Exodus 9:29

Summary

Moses responds to Pharaoh, announcing that when he leaves the city he will raise his hands toward Yehovah in a gesture accompanying prayer. He states that the thunder will stop and the hail will cease, so that Pharaoh may know that the earth belongs to Yehovah.

Key words

• tze.Ti ("have gone out", H3318G) — infinitive form with a first-person suffix, combined with the preposition ke ("when"), producing "when I go out," marking the temporal condition for the action that follows.
• 'efros ("I will spread out", H6566) — qal imperfect, first person, expressing an action Moses commits to performing in the near future (spreading his hands).
• kappai ("my hands/palms", H3709G) — feminine dual noun in construct with the first-person suffix, referring to the paired hands as a single grammatical unit ("my two palms").
• yechdalun ("they will cease", H2308) — qal imperfect, third person masculine plural, carrying a paragogic nun (H9013) that adds emphasis to the verb form.
• lema'an teda' ("so that you may know", H4616 + H3045) — a purpose particle followed by a qal jussive/imperfect form of "to know," introducing the stated goal of the action.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative va ("and", H9001) attached to yomer ("he said", H0559), continuing the story sequence. Moses' speech is structured around a temporal clause introduced by ke ("when", H9004) plus the infinitive tzeti ("my going out", H3318G), which sets up the condition: departure from ha-'ir ("the city", H5892B). The main clause follows with 'efros ("I will spread out", H6566), governing the object kappai ("my hands", H3709G) directed 'el-Yehovah ("to Yehovah", H3068G).

Two consequence clauses follow, each using qal imperfect verbs: ha-qolot yechdalun ("the thunder claps will cease", H6963I + H2308), where the paragogic nun on yechdalun adds emphasis to the verb, and ha-barad lo' yihyeh 'od ("the hail will not be again", H1259 + H3808 + H1961 + H5750), a negated imperfect construction. The final purpose clause, introduced by lema'an ("so that", H4616) with the verb teda' ("you may know", H3045), states the intended result: recognition that la-Yehovah ha-'aretz ("to Yehovah [belongs] the earth", H3068G + H0776G), a construction using the preposition la ("[belongs] to", H9005) to express possession without a copular verb.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders kappai ("my hands", H3709G) as τὰς χεῖράς ("the hands") without an explicit possessive pronoun in some manuscripts, though the sense remains equivalent. The LXX also adds καὶ ὁ ὑετὸς ("and the rain") alongside χάλαζα ("hail"), an element not present in the Hebrew text, which mentions only barad ("hail", H1259). The Vulgate's extendam palmas meas ad Dominum explicitly adds "ad Dominum" ("to the Lord") for the hand-spreading action, matching the Hebrew's 'el-Yehovah, while the LXX's ἐκπετάσω τὰς χεῖράς μου omits a directional object at that point in the clause.