What Does Exodus 10:7 Mean in the King James?
And Pharaoh’s servants said unto him, How long shall this man be a snare unto us? let the men go, that they may serve the LORD their God: knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed?
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Even Pharaoh’s own court sees that the way out of the snare is release, while the land is already being lost.
THE MEANING
The court calls Moses a snare, yet names the opening it can see: release the people so they may serve their God. The verse holds both truths together, the danger tightens around everyone, and Egypt is already described as perishing. It shows how a refusal to let go can deepen the very crisis it tries to contain.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that refusing to yield preserves the ruler’s world: Pharaoh’s own servants say Egypt is already being lost while the people remain captive.
THE ROOT
מוֹקֵשׁ
moqesh
GROWS FROM
יקשׁ
To ensnare, to set a trap.
The Hebrew word for “snare,” moqesh (מוֹקֵשׁ), comes from yaqash (יקשׁ), “to ensnare.” The court names Moses as the trap, while its plea to release the people reveals how the crisis has caught Egypt too; Psalm 124 uses this same root for the fowlers’ snare that breaks.
ALSO GROWS
yoqeshim: Fowlers, those who lay snares.
יוֹקְשִׁים
This form appears in Psalm 124:7, where the bird escapes after the snare breaks.
moqesh: Snare, trap.
מוֹקֵשׁ
This is the word the court uses to describe the danger closing around them.
שַׁלַּח
shallach
GROWS FROM
שלח
To send forth, release, let go.
“let the men go” in this verse is shallach. The command translated “let ... go” is shallach (שַׁלַּח), from shalach (שלח): send forth, release. The sentence immediately says what that release opens into, the people can serve the LORD their God; letting go also sends them toward their purpose.
ALSO GROWS
mishloach: Sending, dispatch.
מִשְׁלוֹחַ
It carries the same sense of something being sent forth from a source.
Shiloach: Sent forth; the name of the waters and pool of Siloam.
שִׁלֹחַ
Its name carries the image of waters sent forth, echoing the movement from holding captive to release.
אָבְדָה
avdah
GROWS FROM
אבד
To perish, be lost, lose the way.
“destroyed” in this verse is avdah. Egypt is described with avdah (אָבְדָה), from abad (אבד), “to perish” or “be lost.” The word presents the land’s condition as loss already underway, adding weight to the servants’ urgent plea to release the people.
ALSO GROWS
oved: Perishing, lost.
אֹבֵד
It carries the same movement toward loss that the verse says has overtaken Egypt.
avedah: Loss, something lost.
אֲבֵדָה
This noun makes the root’s sense of loss concrete.
THE PATTERN
A grip that becomes a snare is broken by release, opening a way out of captivity.
Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped.Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.THE THREAD
Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped.The Hebrew word for “snare” here, moqesh (מוֹקֵשׁ), and the word for “fowlers” in the psalm, yoqeshim (יוֹקְשִׁים), come from yaqash (יקשׁ), “to ensnare.” Exodus names the trap closing around Egypt; the psalm shows the other side of that image, when the snare breaks and the bird escapes.
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