Exodus 8:31

Summary

The verse reports that Yehovah acted according to what Moses had said, removing the 'arov ("swarm", H6157) from Pharaoh, his servants, and his people. The text closes by emphasizing the totality of the removal: not a single one remained.

Key words

• va-i-Ya'as ("and he did", H6213A) — qal verb with narrative vav, marking the next event in the sequence: Yehovah performing the action.
• ki-d-var ("according to the word of", H1697G) — noun in construct state, linking the action of Yehovah directly to something Moses previously said.
• va-i-Ya-sar ("and he turned aside/removed", H5493G) — qal narrative verb, describing the removal of the swarm as a discrete, sequential act.
• he-'a-Ro ("the swarm", H6157) — masculine singular noun with definite article, referring back to the specific plague-entity introduced earlier in the narrative.
• nish-'Ar ("it remained", H7604) — niphal perfect, a passive/reflexive form indicating a completed state of "remaining," negated by lo' ("not", H3808) to stress total absence.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a chain of two narrative verbs joined by va ("and", H9001): first va-i-Ya'as ("and he did") and then va-i-Ya-sar ("and he turned aside"). This chaining is typical of Biblical Hebrew narrative style, presenting the events as a sequence: Yehovah acts, and as a result, removes the swarm. The phrase ki-d-var Mosheh ("according to the word of Moses", H1697G + H4872) uses a construct chain to tie Yehovah's action explicitly to Moses' prior speech, without specifying the content of that speech within this verse itself — the referent is assumed from the preceding context.

The object of removal, he-'a-Ro ("the swarm", H6157), carries the definite article, marking it as the same entity discussed earlier in the passage, not a new or generic swarm. The three-part list — mi-Par'oh ("from Pharaoh"), me-'avaDav ("from his servants", H5650 with 3ms suffix), u-me-'aMo ("and from his people", H5971A with 3ms suffix) — is structured through repeated min ("from", H9006) prepositions, each attaching to a construct or suffixed noun, producing a formulaic triad common in the plague narratives.

The closing clause, lo' nish'ar 'echad ("not one remained"), uses a niphal perfect verb (H7604) to express a resulting state — "having remained" — negated to assert total absence. The niphal here conveys not an ongoing search but a completed condition: after the action, nothing was left. 'Echad ("one", H0259) is grammatically feminine, agreeing with the implied feminine noun for the insect/swarm creatures, though the exact referent's gender is inferred from usage rather than stated in this verse.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders he-'arov ("the swarm", H6157) as τὴν κυνόμυιαν ("the dog-fly"), specifying a particular insect where the Hebrew uses the more general term "swarm." The Vulgate similarly specifies muscas ("flies"), diverging from the Hebrew's non-specific 'arov. The Hebrew ki-d-var Mosheh ("according to the word of Moses") is rendered by the LXX as καθάπερ εἶπεν Μωυσῆς ("just as Moses said"), and by the Vulgate as juxta verbum illius ("according to his word"), both preserving the sense of correspondence to Moses' speech without altering its meaning substantially.