Exodus 9:22

Summary

Yehovah commands Moses to stretch his hand toward the heavens so that hail will come upon the entire land of Egypt, striking humans, livestock, and all vegetation of the field. The verse is structured as divine speech introduced by the narrative formula, followed by an imperative and a jussive expressing purpose/result.

Key words

• neTeh ("stretch out", H5186) — qal imperative, 2nd masculine singular; a direct command to Moses.
• yadekha (yad + -kha, H3027G / H9021) — noun in construct with pronominal suffix, "your hand"; the object of the stretching action, marked by the untranslated direct object marker 'et.
• vihi ("may it be/let there be", H1961) — qal jussive, 3rd masculine singular, joined by the conjunction vi-; expresses the intended consequence of the hand gesture: hail is to come into existence.
• varad ("hail", H1259) — masculine singular noun, subject of the jussive verb; what is caused to exist.
• kol ("all", H3605) — construct noun repeated twice (with 'erets and with 'esev), producing the totalizing phrases "all the land of Egypt" and "all vegetation of the field."

What the text says

The verse opens with the standard narrative chain va-yomer ("and he said", H0559) plus Yehovah (H3068G), establishing that the speech that follows is attributed directly to the divine name. The command itself, neteh 'et-yadekha 'al-hashamayim ("stretch out your hand toward the heavens"), uses the qal imperative neteh, addressed to Moses (H4872), with the object yad ("hand", H3027G) bearing the second-person masculine suffix -kha.

The clause that follows, vihi varad, uses the conjunction vi- (H9002) attached to the jussive form of hayah ("to be", H1961), which in Biblical Hebrew syntax after an imperative regularly expresses purpose or result rather than a separate independent statement — "so that hail may come into being." The scope of the hail's effect is then laid out through three parallel 'al- ("on/upon", H5921A) phrases: on ha'adam ("humankind", H0120G), on habehemah ("livestock", H0929), and on kol-'esev hasadeh ("all vegetation of the field", H6212/H7704G). The repeated construct chains with kol ("all", H3605) — "all the land of Egypt" and "all vegetation of the field" — reinforce totality, and the phrase be'erets Mitsrayim ("in the land of Egypt") is repeated at the start and end of the verse, framing the entire threatened area.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders yadekha ("your hand") with the singular τὴν χεῖρά σου ("your hand"), matching the Hebrew singular, while the Vulgate likewise uses manum tuam ("your hand"). The Hebrew kol-'esev hasadeh ("all vegetation of the field") is rendered in the LXX as πᾶσαν βοτάνην τὴν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς ("all vegetation upon the earth"), replacing "field" (sadeh) with "earth" (γῆς), a shift not present in the Hebrew or in the Vulgate's omnem herbam agri ("all the grass/herb of the field"), which follows the Hebrew more closely.