Exodus 33:19

Summary

Yehovah answers Moses by announcing that he will make all his goodness pass before him and proclaim the name "Yehovah" in his presence. He then states, using two repeated clauses, that his favor and compassion are exercised toward whomever he chooses.

Key words

• 'a.'a.Vir ("I will cause to pass by", H5674A) — hiphil imperfect, causative: the subject actively makes something (his "goodness") pass before the addressee, rather than merely passing himself.
• tuv ("goodness", H2898) — construct noun with 1st-person suffix (tuvi, "my goodness"), governed by kol ("all", H3605) in a construct chain "all of my goodness."
• ka.Ra.ti ("I will proclaim", H7121I) — qal sequential perfect (ve-qatalti), continuing the sequence of future actions begun by the imperfect verb; linked to shem Yehovah ("the name of Yehovah", H8034/H3068G) as its object.
• cha.no.Ti / 'a.Chon ("I will show favor" / "I will show favor", both H2603A) — the sequential perfect form and the imperfect form of the same root appear in the same clause, joined by the relative 'a.Sher ("whom", H0834A), producing an idiom of self-referential repetition ("I will favor whom I will favor").
• ri.cham.Ti / 'a.ra.Chem ("I will have compassion" / "I will have compassion", both H7355) — piel forms of the same root repeated in parallel structure to the preceding clause, again linked by 'a.Sher.

What the text says

The verse is built from a chain of first-person verbs describing Yehovah's future actions, connected by the narrative va ("and", H9001) and by sequential perfects (ve-qatalti forms) that continue the temporal sequence set by the initial imperfect 'a.'a.Vir. The first clause uses a hiphil (causative) form: the subject does not simply pass by, but causes "all my goodness" (kol tuvi) to pass "upon your face" ('al panekha, from paneh, H6440G), a construct phrase using "face" idiomatically for "before/in the presence of." The second clause parallels this with le-panekha ("to your face" / "before you"), again using the same noun paneh in construct with a pronominal suffix, framing the proclamation of "the name of Yehovah" as occurring in the addressee's presence.

The final two clauses share an identical grammatical pattern: a sequential perfect verb followed by the relative particle 'a.Sher ("whom") and then an imperfect verb of the same root. In both cases (chanoti... 'achon from H2603A, and richamti... 'arachem from H7355) the object of the action is left syntactically open — "those whom I favor," "those whom I have compassion on" — without specifying criteria for who those recipients are. The piel stem of H7355 (compassion) marks an intensive or emphatic verbal action compared to the plain qal of H2603A (favor).

Differences between versions

The LXX renders tuvi ("my goodness") as τῇ δόξῃ μου ("my glory"), diverging from the Hebrew's tov ("good," H2898). The LXX also translates the relative clauses about favor/compassion using ὅν ἄν... construction, matching the Hebrew's open-ended relative structure, but assigns both Hebrew roots (H2603A "favor" and H7355 "compassion") to a single Greek verb, ἐλεῶ/οἰκτείρω, blurring the two-fold repetition present in the Hebrew. The Vulgate renders the final clauses as miserebor cui voluero ("I will pity whom I will") and clemens ero in quem mihi placuerit ("I will be merciful to whom it pleases me"), introducing explicit volition ("I will," "it pleases me") not present as separate verbs in the Hebrew's simple relative-clause repetition of the same root.