Exodus 7:24

Summary

The verse reports that all the Egyptians dug around the Nile River seeking water to drink, because they were unable to drink from the river's own water. This follows the account of the Nile being turned to blood, explaining the population's response.

Key words

• yach.pe.Ru ("they dug", H2658) — qal narrative verb, third person masculine plural, continuing the story sequence with "and then they dug."
• khol-mitz.Ra.yim ("all of Egypt", H3605 + H4713) — construct chain meaning "all of Egypt," functioning as the subject; grammatically singular in form but referring to the population collectively.
• ya.khe.Lu ("they were able", H3201) — qal perfect, marking a completed state ("they could not") that explains the cause of the digging.
• sh.Tot ("to drink", H8354) — qal infinitive, appearing twice (lines 10 and 15), expressing purpose: "to drink."
• mei.Mei ha.y'Or ("the water of the River", H4325G + H2975G) — construct phrase specifying the source, "the water of the River," repeated with the definite article marking the specific, known river.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built in two clauses joined by the causal particle ki ("for", H3588A). The first clause states the action: khol-mitz.Ra.yim ("all of Egypt") is the subject of the verb yach.pe.Ru ("they dug", H2658), followed by the location se.vi.Vot ha.y'Or ("around the River") and the purpose infinitive mayim li-sh.Tot ("water, to drink"). The second clause gives the reason using ki lo' ya.khe.Lu ("for they were not able"), followed again by the infinitive li-sh.Tot ("to drink") and the source phrase mi-mei.Mei ha.y'Or ("from the water of the River").

The repetition of the infinitive sh.Tot ("to drink", H8354) in both clauses creates a structural echo: the people dig in order "to drink," precisely because they could not "drink" from the river itself. The construct form mei.Mei ha.y'Or ("water of the River") in the second clause specifies the source more precisely than the simple mayim ("water") in the first clause, distinguishing the water they sought (via digging) from the river's own water, which was unusable.

Differences between versions

The LXX (Swete) renders the causal structure slightly differently, using ὤρυξαν ("they dug") with κύκλῳ τοῦ ποταμοῦ ("around the river") and then πιεῖν ὕδωρ ἀπὸ τοῦ ποταμοῦ ("to drink water from the river") twice, mirroring the Hebrew repetition but specifying "from the river" in the first clause where the Hebrew simply says mayim ("water") without the source phrase. The Vulgate follows the Hebrew structure closely with "aquam ut biberent" ("water that they might drink") and "de aqua fluminis" ("from the water of the river"), preserving the same twofold reference to drinking.