Exodus 8:28

Summary

Pharaoh responds to Moses, granting permission for the Israelites to leave and sacrifice to Yehovah in the wilderness, but imposes a restriction on the distance they may travel, and asks that they intercede on his behalf.

Key words

• 'a.no.Khi ("I", H0595) — independent personal pronoun placed before the verb, giving emphasis to Pharaoh as the one granting permission.
• 'a.sha.Lach ("I will let go", H7971H) — piel imperfect, an intensive stem indicating a deliberate, effected release (not merely "sending" but "letting go" with emphasis).
• ze.vach.Tem ("you will sacrifice", H2076) — qal sequential perfect, continuing the sequence begun by the imperfect verb; it expresses a consequence that follows once the release happens ("so that you may sacrifice").
• har.Chek ("certainly ", H7368) + tar.Chi.ku ("you must be far away", H7368) — an infinitive absolute paired with a finite hiphil imperfect of the same root, a construction that intensifies or emphasizes the verb's negation ("do not go very far at all").
• ha'.Ti.ru ("pray", H6279) — hiphil imperative, a direct command form, addressed collectively to the group (plural "you").

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative va ("and") attached to i.Yo.mer ("he said", H0559), the standard formula introducing direct speech. Pharaoh's own words begin with the emphatic pronoun 'a.no.Khi ("I"), which is grammatically unnecessary since the verb already carries the first-person form, but its explicit use foregrounds Pharaoh as the subject taking action. The piel verb 'a.sha.Lach ("I will let go") expresses an intensified sense of releasing, distinct from a simple qal "to send."

The clause ze.vach.Tem ("you will sacrifice") uses a sequential perfect after the initial imperfect, a common Hebrew pattern linking a granted permission to its intended result: the release enables the sacrificing. The phrase la.Yah.weh 'e.lo.hei.Khem ("to Yehovah your God") uses the construct form 'e.lo.hei ("God of"), grammatically binding the divine name to the pronominal suffix "your."

The restriction on distance is marked by the adverb rak ("only") followed by the infinitive absolute har.Chek combined with the negated imperfect tar.Chi.ku, both from the same root H7368 ("to be far"). This paired construction — infinitive absolute plus finite verb of the identical root — functions to intensify the prohibition, a feature not distinguishable in translations that render it simply as "not very far." The final imperative ha'.Ti.ru ("pray"), followed by ba.'a.D-i ("for me"), closes Pharaoh's speech with a direct command.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders 'a.sha.Lach ("I will let go") with ἀποστέλλω ("I send"), a more neutral verb than the Hebrew piel's intensive nuance. The Vulgate's "dimittam" similarly conveys "I will let go" without preserving the intensified stem. Regarding the doubled root construction har.Chek...tar.Chi.ku, the LXX reads "οὐ μακρὰν ἀποτενεῖτε" ("you shall not go far"), and the Vulgate "longius ne abeatis" ("do not go further"), both flattening the Hebrew's repeated-root emphasis into a single expression of distance.