Exodus 33:16

Summary

Moses asks how it will be known that he and the people have found favor in God's sight, unless God goes with them. He states that this accompaniment is what distinguishes him and the people from every other people on the earth.

Key words

• yivvada' ("will it be known", H3045) — niphal imperfect, passive/reflexive form of yada', indicating an action not yet completed and undergone rather than performed by an agent; this frames the whole verse as a question about future recognition.
• matzati ("I have found", H4672) — qal perfect, a completed action, marking the favor as an already-established fact from which the request follows.
• lekhtekha ("your going", H1980G) — qal infinitive with second-person suffix, used after the preposition be- ("in/by"), forming the conditional core: "in your going with us."
• nifleinu ("we will be distinguished", H6395) — niphal sequential perfect, continuing the narrative chain after the infinitive clause; passive/reflexive form indicating the people become set apart rather than setting themselves apart.
• 'amekha ("your people", H5971A) — construct noun with second-person suffix, repeated three times in the verse, tying the people's identity directly to the addressee (God).

What the text says

The verse opens with the interrogative ba-meh ("in what?", from H4100 with prefixed preposition), followed by the niphal imperfect yivvada' ("will it be known"), setting up a rhetorical question about how recognition will occur. The particle ki (H3588A) introduces the content of what should be known: that matzati chen be-'eineikha ("I have found favor in your eyes") — a qal perfect, presenting this favor as already secured. The subject is doubled: 'ani ve-'amekha ("I and your people"), joining Moses and the people as co-recipients of this favor.

The next clause, introduced by the interrogative particle ha- (H9008) with the negation lo' ("not", H3808), poses a second rhetorical question: ha-lo' be-lekhtekha 'immanu ("is it not by your going with us?"). Here the infinitive construct lekhtekha ("your going") functions as the condition on which the prior recognition depends — the going itself, not a future promise, is presented as the mechanism of the favor becoming known.

The verse then shifts with the narrative ve- prefixed to nifleinu ("and we will be distinguished"), a niphal sequential perfect continuing the logical chain begun by the conditional clause. The subjects 'ani ve-'amekha ("I and your people") are repeated again, followed by mi-kol ha-'am ("from all the people") who are further specified as those 'asher 'al-penei ha-'adamah ("who are on the face of the ground"). The construct chain penei ha-'adamah ("surface of the ground") locates this distinction geographically as encompassing all other inhabitants of the earth.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the Hebrew's two rhetorical questions (marked by ba-meh and ha-lo') as a single continuous question followed by a statement (καὶ ἐνδοξασθήσομαι, "and I will be glorified"), shifting the niphal nifleinu ("we will be distinguished") into a first-person singular future passive form. The Vulgate similarly restructures the two Hebrew clauses into one continuous question ending in a purpose clause (ut glorificemur, "so that we may be glorified"), differing from the Hebrew's paratactic (chained) structure using ve- + sequential perfect.