What Does Exodus 9:28 Mean?
Plead with the LORD, for there is enough of God's thunder and hail. I will let you go, and you shall stand no longer.
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
Intreat the LORD (for it is enough) that there be no more mighty thunderings and hail; and I will let you go, and ye shall stay no longer.THE KEY
The promise to “let you go” uses שָׁלַח (shalach, send or release), making freedom an outward movement from confinement.
THE MEANING
The verse recognizes the point where the harm is enough and holds two needs together: the violence must cease, and those held in constriction must be released. The promise is movement outward, “I will let you go”, followed by an end to remaining where they are. The hail is named without softening it, and release is spoken into its midst.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The end of visible danger alone is not the whole freedom: those held in confinement must also be released.
THE ROOT
וַאֲשַׁלְּחָה
vaʾăšalleḥā
GROWS FROM
שלח
send, send forth, release
“let you go” in this verse is vaʾăšalleḥā. The promise uses שָׁלַח (shalach, send or release) in the first person: “I will send you forth.” This root makes release an outward movement from confinement, not merely a pause in the storm.
ALSO GROWS
shilluaḥ: sending away, dismissal
שִׁלּוּחַ
This noun carries the same outward motion as the promise: someone held in place is sent away.
Shiloach: sent; the name of a water channel
שִׁלֹחַ
Its name preserves the idea of what is sent forth, echoing the movement promised to the people here.
תֹסִפוּן
tosifun
GROWS FROM
יסף
add, continue, do again
The KJV phrase “stay no longer” renders a construction that says they will not continue or add to standing there. The Hebrew root makes continuation audible in the promise that this remaining will end.
ALSO GROWS
Yosef: Joseph; the name is explained as “may he add”
יוֹסֵף
Genesis 30:24 preserves the root’s addition sense, which is also heard behind “no longer continue.”
lehosif: to add
לְהוֹסִיף
This verb uses the same root consonants and makes clear how “continue” grows from the idea of adding further.
הַעְתִּירוּ
haʿtîrû
GROWS FROM
עתר
supplicate, make entreaty, intercede
“Plead with the LORD” in this verse is haʿtîrû. The imperative addresses more than one person, and their entreaty is specifically for the thunder and hail to cease. The sentence then turns from intercession to the speaker’s promise to send the people away.
ALSO GROWS
ʿatar: to supplicate, entreat
עָתַר
The root action is directed to the LORD here: Moses and Aaron are asked to intercede for the storm to end.
ʿatirah: supplication, entreaty
עֲתִירָה
This related noun shows the plea as an appeal, illuminating what “Intreat” means in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Release is the movement by which what is confined leaves its holding place and becomes free to move.
And afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told the Great House, Thus says the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may dance a feast to me in the wilderness.Is this not the fast I have chosen, to open the bonds of wickedness, to untie the cords of the yoke, to send the crushed away free, and to tear away every yoke?The breath of the LORD is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the emptied. He has sent me to heal the shattered in heart, to herald release to the captives, and the return of sight for the blind, to send the crushed away into release.THE THREAD
Is this not the fast I have chosen, to open the bonds of wickedness, to untie the cords of the yoke, to send the crushed away free, and to tear away every yoke?Exodus uses וַאֲשַׁלְּחָה (vaʾăšalleḥā, “I will send you forth”) from שָׁלַח (shalach, send or release); Isaiah 58:6 uses that same root for letting the oppressed go free. The connection makes the promise larger than a pause in the hail: release is the movement by which a life held under a yoke leaves its confinement.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us