Exodus 7:21

Summary

The verse reports the consequence of the plague on the Nile: the fish in the river died, the river gave off a foul smell, and the Egyptians were unable to drink its water because blood had spread throughout the land of Egypt.

Key words

• da.Gah ("fish", H1710) — feminine singular noun, subject of the verb "died," marked with the definite article ha (H9009), pointing to the fish already introduced as living in the river.
• me.tah ("it died", H4191) — qal perfect, third feminine singular, agreeing with da.Gah; the perfect form presents the death as a completed fact.
• i.yiv.'Ash ("it stank", H0887) — qal narrative form (vav-consecutive), third masculine singular; the narrative vav va (H9001) links this action sequentially to the previous one, producing the "and then" chain typical of Hebrew narrative.
• ya.khe.Lu ("they were able", H3201) — qal perfect, third masculine plural, negated by lo' (H3808), describing the Egyptians' resulting inability.
• y.Hi ("it was", H1961) — qal narrative form, third masculine singular, introducing the final clause about blood covering the land; this verb often opens a new narrative development within the sequence.

What the text says

The verse is built as a chain of narrative clauses connected by the vav-consecutive (H9001), a construction that presents events as sequential outcomes rather than simultaneous facts: the fish died, then the river stank, then the Egyptians could not drink, then blood was throughout the land. This chaining is a grammatical feature of Biblical Hebrew narrative prose and explains why the English versions render the verse with "and" or implicit causal connectors ("so bad that") even though the Hebrew itself does not use explicit causal conjunctions—the sequence is conveyed purely through the verb chain.

The clause asher-ba-y'or ("which [was] in the River", H0834A + H9003 + H2975G) functions as a relative clause modifying ha-dagah ("the fish", H1710), specifying which fish are meant—those inhabiting the Nile specifically, using the place name Ye'or consistently across the verse (appearing three times, H2975G) to anchor all actions to that single body of water. The final clause repeats the construct phrase kol 'erets Mitsrayim ("all the land of Egypt", H3605 + H0776G + H4714G), a construct chain that expresses totality — the presence of blood is not localized but extends over the entire land of Egypt as a whole.

Differences between versions

The LXX and Vulgate render the Hebrew narrative chain similarly, preserving the sequence of deaths, stench, and inability to drink. The Vulgate's computruitque ("it rotted/became putrid") intensifies the sense of the Hebrew yiv'ash ("it stank", H0887) beyond mere odor into decay, a nuance not explicit in the Hebrew verb itself. The Berean Standard Bible (BSB) and SBLIBRE both insert an explicit causal link ("smelled so bad that") not grammatically present in the Hebrew, which relies solely on the narrative vav sequence rather than a stated cause-effect conjunction.