Exodus 8:30

Summary

The verse narrates two sequential actions performed by Moses: leaving Pharaoh's presence and praying to Yehovah. The two verbs are joined by the narrative vav-consecutive construction, marking them as a chronological sequence within the story.

Key words

• va-yetze ("and he went out", H3318G) — qal narrative form; the vav prefix marks this as the next event in the story sequence, following directly from the preceding scene with Pharaoh.
• me'im ("from with", H9006 + H5973B) — a compound preposition combining "from" and "with," indicating separation from a location where someone else (Pharaoh) was present, not merely a place.
• Par'oh ("Pharaoh", H6547J) — the object of the preposition, marking whom Moses departs from.
• va-ye'tar ("and he prayed/interceded", H6279) — qal narrative form of the verb 'atar, continuing the narrative chain from the first verb.
• YHWH ("Yehovah", H3068G) — the divine name, object of the preposition 'el ("to", H0413), marking the addressee of the prayer.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built entirely on the narrative vav-consecutive pattern, which strings two qal verbs together to present a tight cause-and-effect sequence: Moses' departure from Pharaoh directly precedes and leads into his act of prayer. This grammatical chaining does not require any connecting word like "then" in translation — the vav prefix itself carries that sequential force.

The phrase me'im Par'oh uses a doubled preposition (H9006 "from" + H5973B "with") rather than a single word for "from." This construction specifies that Moses was removed from a position of proximity or accompaniment with Pharaoh, not simply from a geographic location — the sense is departure from being-with someone, distinct from a plain spatial "from."

The second verb, ya'tar (H6279), is directed 'el YHWH — "to Yehovah" — using the preposition 'el, which in Biblical Hebrew typically marks motion or direction toward a target, here applied metaphorically to the direction of the prayer/intercession.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders YHWH as ton theon ("the God") rather than transliterating or using a divine-name equivalent, where the Hebrew has the tetragrammaton YHWH (H3068G). The Vulgate uses Dominum ("the Lord"), following the same substitution pattern as the LXX rather than reproducing the divine name directly. The Hebrew me'im ("from with") is simplified in the Greek (apo, "from") and Latin (a, "from") to a single preposition, losing the compound "from-with" nuance present in the Hebrew text.