Exodus 8:27

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

We will go three days' journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to Yahweh our God, as he shall command us."

World English Bible · Public Domain

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Word by word

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וְזָבַ֨חְנוּ֙

zâbach

H2076

“and · to sacrifice”

Conjunction + Verb, Qal, Sequential Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Plural

Appears 134× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 31:54

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a primitive root

TWOT: 525

to slaughter, kill, sacrifice, slaughter for sacrifice - (Qal) - to slaughter for sacrifice - to slaughter for eating - to slaughter in divine judgment - (Piel) to sacrifice, offer sacrifice

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 →

11: words
11: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Grammatical profile

3 verbs
5 nouns
1 adjective
1 preposition
1 particle

Verb forms

נֵלֵ֖ךְ Qal · Imperfect
וְזָבַ֨חְנוּ֙ Qal · Sequential Perfect
יֹאמַ֥ר Qal · Imperfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 20 words from the Hebrew and 26 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.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Exodus 8:27 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Exodus 3:18 They will listen to your voice, and you shall come, you and the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt, and you shall tell him, 'Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Now please let us go three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to Yahweh, our God.'
Exodus 3:12 He said, "Certainly I will be with you. This will be the token to you, that I have sent you: when you have brought forth the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain."
Exodus 5:1 Afterward Moses and Aaron came, and said to Pharaoh, "This is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, 'Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.'"
Exodus 10:26 Our cattle also shall go with us. There shall not a hoof be left behind, for of it we must take to serve Yahweh our God; and we don't know with what we must serve Yahweh, until we come there."
Exodus 34:11 Observe that which I command you this day. Behold, I drive out before you the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
Leviticus 10:1 Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer, and put fire in it, and laid incense on it, and offered strange fire before Yahweh, which he had not commanded them.
Matthew 28:20 teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.

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 8:27 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

דֶּ֚רֶךְ שְׁלֹ֣שֶׁת יָמִ֔ים נֵלֵ֖ךְ בַּמִּדְבָּ֑ר וְזָבַ֨חְנוּ֙ לַֽיהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֵ֔ינוּ כַּאֲשֶׁ֖ר יֹאמַ֥ר אֵלֵֽינוּ

We will go three days' journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to Yahweh our God, as he shall command us."

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Exodus 8:27 Septuagint · lemma form

ποιέω δέ κύριος καθάπερ εἶπον μωυσῆς καί περιαἱρέω ὁ κυνόμυια ἀπό φαραώ καί ὁ θεράπων αὐτός καί ὁ λαός αὐτός καί οὐ καταλείπω οὐδείς

We will go a journey of three days into the wilderness, and we will sacrifice to the Lord our God, as the Lord said to us.

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)

וַעֲבַד יְיָ כְּפִתְגָמָא דְמשֶׁה וְאַעְדִי עָרוֹבָא מִפַּרְעֹה מֵעַבְדוֹהִי וּמֵעַמֵהּ לָא אִשְׁתָּאַר חָד:

(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)

וַעֲבַד יְיָ כְּפִתְגַם בְּעוּתָא דְמשֶׁה וְאַעֲדֵי עִירְבּוּב חֵיוַת בָּרָא מִפַּרְעה וּמֵעַבְדוֹי וּמֵעַמֵיהּ לָא אִשְׁתְּאַר חָד

and the Lord did according to the word of the prayer of Mosheh, and removed the swarm of wild beasts from Pharoh, and from his servants, and from his people; not one was left.

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 8:27 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 8:27 We will go three days’ journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to the LORD our God, as he shall command us.

Ver. 27. As he shall command us.] Manner as well as matter, circumstance as well as substance, to be heeded in God’s service; else there may be malum opus in bona materia, as one saith, - an evil work in a good matter.

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 8:27-29. As he shall command us — For he has not yet told us what sacrifices to offer. Ye shall not go very far away — Not so far but that he might fetch them back again. It is likely he suspected that if once they left Egypt they would never come back; and therefore when he is forced to consent that they shall go, yet he is not willing they should go out of his reach. See how ready God is to accept sinners’ submissions: Pharaoh only says, Entreat for me — Moses promises immediately; I will entreat the Lord — For thee; and that he might see what the design of the plague was, not to bring him to ruin but to repentance.

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 27. And sacrifice to the Lord - as he shall command us.] It is very likely that neither Moses nor Aaron knew as yet in what manner God would be worshipped; and they expected to receive a direct revelation from him relative to this subject, when they should come into the wilderness.

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

(27) As he shall command us.—Comp. Exo_10:26—“We know not with what we must serve the Lord, until we come thither.”

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

27. three days’ journey] as Exo_3:18, Exo_5:3.

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 Pharaoh said, I will let you go, that ye may sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness,.... He does not say three days, though as he allowed them to go into the wilderness and sacrifice, they could not go and come again in less time; nor would Moses have accepted of the grant, as it seems by what follows he had, if he had obliged them to less time:

only you shall not go very far away; his meaning is, as Aben Ezra observes, that they should go no further than three days' journey; he was jealous that this was only an excuse to get entirely out of his dominions, and never return more. He might have heard of their claim to the land of Canaan, and of their talk, and hope, and expectation, of going and settling there; and so understood this motion of theirs, to have leave to go into the wilderness for three days, to sacrifice to the Lord, was only a pretence; that their real intention was to proceed on in their journey to Canaan; however, being in this great distress, he made as if he was willing to grant what they desired, and very importunately urged they would pray he might be delivered from this plague:

entreat for me; the words seem to be spoken in haste, and with great eagerness and vehemence.

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

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Three days’ journey - See the Exo 3:18 note.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

For we know not what kind or number of sacrifices to offer to him till we come thither.

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

The Pulpit Commentary

Three days" journey into the wilderness. This was the demand made from the first (Exo_5:3) by Divine direction. (Exo_3:18) Its object was to secure the absence of Egyptians as witnesses. As he shall command us. Compare Exo_10:26, where Moses observes know not with what we must serve the Lord until we come thither." Divine directions were expected as to the number and the selection of the victims.

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

As he shall command us - For he has not yet told us what sacrifices to offer.

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

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

ויסר הערב AND HE REMOVED THE SWARM OF ANIMALS — He merely removed them and they did not die as the frogs had died; for had they died, they (the Egyptians) could have made some use of their skins (Exodus Rabbah 11:3).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

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 11 words (11 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is zâbach (“to sacrifice”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “to sacrifice” (zâbach) shape what this verse is saying?
How does Exodus 3:18, which shares this passage’s theme, read alongside this verse?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
«נֵלֵ֖ךְ» is a Qal 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

These translations choose different wording for 9 words in this verse.
11 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 11 words in this verse.