Exodus 4:14

Summary

The verse describes Yehovah's anger flaring against Moses after his repeated objections, followed by Yehovah reminding him that his brother Aaron the Levite is a skilled speaker who is already coming to meet him and will rejoice at seeing him.

Key words

• yichar ("it burned", H2734) — qal narrative form; used idiomatically with "nose/anger" as subject, the standard Hebrew expression for anger arising.
• 'aph ("anger of", H0639) — construct noun literally "nose," here forming the idiom "the nose of Yehovah burned," i.e., his anger was kindled.
• ha...lo (H9008 + H3808) — interrogative particle combined with negation, producing a rhetorical question expecting a positive answer ("is it not the case that...?").
• dabber yedabber ("to speak / he speaks", H1696G) — infinitive absolute followed by the imperfect of the same root (piel), a construction that intensifies or confirms the verbal action: "he does indeed speak" or "speaks well."
• ve-ra'akha... ve-samach ("and he will see you... and he will be glad", H7200G / H8055) — sequential perfect forms (vav + perfect) continuing the chain of future actions begun by the participle yotze' ("is coming out"), describing a sequence of events yet to unfold.

What the text says

The clause va-yichar 'aph Yehovah be-Mosheh uses the idiom in which "the nose" ('aph) is grammatically the subject of the verb "burned" (yichar), with Yehovah in construct relation as the possessor of that anger — a common Hebrew way of expressing that someone became angry, directed here "against" (be) Moses. The following rhetorical question, marked by ha plus the negative lo', does not seek information but asserts a known fact: Aaron the Levite is Moses' brother. The doubled verbal form dabber yedabber (infinitive absolute + imperfect, both piel) reinforces the statement that follows — Aaron's speaking ability — a grammatical intensification that a single verb would not convey. The remainder of the verse shifts into a chain of sequential perfects (ra'akha, sameach) attached to the participle yotze' ("is going out"), presenting Aaron's approach, his seeing Moses, and his gladness as one continuous, unfolding sequence rather than isolated events.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew presents a rhetorical question (ha-lo, "is it not...?"). The LXX keeps a negation with idou ("behold") but without a clear interrogative marker, shifting the sentence's tone. The Vulgate removes the question form entirely, rendering it as a flat declarative: "Aaron your brother, a Levite... I know that he is eloquent," collapsing the rhetorical structure into a statement. The idiom 'aph Yehovah yichar ("the anger of Yehovah burned") is rendered by the LXX with a participial construction, thymōtheis orgē kyrios ("Yehovah, being angered with wrath"), restructuring the Hebrew subject-idiom into a different syntactic form.