Exodus 8:10

Summary

The verse records a brief exchange: someone (Pharaoh, per context) answers "tomorrow," and Moses responds that it will be according to his word, so that he may know that there is none like Yehovah their God.

Key words

• va-yomer ("and he said", H0559) — appears twice, each introducing a speaker's turn in narrative sequence (the vav-consecutive form marking successive past actions).
• le-machar ("to/for tomorrow", H4279) — the noun "tomorrow" preceded by the preposition le, giving the answer to an implied question about timing.
• ki-devar-kha ("according to your word", H1697H + H9021) — the construct noun davar ("word") bound to the 2nd person masculine suffix -kha ("your"), forming "your word," itself governed by the preposition ki ("according to/like").
• lema'an teda' ("so that you may know", H4616 + H3045) — a purpose clause: the particle lema'an introduces the verb teda' in a form expressing intended result ("in order that you know").
• ka-Yehovah Elohei-nu ("like Yehovah our God", H3068G + H0430G + H9025) — the divine name compared via the prefixed preposition ka ("like/as"), followed by Elohim in construct form with the suffix "our."

What the text says

The verse is structured as two short quoted replies joined by the repeated narrative verb va-yomer ("and he said"), a common technique in Biblical Hebrew narrative for rapid dialogue exchange without naming each speaker explicitly — the identity of each speaker must be inferred from context. The first reply consists of a single prepositional phrase, le-machar ("for tomorrow"), answering an unstated question.

The second reply opens with ki-devar-kha ("according to your word"), using the preposition ki in its comparative/conforming sense ("as," "according to") attached to the construct phrase "word-of-you." This is followed by a purpose clause introduced by lema'an ("so that"), governing the verb teda' ("you may know"), which itself introduces a subordinate clause with ki used here as "that" (a different function of the same consonantal spelling as the earlier comparative ki). The content of what is to be known is expressed through the negative existential ein ("there is not") plus the comparative preposition ka ("like") attached to the divine name Yehovah, followed by Elohei-nu ("our God") in construct form. The Hebrew thus builds the statement as "there is none like Yehovah our God" through a chain of comparative and construct constructions rather than a simple declarative sentence.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the divine name section as "there is no other except the Lord" (οὐκ ἔστιν ἄλλος πλὴν Κυρίου), using ἄλλος ("other") and πλήν ("except") instead of a direct comparison, and it does not translate Elohei-nu ("our God") as a separate phrase. The Vulgate follows the Hebrew comparative structure more closely with "non est sicut Dominus Deus noster" ("there is none like the Lord our God"), matching the ka-Yehovah Elohei-nu construction.