Exodus 7:16

Summary

Moses is instructed to tell Pharaoh that Yehovah, the God of the Hebrews, sent him with a demand: release the people so they may serve God in the wilderness. The verse closes with a reproach that Pharaoh has not listened up to this point.

Key words

• shalach (H7971G, "he has sent") — qal perfect describing Yehovah's completed act of sending Moses; contrasts with the imperative form of the same root a few words later.
• shalach (H7971H, "let go") — piel imperative of the same root (H7971) as above; the intensive stem here carries the sense "release/send away," the actual command delivered to Pharaoh.
• ya'avduni (H5647H, "they may serve me") — qal imperfect with vav, expressing purpose or result following the imperative "let go"; the suffix -ni ("me") marks Yehovah as the object of the service.
• shama'ta (H8085H, "you have listened") — qal perfect, negated by lo' (H3808), describing Pharaoh's completed failure to listen up to the moment of speaking.
• ha-'Ivrim (H5680, "the Hebrews") — gentilic plural with the definite article, identifying the group whose God is invoked, in construct relation to 'elohei ("God of," H0430G).

What the text says

The verse is built as reported speech within reported speech: Moses is told what to say to Pharaoh, and inside that speech Yehovah's own words to Moses are quoted (le'mor, "to say," H0559, an infinitive introducing direct discourse). This creates a nested structure — Yehovah speaks to Moses, who is to repeat it to Pharaoh, who receives Yehovah's original message embedded within.

The play between the two forms of the root shalach (H7971) is a grammatical feature the English versions cannot preserve as clearly: the qal perfect shalachani ("he has sent me") reports the completed act of Moses' commissioning, while the piel imperative shalach ("let go/release") delivers the actual command to Pharaoh. Both derive from the same root, but the stem shift (simple qal vs. intensive piel) marks the shift from narration to command.

The purpose clause ve-ya'avduni ("so they may serve me," H5647H) uses an imperfect with vav to express the intended outcome of the release — service to Yahwes in the midbar ("wilderness," H4057B). The final clause shifts to direct accusation: hinneh ("here!" H2009) draws attention to the negated perfect lo shama'ta ("you have not listened," H8085H), marking Pharaoh's prior refusal as a completed, ongoing state up to the moment of speaking ('ad koh, "until thus/now," H5704 + H3541).

Differences between versions

The LXX renders ya'avduni ("they may serve me") with λατρεύσῃ ("may worship/serve" in a cultic sense), and the Vulgate uses sacrificet ("may sacrifice"), where the Hebrew verb 'avad (H5647H) more broadly means "serve" without specifying sacrificial action. The Vulgate's usque ad præsens ("until the present") and LXX's ἕως τούτου ("until this") both render the Hebrew 'ad koh ("until thus," H5704 + H3541) with slightly different temporal framing.