "the LORD" or "Yehová" for vayomer, information not present in the Hebrew verb itself.