What Does Exodus 8:30 Mean?
And Moses went out from Pharaoh, and pleaded with the LORD.
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 Moses went out from Pharaoh, and intreated the LORD.THE KEY
The Hebrew verb carries both the pleading and the being entreated, so Moses’ request has a path beyond Pharaoh’s chamber.
THE MEANING
The verse places you at the moment Moses leaves Pharaoh and directs his plea to the LORD. The request moves out of the ruler’s presence and becomes entreaty addressed to God.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a ruler’s command is the only power governing the moment: Moses leaves Pharaoh and entreats the LORD.
THE ROOT
וַיֶּעְתַּר
wayyeʿtar
GROWS FROM
עתר
ʿ-t-r
To entreat or supplicate; in a corresponding form, to be entreated.
“pleaded with” in this verse is wayyeʿtar. This verb names a plea directed toward one who can receive it. Genesis 25:21 uses the same root for Isaac’s entreating and for the LORD being entreated, holding petition and response within one verbal family.
ALSO GROWS
wayyeʿtar: He entreated or supplicated.
וַיֶּעְתַּר
Genesis 25:21 uses this form for Isaac’s plea to the LORD, placing Moses’ entreaty within a recurring scriptural pattern.
wayyeʿater: He was entreated; the plea was received.
וַיֵּעָתֶר
Genesis 25:21 uses this form for the LORD’s response, revealing the answering side of the same root.
וַיֵּצֵא
wayyēṣēʾ
GROWS FROM
יצא
y-ṣ-ʾ
To go out or come forth; in a causative form, to bring out.
“went out” in this verse is wayyēṣēʾ. The same root can describe going out and causing someone to go out. Moses’ departure from Pharaoh echoes the larger Exodus movement expressed by the causative form: bringing people out.
ALSO GROWS
yāṣāʾ: To go out or come forth.
יָצָא
This is the verb behind Moses’ departure from Pharaoh.
hôṣîʾ: To bring out or lead out.
הוֹצִיא
This causative form belongs to Exodus’s language of release, connecting Moses’ own exit with the people’s movement out of bondage.
מֹשֶׁה
Mōšeh
GROWS FROM
משה
m-š-h
To draw out, especially from water.
Exodus 2:10 connects Moses’ name with being drawn out of the water. Here the one whose name carries that movement leaves Pharaoh’s presence and brings his plea to the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
māšâ: To draw out.
מָשָׁה
This verb is the root associated with Moses’ name.
məšîtihû: I drew him out.
מְשִׁיתִהוּ
Exodus 2:10 uses this form in the explanation of his name, tying Moses to the movement out of water.
THE PATTERN
Entreaty carries a need beyond the limits of a human situation and places it before the LORD.
And Isaac pleaded with the LORD for his wife, because she was barren, and the LORD was moved by him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.And David built there an altar to the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and offerings of wholeness. So the LORD was entreated for the land, and the striking was held back from Israel.Peter was therefore kept in prison, but prayer was stretched out by the assembly toward God for him.THE THREAD
And Isaac pleaded with the LORD for his wife, because she was barren, and the LORD was moved by him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.Genesis 25:21 uses the same root twice: Isaac entreats the LORD, and the LORD is entreated of him. The root holds the petition and its reception within one verbal family, sharpening the force of Moses’ act here.
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