Exodus 33:17

Summary

YHWH responds to Moses by agreeing to do the specific thing Moses has requested, giving two reasons: Moses has found favor in YHWH's sight, and YHWH has known him "by name." The verse closes a spoken exchange with a promise phrased as a direct, emphatic reply.

Key words

• gam ("also", H1571) — adverb placed before the object phrase, adding emphasis: "even/also this thing," singling out Moses' specific request among possible others.
• dabar ("thing", H1697I) — masculine singular noun, definite (with ha, H9009) and further specified by the demonstrative zeh ("this", H2088), pointing back to what Moses had just spoken.
• dibbarta ("you have spoken", H1696G) — piel perfect, second person masculine; the piel intensifies the verbal action ("spoken," not merely "said"), and the perfect marks the request as already completed speech.
• 'e'eseh ("I will do", H6213A) — qal imperfect, first person; expresses YHWH's future/intended action as a direct response to the completed request.
• 'eda'akha ("I have known you", H3045 + H9031) — qal form with narrative vav, first person with second-person suffix "you" (masculine); despite the imperfect base form, the narrative vav construction gives it a completed, sequential sense within the reported speech.

What the text says

The sentence opens with the narrative formula va-yomer YHWH 'el-Mosheh ("and YHWH said to Moses"), introducing direct speech. The core clause fronts the object: gam et-ha-dabar ha-zeh 'asher dibbarta ("also/even this thing that you have spoken") is placed before the verb 'e'eseh ("I will do"). This word order, uncommon for a simple statement, throws emphasis onto the object — the specific request Moses made — rather than onto the act of doing itself. The relative clause 'asher dibbarta anchors "this thing" to Moses' prior speech using the piel perfect, marking it as something already fully articulated.

The reason follows with ki ("for/because", H3588A), introducing two coordinated grounds: matza'ta chen be-'einai ("you have found favor in my eyes") and va-'eda'akha be-shem ("and I have known you by name"). The second clause uses the narrative vav on a form built from yada' (H3045), which — despite its imperfect morphology — functions as a completed action continuing the sequence of the ki clause, paralleling the perfect matza'ta. The phrase be-shem ("by name", H8034) specifies the mode of this "knowing" as personal and specific, distinct from general awareness.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders be-shem ("by name") as παρὰ πάντας ("above/beyond all"), shifting the sense from a designation of personal, named recognition to one of comparative distinction among others. The Vulgate's ex nomine stays closer to the Hebrew be-shem. The LXX also uses the present οἶδά ("I know") where the Hebrew narrative form conveys a completed act within the reported speech, and it omits an explicit equivalent for gam ("also"), rendering simply τοῦτόν ("this") without the added emphasis present in the Hebrew.