Exodus 6:27

Summary

The verse identifies Moses and Aaron as the two men who spoke to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, with the purpose of bringing the Israelites out of Egypt. The sentence uses a double pronominal framing (hem... hu...) that brackets the identification at both the beginning and the end of the verse.

Key words

• Hem ("they", H1992) — independent personal pronoun opening the verse; sets up an identifying/resumptive statement ("they are the ones who...").
• m.da.be.Rim ("[ones who] were speaking", H1696G) — Piel participle, masculine plural, with the definite article ha- prefixed (H9009), functioning as a substantive: "the speakers/the ones speaking," rather than a finite past-tense verb.
• le.ho.Tzi' ("to bring out", H3318H) — Hiphil (causative) infinitive construct with prefixed le- (H9005), expressing purpose: "in order to bring out."
• be.nei- ("sons/people of", H1121G) — construct plural noun linking to Yis.ra.'El, forming the construct chain "sons of Israel."
• hu' ("that/he", H1931) — independent personal pronoun reintroducing the identification near the end of the verse, immediately preceding the names mo.Sheh and 'a.ha.Ron.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a nominal (verbless-copula) identification: Hem ha-medabberim — literally "they, the ones speaking" — uses the participle with the article as a substantive predicate rather than a narrative past verb. This construction presents the action of speaking to Pharaoh as an ongoing or characteristic role ("the speakers") rather than a single completed event. The purpose of that speaking is expressed by the infinitive construct le-hotzi' ("to bring out"), governing the object marked by 'et- and the construct phrase bene Yisra'el ("sons of Israel") plus the source mi-Mitzrayim ("from Egypt").

The verse then closes with a second identifying clause, hu' Mosheh ve-Aharon ("that is Moses and Aaron"), using the pronoun hu' to re-anchor the identity of "they" named at the start. This bracketing structure (hem...hu') frames the entire verse as an explicit clarification of who "they" are, a stylistic feature that does not carry over distinctly in translations relying on a single pronoun or none at all.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the purpose infinitive le-hotzi' ("to bring out") as a finite past-tense verb, ἐξήγαγον ("they led out"), turning the Hebrew's stated purpose into a completed action. The LXX also lists the names in reverse order, Ἀαρὼν καὶ Μωυσῆς ("Aaron and Moses"), where the Hebrew has Mosheh ve-Aharon ("Moses and Aaron"). The Vulgate preserves the Hebrew order, "Moyses et Aaron," and keeps the infinitive purpose sense with "ut educant" ("that they might bring out").