Exodus 9:27

Summary

Pharaoh sends for Moses and Aaron and declares that he has sinned "this time," acknowledging that Yehovah is righteous while he and his people are guilty.

Key words

• chaTati ("I have sinned", H2398) — qal perfect, first person: a completed action, "I sinned/have sinned," with no ongoing aspect marked.
• haPa'am ("the time/this time", H6471) — feminine singular noun with definite article, functioning adverbially to specify "on this occasion."
• hatzaDiq ("the righteous one", H6662) — adjective with definite article, predicated of Yehovah (H3068G), asserting a quality rather than an action.
• 'ammi ("my people", H5971A) — masculine singular noun in construct form with first-person suffix ("people of me"), paired with 'ani ("I", H0589).
• haresha'im ("the guilty ones", H7563) — masculine plural noun with definite article, predicated jointly of Pharaoh and his people.

What the text says

The verse opens with three consecutive narrative verbs joined by the narrative vav (H9001): vayishlach ("he sent"), vayiqra ("he summoned"), vayomer ("he said"). This chain marks sequential action in the story — Pharaoh sends, then summons, then speaks — each verb in the qal narrative form with a third-person masculine subject (Pharaoh).

Pharaoh's speech itself contains two short nominal-type clauses without a linking verb, typical of Biblical Hebrew predication. The first, Yehovah hatzaddiq ("Yehovah [is] the righteous one"), places the definite adjective hatzaddiq (H6662) after the subject to predicate the quality of righteousness onto the divine name. The second clause, va'ani ve'ammi haresha'im ("and I and my people [are] the guilty ones"), uses the same construction — subject followed by definite plural adjective/noun haresha'im (H7563) — to predicate guilt onto Pharaoh and his people jointly. The grammatical parallelism between the two clauses (definite predicate following the subject in both) creates a contrast between the singular righteous subject (Yehovah) and the compound guilty subject (Pharaoh + people).

The phrase chaTati haPa'am ("I have sinned this time") uses the qal perfect first-person verb followed by a definite feminine noun functioning adverbially, specifying that the confession applies to "this time" rather than as a general statement.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders haresha'im ("the guilty ones", H7563) with the Greek term ἀσεβεῖς ("impious/ungodly"), a semantic shift from "guilty" toward "impious." The Vulgate follows with impii, matching the LXX's sense rather than a strict "guilty" rendering. The SBLIBRE Spanish translation adds "reconozco que" ("I recognize that") before "he pecado," an interpretive addition not present in the Hebrew verb chaTati itself, which is simply a first-person perfect "I have sinned."