Exodus 4:5

Summary

The verse states the purpose of a preceding sign: so that the people will believe that Yehovah, identified as the God of the ancestors — Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — has appeared to Moses. It functions as a divine explanation of intent, linking the sign to the recognition of Yehovah's identity through the patriarchal lineage.

Key words

• le.Ma'an ("so that", H4616) — a subordinating particle introducing purpose; frames the whole clause as an explanation of intent rather than a simple statement.
• ya'aMinu ("they may believe", H0539) — hiphil (causative) jussive form, third person masculine plural: the causative stem implies "to cause to trust/believe," and the jussive mood expresses purpose/result rather than plain narration.
• nir'Ah ("he appeared", H7200G) — niphal (passive/reflexive) perfect: the niphal stem indicates that the subject (Yehovah) is the one who "was seen" or "made himself seen," a completed action prior to the moment of speaking.
• 'eloHei ("God of", H0430G) — masculine plural noun in construct state, repeated four times, each time linking "God" to a following name (ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob), building a chain of identification.
• 'avoTam ("their ancestors", H0001G) — feminine plural construct noun with third person masculine plural suffix ("their"), referring collectively to the fathers before the individual names are listed.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with the purpose particle le.Ma'an ("so that", H4616), which governs the following verb ya'aMinu ("they may believe", H0539). This verb is in the hiphil stem, a causative form, and appears in the jussive mood — grammatically marking the clause as expressing intended result: "so that they may be caused to believe." The content of what is to be believed is introduced by ki ("that", H3588A), followed by nir'Ah ("he appeared", H7200G), a niphal (passive/reflexive) perfect verb. The niphal stem here casts Yehovah as the one who "appeared" or "was seen," with the perfect aspect marking the appearing as a completed event.

The subject of the appearing, Yehovah (H3068G), is then defined through a chain of four construct phrases using 'eloHei ("God of", H0430G): first "God of their ancestors" ('avoTam, H0001G, feminine plural noun with third-person plural suffix), then individually "God of Abraham" (H0085), "God of Isaac" (H3327), and "God of Jacob" (H3290), the last joined by the conjunction ve ("and", H9002). This construct chain moves from the general collective term ("ancestors") to the three individual patriarchal names, each repeating the noun "God" rather than using a single shared construct for all three.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders le.Ma'an ya'aMinu as ἵνα πιστεύσωσίν σοι ("so that they may believe you"), adding the dative pronoun "you" (σοι) not explicit in the Hebrew clause, which has no direct object stated for the verb "believe." The Vulgate's "credant... quod apparuerit" follows the Hebrew structure of purpose plus completed appearing but uses "inquit" ("he said") to mark reported speech, an addition not present as a separate lexical item in the Hebrew text itself.