Exodus 4:2

Summary

Exodus 4:2 records a brief exchange between Yehovah and Moses: Yehovah asks what is in Moses' hand, and Moses answers that it is a staff. The verse consists of two short question-and-answer clauses joined by narrative verb forms.

Key words

• va-yomer ("and he said", H0559) — qal verb in narrative form (vav-consecutive), used twice to advance the dialogue: first for Yehovah's question, then for Moses' answer.
• Yehovah ("Yehovah", H3068G) — the divine name functioning as the subject of the first va-yomer.
• mah-zeh ("what [is] this", H4100 + H2088) — interrogative pronoun combined with a demonstrative particle, forming the fixed question idiom "what is this?"
• be-yadekha ("in your hand", H9003 + H3027G + H9021) — preposition attached to the construct noun yad ("hand") with a second-person masculine singular suffix, locating the object in Moses' hand.
• matteh ("a staff", H4294G) — masculine singular noun, given as a one-word answer with no verb or article.

What the text says

The verse is built as two parallel narrative clauses, each opened by va-yomer ("and he said", H0559). This repetition of the same verb form for both speakers creates a tight question-answer rhythm typical of Biblical Hebrew dialogue, where the narrator does not need to specify "he answered" — the second va-yomer alone signals the reply.

The question itself, mah-zeh be-yadekha ("what [is] this in your hand", H4100 + H2088 + H9003 + H3027G + H9021), has no verb "to be" in the Hebrew; the copula is understood. The construct noun yad ("hand", H3027G) takes the second-person singular suffix -kha ("your", H9021) directly, without a separate possessive word — a standard feature of Hebrew possession marked by suffixation rather than a separate pronoun.

Moses' answer, matteh ("a staff", H4294G), is a single bare noun with no verb, no article, and no explicit subject — the minimal grammatical form correlates with the minimal content of the reply, mirroring the brevity of the question.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew question uses the demonstrative construction mah-zeh ("what [is] this"), while the LXX renders it as Τί τοῦτό ἐστιν ("what is this"), adding the explicit verb "to be" (ἐστιν) that the Hebrew leaves unstated. The Vulgate shifts the phrasing further, using quid est quod tenes ("what is it that you hold"), introducing the verb "to hold" (tenes), which has no direct counterpart in the Hebrew wording of be-yadekha ("in your hand").