Exodus 5:3

Summary

The Israelite representatives explain to Pharaoh that "the God of the Hebrews" has confronted them, and request permission to journey three days into the wilderness to offer sacrifice to YHWH, warning that failure to do so risks divine retribution through plague or sword.

Key words

• nikra ("he has met", H7122G) — niphal perfect. The niphal stem gives a passive/reflexive sense: the subject (God) is presented as the one who "was encountered" or "showed himself," rather than the Hebrews actively finding him.
• na' ("please", H4994) — interjection marking a polite or urgent request, softening the imperative force of the following verbs.
• nelakhah ("let us go", H1980G) and nizbechah ("let us sacrifice", H2076) — both qal cohortative/infinitive forms expressing a proposed joint action ("let us..."), linked by the conjunction ve ("and", H9002).
• yifga'enu ("he should fall on us", H6293) — qal imperfect, third person. The verb paga' carries a sense of violent encounter or striking, describing a potential future action of God against the people if the sacrifice is not performed.
• dever ("pestilence", H1698) — masculine singular noun, paired with cherev ("sword", H2719), feminine singular, joined by 'o ("or", H0176A) to name two possible forms of retribution.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative va-yo'meru ("and they said", H0559), continuing the story sequence. The subject phrase 'elohei ha-'ivrim ("God of the Hebrews") uses a construct chain: 'elohei (construct plural of H0430G) governs ha-'ivrim ("the Hebrews", H5680), a common way in Hebrew to express possession or association even when the grammatical form of "God" is plural.

The core request is built from two parallel cohortative-type verbs — nelakhah ("let us go") and nizbechah ("let us sacrifice") — both introduced or softened by the particle na' ("please"), and connected by ve ("and"). The phrase derekh shelashet yamim ("a journey of three days") uses two nouns in construct chain (derekh + shelashet + yamim), specifying duration without a separate preposition for time.

The final clause is governed by pen ("lest", H6435), introducing a feared negative outcome: yifga'enu ("he should fall on us") — a qal imperfect describing a hypothetical/future divine action — followed by the two instruments of that danger, dever ("pestilence") and cherev ("sword"), joined by 'o ("or").

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the opening address as λέγουσιν αὐτῷ ("they say to him"), a present tense, where the Hebrew va-yo'meru is a narrative past ("and they said"). The LXX's phrase for "God of the Hebrews" appears as "the God of those [going] into the wilderness," diverging from the Hebrew's explicit gentilic ha-'ivrim ("the Hebrews"). For the closing threat, the LXX has θάνατος ἢ φόνος ("death or slaughter/murder"), whereas the Hebrew specifies dever ("pestilence") and cherev ("sword"). The Vulgate follows the Hebrோ structure closely but renders nikra as vocavit ("has called"), a more active verb than the niphal passive nuance of "was encountered" carried by the Hebrew nikra.