Exodus 4:30

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Aaron spoke all the words which Yahweh had spoken to Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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Word by word

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הָאֹתֹ֖ת

ʼôwth

H226

“the · signs”

Particle, Definite Article + Noun, Common, Both, Plural, Absolute

Appears 79× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 1:14

Full BDB Definition

Origin: probably from H225 (in the sense of appearing)

TWOT: 41a

sign, signal - a distinguishing mark - banner - remembrance - miraculous sign - omen - warning - token, ensign, standard, miracle, proof

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

14: words
13: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Grammatical profile

3 verbs
8 nouns
1 preposition
2 particles

Verb forms

וַיְדַבֵּ֣ר Piel · Sequential Imperfect
דִּבֶּ֥ר Piel · Perfect
וַיַּ֥עַשׂ Qal · Sequential Imperfect

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

וַיְדַבֵּ֣ר to speak H1696 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 21 words from the Hebrew and 18 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 14 Hebrew tokens and 20 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Exodus 4:30 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Exodus 4:16 He will be your spokesman to the people; and it will happen, that he will be to you a mouth, and you will be to him as God.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Exodus 4:30 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיְדַבֵּ֣ר אַהֲרֹ֔ן אֵ֚ת כָּל הַדְּבָרִ֔ים אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּ֥ר יְהוָ֖ה אֶל מֹשֶׁ֑ה וַיַּ֥עַשׂ הָאֹתֹ֖ת לְעֵינֵ֥י הָעָֽם

Aaron spoke all the words which Yahweh had spoken to Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Exodus 4:30 Septuagint · lemma form

καί λαλέω ααρων πᾶς ὁ ῥῆμα οὗτος ὅς λαλέω ὁ θεός πρός μωυσῆς καί ποιέω ὁ σημεῖον ἐναντίον ὁ λαός

And Aaron spoke all these words, which God spoke to Moses, and wrought the miracles before the people.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וּמַלִיל אַהֲרֹן יָת כָּל פִּתְגָמַיָא דִי מַלִיל יְיָ עִם משֶׁה וַעֲבַד אָתַיָא לְעֵינֵי עַמָא:

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וּמַלֵיל אַהֲרן יַת פִּתְגָמַיָא דְמַלֵיל יְיָ עִם משֶׁה וְעָבַד אָתַיָא לְעֵינֵי עַמָא

And Aharon spake all the words which the Lord had spoken with Mosheh, and did the signs in the eyes of the people.

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Exodus 4:30 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Exo 4:30 And Aaron spake all the words which the LORD had spoken unto Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people.

Ver. 30. And did the signs.] Moses did; or Aaron, by his command and appointment.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joseph Benson's Commentary

Exo 4:30. Aaron did the signs — By the direction of Moses. Hereby full proof was given to the people of the divine mission of Moses, and their concurrence was gained before he applied to Pharaoh in their behalf.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 30. Aaron spake all the words] It is likely that Aaron was better acquainted with the Hebrew tongue than his brother, and on this account he became the spokesman. See Clarke on Ex 4:14.

Did the signs] Turned the rod into a serpent, made the hand leprous, and changed the water into blood. See Clarke on Ex 4:6; and "Ex 4:8".

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(30) Aaron spake.—According to the Divine command (Exo_4:16).

And did the signs.—So, generally, afterwards (Exo_7:10; Exo_7:19; Exo_8:6; Exo_8:17, &c.), not, however, universally (see Exo_9:10; Exo_9:23; Exo_10:13; Exo_14:21; &c).

The people believed.—The narrative is very much compressed. The elders heard the words, and saw the signs first. Then they must have summoned an assembly of the people, after working hours, and the people must have been addressed and shown the signs. The effect was to convince them also, and to induce them to accept Moses and Aaron for the national leaders.

Worshipped.—Some think that Moses was the object of the worship; but it is better to regard it as offered to “the Lord,” who had “visited” them.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

30a. Here Aaron appears as Moses’ spokesman, in accordance with vv. 15, 16 (J).

30b. and did] i.e. Aaron. But the Heb. is and he did, allowing reference to Moses, which is undoubtedly right (Di.). The ‘signs’ and those given to Moses in vv. 1–9.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And the people believed,.... That Moses was sent of God, and would be the deliverer of them:

and when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel; in a way of grace and mercy, by raising such a redeemer and deliverer in the midst of them:

and that he had looked upon their affliction; with an eye of pity and compassion:

then they bowed their heads, and worshipped; adoring the goodness of God, and expressing their thankfulness for the notice he took of them, and signifying their readiness to obey all instructions and directions that should be given them.

Next: Exodus Chapter 5

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

The three signs, prescribed above, in proof of their mission. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

Thus beginning to execute the office which God had put upon him, which was to be Moses’s mouth, or spokesman. i.e. Aaron did the signs as Moses’s minister, or by the command and direction of Moses.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Pulpit Commentary

Aaron spake. Aaron at once entered on his office of "spokesman" (ver. 16), declaring to the elders all God"s dealings with his brother. Aaron also, and not Moses, us we should have expected (ver. 17), did the signs, God, by allowing him to do them, sanctioning this delegation of power. On later occasions, we find Aaron more than once required by God to work the miracles. (See below, Exo_7:19 Exo_8:5, Exo_8:16) In the sight of the people. It is not probable that the people were present at the first meeting of the elders; but the sacred historian, anxious to compress his narrative, and bent simply on conveying to us the fact of Aaron"s success with both elders and people, omits stages in the history which he supposes that any reader can supply, e.g. the doing of the signs in the sight of the elders, their belief in them, and their subsequent assembling of the people.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Wesley's Explanatory Notes

Aaron did the signs - By the direction of Moses.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Exodus, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 14 words (13 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is ʼôwth (“sign”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “sign” (ʼôwth) shape what this verse is saying?
How does Exodus 4:16, which shares this passage’s theme, read alongside this verse?
What does the repetition of “to speak” (2× in this one verse) do in this verse?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
«וַיְדַבֵּ֣ר» is a Piel Sequential Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Joseph Benson's Commentary read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 14 Hebrew ↔ 20 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 8 words in this verse.
“to speak” occurs 2× in this single verse.
13 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 14 words in this verse.