What Does Exodus 7:25 Mean?
And seven days were filled, after the LORD had struck the river.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And seven days were fulfilled, after that the LORD had smitten the river.THE KEY
The Hebrew says the seven days themselves became full: the blow on the river is followed by an interval that reaches its measure.
THE MEANING
The verse holds you at the end of a measured aftermath: the river has been struck, and seven days have filled their span. The blow remains the starting point of the count; no recovery is yet stated.
THE ROOT
וַיִּמְלְאוּ
wayyimleʾu
GROWS FROM
מלא
To be full, become full, or fill.
“filled” in this verse is wayyimleʾu. Here the days do not merely pass; they become full. The Hebrew verb shares its seed with words for being full and filling, picturing the interval as reaching its full measure after the blow.
ALSO GROWS
maleʾ: To be full; become full.
מָלֵא
The days in this verse reach their full span.
millēʾ: To fill, fill up, complete.
מִלֵּא
This form makes the root’s image explicit: a space or measure is filled.
הַכּוֹת
hakkōt
GROWS FROM
נכה
To strike, smite, or hit.
“struck” in this verse is hakkōt. The phrase names a strike against the river, and מַכָּה carries the same root into a noun for a blow or plague. The seven days are counted from the damage, keeping the force of the act present through the interval.
ALSO GROWS
hikkāh: He struck; he smote.
הִכָּה
This verb form names the action that begins the interval in the verse.
makkāh: A blow, stroke, or plague.
מַכָּה
The related noun shows how the root names both striking and the blow that remains.
THE PATTERN
After a disruptive blow, scripture marks a span in which its effects remain present.
And it came to be, after the seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spoke a word to him, for they saw that his pain was very great.And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.THE THREAD
The earth also was ruined before God, and the earth was filled with violence.The same מלא root describes the seven days reaching fullness here and the earth being filled with violence there. In both verses, fullness names something reaching its full measure; the root itself does not decide what fills it.
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