Exodus 5:20

Summary

The verse reports that an unnamed group (the Israelite foremen, per the preceding context) encountered Moses and Aaron, who were positioned waiting for them, at the moment this group was leaving Pharaoh's presence.

Key words

• vayyifge'u ("and they met/encountered", H6293) — qal verb with narrative vav, advancing the story's action; the subject is grammatically unspecified here but flows from prior verses.
• nitzavim ("standing", H5324) — niphal participle, describing an ongoing state (Moses and Aaron were positioned/stationed) rather than a completed action.
• liqratam ("to meet them", H7122) — infinitive construct with prefixed preposition li and pronominal suffix, expressing the purpose of their standing.
• betzetam ("in their going out", H3318) — infinitive construct with prefixed preposition be and pronominal suffix, marking the temporal clause ("when they came out").
• me'et ("from with", H854) — compound preposition indicating separation from a person's presence, here Pharaoh's.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built around one main verb, vayyifge'u ("and they met"), followed by two infinitive-construct clauses that frame the circumstances: nitzavim liqratam ("standing to meet them") describes Moses and Aaron's posture and intent, while betzetam me'et Par'oh ("when they came out from Pharaoh") gives the temporal setting. The direct object marker 'et (H853) appears twice, once before "Moses" and once before "Aaron," showing that both names function as objects of the verb "met."

The participle nitzavim is significant grammatically: it is niphal, a stem often used for states resulting from an action rather than active initiation, suggesting Moses and Aaron were already positioned and waiting rather than actively approaching. The two infinitives liqratam and betzetam both carry pronominal suffixes referring to the same third-person plural group (the ones who "came out from Pharaoh"), linking purpose ("to meet them") and time ("when they came out") to the same referent.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the verb with a dative construction, synēntēsan Mōysē ("they met with Moses"), which is a different syntactic pattern from the Hebrew's direct-object structure but conveys similar meaning.

The Vulgate translates nitzavim as qui stabant ex adverso ("who were standing opposite/facing"), adding a directional nuance of confrontation not explicit in the Hebrew participle alone.

The SBLIBRE Spanish version adds "en el camino" ("on the way"), a phrase with no corresponding Hebrew word in this verse, functioning as an interpretive addition to clarify the scene.