Exodus 9:31

Summary

The verse explains why flax and barley, unlike wheat and spelt, were destroyed by the hail: at that point in the growing season barley had reached the aviv stage and flax was at the giv'ol stage — both vulnerable growth phases. The sentence functions as a causal explanation (introduced by ki) for the selective crop damage described in the surrounding narrative.

Key words

• nuKatah ("it was struck", H5221) — Pual perfect, 3rd person feminine singular; intensive passive form indicating the crops were forcefully struck (by hail), and grammatically singular despite governing two coordinated subjects (flax and barley).
• ki ("for/because", H3588A) — subordinating particle introducing the causal clause that explains why these two crops in particular were damaged.
• aviv ("young/ripe ear", H0024) — singular common noun, used predicatively without a copula, describing the developmental stage of the barley at the time of the hail.
• giv'ol ("bud/stalk", H1392) — masculine singular noun, likewise predicative, describing the flax's stage of growth.
• se'orah ("barley", H8184) — feminine singular noun, repeated in both the main clause and the causal clause, anchoring the explanation to a specific crop.

What the text says

The verse opens with a compound subject — ha-pishtah ("the flax", H6594) and ha-se'orah ("the barley", H8184) — joined by ve ("and", H9002), followed by a single verb, nuKatah, in the feminine singular. Although two nouns are joined, the verb does not appear in a plural or dual form; this is a feature of the Hebrew construction where a verb can agree with the nearer or more prominent subject rather than marking plurality explicitly. This grammatical choice keeps the focus tight on the pairing of these two specific crops as jointly affected.

The causal clause introduced by ki explains the damage without using a verb "to be": ha-se'orah aviv and ha-pishtah giv'ol are nominal sentences, where the noun aviv and the noun giv'ol function as predicates describing the state of each plant. This verbless construction is common in Biblical Hebrew for describing states or conditions, and it places emphasis on the stage of growth itself rather than on any action being performed.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew aviv (young/ripening ear) is rendered in the LXX as paresteкуia ("standing/mature") and in the Vulgate as virens ("green, flourishing") — three different nuances for the same growth stage. Similarly, Hebrew giv'ol ("bud/stalk") appears in the LXX as spermatizon ("seeding, going to seed") and in the Vulgate as folliculos germinaret ("germinating pods"), each version choosing a different agricultural image for the flax's condition.