What Does Exodus 8:18 Mean?
And the magicians did so with their whisperings to bring out lice, but they could not; so there were lice upon man and upon beast.
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 the magicians did so with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not: so there were lice upon man, and upon beast.THE KEY
“Bring forth” means to cause something to come out: the magicians’ failure reveals that imitating an effect and producing it are different powers.
THE MEANING
The verse places a limit before you: repetition cannot make every result possible. The magicians cannot bring the lice forth, and their failure exposes the boundary of their power as the infestation reaches humans and animals.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that skill at imitation means mastery over what is being imitated.
THE ROOT
לְהוֹצִיא
lehotzi
GROWS FROM
יצא
to go out, come out, emerge
“bring out” in this verse is lehotzi. The Hebrew is lehotzi, the causative form of yatsa: literally, to cause something to go out. The root keeps the image of an emergence, so the magicians’ failure is their inability to make this particular thing come forth.
ALSO GROWS
yatsa: to go out or come out
יָצָא
This is the root in its basic form; here it becomes causative, meaning to make something come out.
motsa: an outlet, issue, or point of origin
מוֹצָא
This noun carries the same idea of something emerging or having a way out.
יָכֹלוּ
yakholu
GROWS FROM
יכל
to be able; to prevail
“could” in this verse is yakholu. The verse names a limit of ability, not merely an unsuccessful attempt. This root can also mean to prevail, bringing the question of power into focus: what can actually accomplish the work?
ALSO GROWS
yakhol: to be able, can
יָכֹל
This is the same verb in its basic form; the verse says the magicians do not have this capacity.
yekholet: ability or capacity
יְכֹלֶת
This related noun makes explicit the capacity that the verse shows reaching its limit.
THE PATTERN
Imitation reveals its limit when a work cannot be reproduced.
For each of them threw down his rod, and they became serpents, but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods.Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, This is the finger of God; and Pharaoh's heart was gripped, and he did not hear and respond to them, as the LORD had said.But they will not cut their way forward any further, for their mindlessness will be plain for all to see, just as theirs also was.THE THREAD
So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but shall do what I delight in, and shall break through in the thing to which I sent it.“Bring forth” in Exodus and “goeth forth” in Isaiah share the Hebrew root יצא (yatsa), “to go out, come out.” The magicians cannot cause the emergence they attempt, while Isaiah describes a word that goes forth and accomplishes its work.
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