Exodus 9:26

Summary

The verse states that in the land of Goshen (H1657G), the region where the "sons of Israel" resided, no hail occurred. It functions as a restrictive clause following the extended account of the hail plague, marking Goshen as an exception to the devastation described in the surrounding narrative.

Key words

• rak ("only", H7535) — an adverb of restriction placed at the very start of the sentence, limiting the scope of what follows to a single exception: the land of Goshen.
• 'Eretz ("[the] land of", H0776G) — a feminine singular noun in construct state, meaning it must be linked to the following word (Goshen) as "land of X" rather than standing alone.
• 'asher ("where", H0834A) — a relative particle introducing a subordinate clause that further describes Goshen, connecting it to the clause about the bene Yisra'el.
• bene ("[the] people of", H1121G) — masculine plural construct of "sons/children," here forming the phrase "sons of Israel," i.e., the Israelites, in construct relation to Yisra'el.
• hayah ("it was", H1961) — qal perfect third person masculine singular, denoting a completed state; combined with the negation lo' (H3808), it expresses "it was not," i.e., "there was no [hail]."

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with the restrictive adverb rak ("only," H7535), immediately establishing that what follows is an exception to a prior statement (the hail plague affecting Egypt). This is followed by the prepositional phrase be'Eretz Goshen ("in the land of Goshen"), using the construct noun 'Eretz (H0776G) bound to the proper name Goshen (H1657G).

The relative clause 'asher-sham bene Yisra'el ("where there [were] the sons of Israel") uses the relative particle 'asher (H0834A) together with the locative adverb sham ("there," H8033G) to specify that Goshen is the place where the bene Yisra'el (H1121G, H3478) resided. This construction embeds a descriptive clause identifying Goshen as the Israelites' dwelling place, without a separate verb "to dwell" — the presence is expressed simply through sham plus the noun phrase.

The final clause, lo' hayah barad ("hail was not"), places the negation lo' (H3808) before the qal perfect verb hayah (H1961), which itself precedes the subject noun barad ("hail," H1259). This verb-final word order for the subject is typical of Hebrew clauses stating existence or occurrence, and the perfect aspect frames the absence of hail as a completed, factual state for the duration of the event.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew text does not contain a verb meaning "to dwell" or "to live"; the presence of the bene Yisra'el in Goshen is expressed through the relative particle 'asher plus sham ("where...there"). The LXX renders this with a form of the verb "to be" (ἦσαν, "were"), similarly avoiding a dwelling-verb. The Vulgate uses erant ("were"), matching this pattern. However, the English translations BSB and the Spanish SBLIBRE render this construction with explicit verbs of dwelling ("lived," "vivían"), which is an interpretive addition not present as a distinct lexical item in the Hebrew, Greek, or Latin texts provided.