Exodus 8:5

Summary

Yehovah instructs Moses to relay a command to Aaron: to stretch out his hand holding the staff over Egypt's waters — rivers, canals, and ponds — so that frogs will rise up over the land of Egypt.

Key words

• va-yYomer ("and he said", H0559) — qal narrative form with the vav-consecutive, marking this as the next event in the story sequence.
• neTeh ("stretch out", H5186) — qal imperative, a direct command addressed to Aaron (2nd person masculine singular).
• yadeKha ("your hand", H3027G + H9021) — construct noun with pronominal suffix, literally "hand-of-you," naming the body part performing the action.
• be-maTekha ("with your staff", H4294G + H9021) — construct noun with suffix, preceded by the preposition be ("with"), specifying the instrument used together with the hand.
• ha-'Al ("bring up", H5927G) — hiphil (causative) imperative: not "the frogs rise" but "cause the frogs to rise," placing the causative force on Aaron's action.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative chain va-yYomer... 'el-Mosheh ("and he said... to Moses"), a standard formula introducing divine speech. Within that speech, Yehovah issues a second command using the imperative 'eMor ("say," H0559 again but in imperative form) directing Moses to relay instructions to Aaron. The content of the relayed speech contains two imperatives in sequence: neTeh ("stretch out") governing the object 'et-yadeKha be-maTekha ("your hand with your staff"), and ha-'Al ("bring up," hiphil) governing 'et-ha-tzefarde'im ("the frogs").

The three bodies of water are marked by repeated 'al ("over/upon," H5921A) plus a definite article each: ha-neharot ("the rivers," H5104H), ha-ye'orim ("the canals," H2975G), and ha-'agammim ("the ponds," H0098). This triple repetition of 'al with the article creates a rhythmic listing structure in the Hebrew, treating each body of water as its own distinct target rather than a single collective category. The final phrase 'al 'Eretz Mitzrayim uses the construct form 'Eretz ("land of," H0776G) bound to Mitzrayim ("Egypt"), naming the territory as a whole where the frogs are to appear, distinct from the specific bodies of water named just before.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew repeats 'al ("over") three times before each water term (neharot, ye'orim, agammim), giving each item its own preposition. The LXX (Swete) mirrors this with three instances of ἐπὶ ("upon") before ποταμούς, διώρυγας, and ἔλη. The Vulgate condenses this into a single flowing clause — super fluvios ac super rivos et paludes — using super twice and ac/et as connectors, slightly smoothing the triple repetition found in the Hebrew and Greek. Additionally, the Hebrew imperative ha-'Al ("bring up," hiphil, addressed to Aaron directly) is rendered in the Vulgate as educ (imperative, "bring out"), maintaining the second-person command, while the Spanish SBLIBRE renders it as a purpose clause ("haz que salgan," "cause that [they] come out"), shifting the grammatical construction from direct imperative to a subordinate result clause.