Exodus 9:2

Summary

Exodus 9:2 presents a conditional clause in which the speaker addresses a single "you" (masculine singular) about two intertwined actions: refusing to send a group away and continuing to hold them by force. The verse is structured as a protasis ("if...") whose consequence appears in the following verse.

Key words

• ki 'im ("that/if... except", H3588B + H0518B): a compound conditional particle construction that introduces the hypothetical clause; together they function like "if indeed" or "if truly," marking the condition being posed.
• ma'En ("[are] refusing", H3986): piel participle, masculine singular. The piel (intensive) stem frames the refusal not as a single act but as a characteristic or intensified stance — "the one who is refusing."
• shaLeach ("let [them] go", H7971H): piel infinitive. Paired with the preposition le- ("to", H9005), it forms a purpose/complement construction — "to send away" — completing what is being refused.
• ma.cha.Zik ("[are] keeping hold", H2388H): hiphil (causative) participle, masculine singular. The hiphil stem indicates causing a state of being held — an active, ongoing exercise of control, not passive possession.
• 'od.Kha ("still you", H5750 + H9041): the construct form 'od ("still," literally "continuance of") combined with the second-person suffix produces "your continuing" — grammatically marking the temporal persistence of the action described by ma.cha.Zik.

What the text says

The verse's grammar hinges on two parallel participles, ma'En ("refusing") and ma.cha.Zik ("keeping hold"), both describing the addressee's ongoing state rather than a completed action. Participles in Hebrew often express continuous or characteristic behavior, and here this nuance is reinforced explicitly by 'od.Kha ("your continuing"), which grammatically underscores that the holding is not a single event but a persistent condition up to the moment of speaking.

The infinitive construction le-shaLeach ("to let go") functions as the object of the refusal — what is being refused is the act of sending away. The doubled conditional marker ki 'im intensifies the hypothetical framing, presenting the condition with emphasis: it is not merely "if," but underlines the reality of the ongoing refusal as the basis for what follows in the next verse.

Differences between versions

The LXX adds τὸν λαόν μου ("my people") as the explicit object of ἐξαποστεῖλαι ("to send away"), specifying who is being held, where the Hebrew text simply uses the pronominal suffix bam ("them", within bam) without naming the referent explicitly in this verse. The Vulgate's renuis ("you refuse") and retines ("you hold") render the two Hebrew participles as finite present-tense verbs, differing from the Hebrew's participial (durative) construction that grammatically stresses ongoing action.