What Does Exodus 11:4 Mean in the King James?
And Moses said, Thus saith the LORD, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt:
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
The one named “drawn out” announces that the LORD goes out into Egypt’s midst, holding emergence and entry together at midnight.
THE MEANING
The sentence holds you at midnight, hearing the LORD announce movement through Egypt’s midst. The next verse names the consequence: the firstborn die, so this movement carries the terror of lethal judgment. Moses’s name, “drawn out,” echoes the words “go out” within that announcement.
THE ROOT
יֹצֵא
yōṣēʾ
GROWS FROM
יצא
To go out, come forth, or emerge.
“go out” in this verse is yōṣēʾ. The verse uses a verb of emergence: the LORD is the one going out into Egypt’s midst. In Exodus 12:41, the same יצא root names Israel’s own going out, binding the announced divine movement and the people’s departure through one Hebrew root.
ALSO GROWS
yāṣĕʾû: They went out; a plural form of יצא.
יָצְאוּ
Exodus 12:41 uses this form for Israel’s departure from Egypt, carrying the same root into the outcome of the announcement.
yĕṣîʾāh: Going out, departure.
יְצִיאָה
This noun makes explicit the departure already contained in the verb used here.
môṣāʾ: Outlet, source, or point of emergence.
מוֹצָא
It shows the root’s reach from the act of going out to what comes forth.
מֹשֶׁה
Mōšeh
GROWS FROM
משׁה
To draw out, pull out.
The name is tied in the text to being drawn out of water. Here Moses’s voice introduces another motion of going out; the roots differ, but the verse echoes emergence through both the speaker’s name and the LORD’s action.
ALSO GROWS
mĕšîtihû: I drew him out; the wording used to explain Moses’s name in Exodus 2:10.
מְשִׁיתִהוּ
It makes the name’s root meaning explicit: Moses is named through an act of drawing out.
yimšēnî: He drew me out, as in the song of deliverance in Psalm 18:17.
יִמְשֵׁנִי
This form shows the root describing a person brought out from danger.
בְּתוֹךְ
bĕtôḵ
GROWS FROM
תוך
Interior, middle, or what lies within.
The location is inside Egypt, not at its boundary: the announced going out happens בתוך מצרים, in Egypt’s midst. The pairing of יצא, “go out,” with תוך, “interior,” places the movement at the center of the threatened place.
ALSO GROWS
tôḵ: Middle, interior, or midst.
תּוֹךְ
This is the core location word inside the verse’s phrase “in the midst of Egypt.”
bĕtôḵô: Within it, in its interior.
בְּתוֹכוֹ
This form shows how the same root locates an action inside something, sharpening the force of “in the midst.”
THE PATTERN
Divine judgment enters the midst of a people and reaches particular bodies.
For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed: and there died of the people from Dan even to Beer-sheba seventy thousand men.And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.THE THREAD
And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.Both verses use the root יצא: here the LORD says, “I go out”; there the hosts of the LORD “went out” from Egypt. The same Hebrew verb binds the announced divine movement to the people’s departure.
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