Exodus 8:9

Summary

Moses responds to Pharaoh by placing the decision in his hands: Pharaoh may set the time when Moses should pray for the removal of the frogs. The frogs will be cut off from Pharaoh, his servants, and his houses, remaining only in the Nile.

Key words

• hitpaer ("honor yourself", H6286A) — hithpael imperative, reflexive stem giving Pharaoh the choice or "glory" of naming the moment.
• a'tir ("I will pray", H6279) — hiphil imperfect, causative form describing Moses's intercessory action as bringing about a result (the plague's removal).
• lehakhrit ("to cut off", H3772I) — hiphil infinitive construct, causative, marking the purpose clause: the goal of Moses's prayer is causing removal.
• tishaarnah ("they will remain", H7604) — niphal imperfect feminine plural, referring to the frogs (grammatically feminine plural) that will be left in the Nile, contrasted with those removed elsewhere.
• ya'or ("River", H2975G) — proper noun, the Nile, marked as the sole remaining location for the frogs.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative vav construction va-yomer ("and he said", H0559), continuing the dialogue sequence begun earlier in the chapter. Moses addresses Pharaoh directly with the hithpael imperative hitpaer ("honor yourself", H6286A) followed by alai ("over me", built from H5921A + H9030). The hithpael stem is reflexive, so the phrase places the initiative with Pharaoh — he is instructed to take for himself the privilege of setting the timing.

The following clause uses the interrogative le-matai ("to when?", H4970) with the hiphil imperfect a'tir ("I will pray", H6279), a verb built from the root that in the hiphil denotes making supplication. The list of beneficiaries — Pharaoh (lekha), his servants (avadeikha, H5650), his people (ammekha, H5971A) — uses construct chains with pronominal suffixes, all governed by the preposition le- ("for/to", H9005), repeated three times.

The purpose clause lehakhrit ("to cut off", H3772I) is an infinitive construct in the hiphil, indicating the intended effect of the prayer: causing the frogs (ha-tzefarde'im, H6854) to be removed from Pharaoh and from his houses. The final clause employs rak ("only", H7535) with the niphal imperfect tishaarnah ("they will remain", H7604), a passive/reflexive form describing the frogs' remaining state in the Nile without naming an agent.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew hitpaer ("honor yourself", reflexive hithpael) is rendered in the LXX as taxai ("appoint, arrange") and in the Vulgate as constitue ("establish, appoint") — both versions shift from the reflexive "glorify yourself" sense toward a directive "set/appoint" meaning. Additionally, where the Hebrew names only "you" and "your houses" (mimkha u-mibatteicha) as the objects from which frogs are removed, the LXX inserts "and from your people" (καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ λαοῦ σου) as a third object not present in the Hebrew clause at that point.