Exodus 7:20

Summary

Exodus 7:20 narrates the execution of Yehovah's earlier command: Moses and Aaron act "as Yehovah had commanded," the staff is raised, the Nile's water is struck in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and the water in the river turns to blood.

Key words

• va.ya'asu ("and they did", H6213A) — qal narrative verb with the vav pointing forward in the story sequence; the plural subject (Moses and Aaron) marks joint compliance.
• tzivah ("he had commanded", H6680) — piel perfect, an intensive/completed form referring back to Yehovah's prior instruction, establishing the causal link between command and action.
• yarem ("he raised", H7311A) — hiphil narrative, causative "he caused [it/the staff] to rise"; the subject is grammatically singular (he) though the preceding clause names two people.
• yakh ("he struck", H5221) — hiphil narrative, causative "he caused a blow"; takes the direct object marker 'et (H0853) before "the water," marking it explicitly as the object struck.
• yehafekhu ("they were changed", H2015) — niphal narrative, passive/reflexive: the water itself becomes the grammatical subject undergoing transformation, with no stated agent for the change.

What the text says

The verse opens with a summary clause, vaya'asu khen ("and they did so"), followed by a ka'asher ("as", H0834D) clause anchoring the action to Yehovah's prior command (tzivah, piel perfect). The narrative then shifts to singular verbs — yarem ("he raised") and yakh ("he struck") — even though the subject named just before is the pair "Moses and Aaron." The Hebrew grammar itself does not specify which of the two performs the raising and striking; the singular form is compatible with either being understood as the acting individual, based on context outside this verse.

The object of the striking, hamayim ("the water"), is marked with the direct object particle 'et, and further specified by a relative clause, 'asher bayor ("which was in the river"), placed before the phrase le'einei Par'oh ("to the eyes of Pharaoh", construct dual noun 'einei). The final clause uses the niphal yehafekhu ("they were changed/turned"), making "all the water that was in the river" the subject of a passive-type verb, with ledam ("into/to blood") marking the resulting state.

Differences between versions

The BSB explicitly supplies "Aaron" as the one who raises the staff and strikes the water, whereas the Hebrew verbs (yarem, yakh) are grammatically singular without a named subject in this verse, leaving the actor unspecified within the sentence itself. The Vulgate similarly uses a singular participle, elevans ("raising"), without naming the subject, matching the Hebrew's grammatical ambiguity. The LXX text given here places "before Pharaoh" (enantion Pharaō) immediately after "the water" without the intervening clause locating the water "in the river," while that locational phrase appears later in the LXX's final clause ("in the river," en tō potamō) paired with "into blood" (eis haima).