Exodus 7:2
אַתָּה תְדַבֵּר אֵת כָּל־אֲשֶׁר אֲצַוֶּךָּ וְאַהֲרֹן אָחִיךָ יְדַבֵּר אֶל־פַּרְעֹה וְשִׁלַּח אֶת־בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵל מֵאַרְצֽוֹ׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
אַתָּ֣ה תְדַבֵּ֔ר אֵ֖ת כָּל־אֲשֶׁ֣ר אֲצַוֶּ֑ךָּ וְאַהֲרֹ֤ן אָחִ֙יךָ֙ יְדַבֵּ֣ר אֶל־פַּרְעֹ֔ה וְשִׁלַּ֥ח אֶת־בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל מֵאַרְצֽוֹ׃
σὺ δὲ λαλήσεις πάντα ὄσα σοι ἐντέλλομαι, ὁ δὲ Ἀαρὼν ὁ ἀδελφός σου λαλήσει πρὸς Φαραὼ ὥστε ἐξαποστεῖλαι τοὺς υἱοὺς Ἰσραὴλ ἐκ τῆς γῆς αὐτοῦ.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Tu loqueris ei omnia quæ mando tibi: et ille loquetur ad Pharaonem, ut dimittat filios Israël de terra sua.
Tú le dirás a Aarón todo lo que yo te ordene, y él le hablará al faraón para que deje salir de su país a los hijos de Israel.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Tú dirás todas las cosas que yo te mandaré, y Aarón tu hermano hablará á Faraón, para que deje ir de su tierra á los hijos de Israel.
You are to speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his land.
✦ What the text says
Summary
Exodus 7:2 establishes a chain of command: Moses will speak everything YHWH commands him, Aaron will relay it to Pharaoh, and as a result Pharaoh will send the Israelites out of his land. The verse uses two parallel "speaking" verbs followed by a verb of release, linked through Hebrew's narrative sequencing.
Key words
- tedaBer ("you will speak", H1696G) — piel imperfect, 2nd masculine singular, referring to Moses; the piel stem intensifies the act of speaking (declaring/proclaiming rather than casual talk).
- 'atzaveh ("I will command", H6680) — piel imperfect, 1st person, governed by the relative 'asher ("that", H0834A); together they form "all that I command you."
- yedaBer ("he will speak", H1696G) — same piel imperfect verb as word 2, now 3rd masculine singular, applied to Aaron; the repetition of the same root creates a grammatical parallel between Moses's and Aaron's speech acts.
- shillach ("he will let go", H7971H) — piel sequential perfect (vav-consecutive), 3rd masculine singular; this form continues the narrative sequence begun by the imperfects, marking the release of Israel as the next event in the chain rather than a separate purpose.
- be.nei-Yisra'el ("sons/people of Israel", H1121G construct + H3478) — construct chain naming the group to be released, object of shillach.
What the text says
The verse opens with the independent pronoun 'atah ("you", H0859A) placed before its verb tedaBer, a construction that in Hebrew narrative typically marks emphasis or contrast — here distinguishing Moses's role from Aaron's, introduced two clauses later. Both "speaking" verbs (tedaBer and yedaBer) are piel imperfects, showing grammatical parallelism: Moses speaks the content, Aaron speaks it further, to Pharaoh ('el-Par'oh, H0413 + H6547J).
The final verb, shillach ("he will let go", H7971H), is a vav-consecutive perfect (ve-shillach), a form that in Biblical Hebrew narrative continues a preceding sequence of imperfects, presenting the release of Israel as a further link in the chain of events rather than necessarily as the stated goal of Aaron's speech. This is a nuance not preserved in translations that turn it into a purpose clause ("so that," "to let go").
Differences between versions
The Hebrew ve-shillach ("and he will send/let go") continues the verbal sequence without a purpose marker. The LXX renders this with ὥστε ἐξαποστεῖλαι ("so as to send out"), explicitly framing Israel's release as the purpose of Aaron's speech to Pharaoh. The Vulgate similarly uses ut dimittat ("that he may let go"), also a purpose construction. Both Greek and Latin versions thus interpret the sequential Hebrew perfect as subordinate purpose, while the Hebrew syntax presents it as a continuing narrative event.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.