Exodus 9:5

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Yahweh appointed a set time, saying, "Tomorrow Yahweh shall do this thing in the land."

World English Bible · Public Domain

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מָחָ֗ר

mâchâr

H4279

“tomorrow”

Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute

Appears 52× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 30:33

Full BDB Definition

Origin: probably from H309

TWOT: 1185a

tomorrow, in time to come, in the future - tomorrow (as the day following the present day) - in future time

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 →

10: words
9: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Shared distinctive vocabulary

מָחָ֗ר tomorrow H4279 occurs in 52 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

3 verbs
6 nouns
1 pronoun

Verb forms

וַיָּ֥שֶׂם Qal · Sequential Imperfect
לֵאמֹ֑ר Qal · Infinitive Construct
יַעֲשֶׂ֧ה Qal · Imperfect

Repetition

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

יְהוָ֖ה LORD H3068 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 15 words from the Hebrew and 16 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 10 Hebrew tokens and 17 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 9:5 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Exodus 8:23 I will put a division between my people and your people: by tomorrow shall this sign be."'"
Exodus 9:18 Behold, tomorrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as has not been in Egypt since the day it was founded even until now.
Exodus 10:4 Or else, if you refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country,
Numbers 16:5 and he spoke to Korah and to all his company, saying, In the morning Yahweh will show who are his, and who is holy, and will cause him to come near to him: even him whom he shall choose will he cause to come near to him.
Job 24:1 "Why aren't times laid up by the Almighty? Why don't those who know him see his days?
Ecclesiastes 3:1–11 For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven:
Jeremiah 28:16–17 Therefore thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will send you away from off the surface of the earth: this year you shall die, because you have spoken rebellion against Yahweh.
Matthew 27:63–64 saying, "Sir, we remember what that deceiver said while he was still alive: 'After three days I will rise again.'

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 9:5 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיָּ֥שֶׂם יְהוָ֖ה מוֹעֵ֣ד לֵאמֹ֑ר מָחָ֗ר יַעֲשֶׂ֧ה יְהוָ֛ה הַדָּבָ֥ר הַזֶּ֖ה בָּאָֽרֶץ

Yahweh appointed a set time, saying, "Tomorrow Yahweh shall do this thing in the land."

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Exodus 9:5 Septuagint · lemma form

καί δίδωμι ὁ θεός ὅρος λέγω ἐν ὁ αὔριον ποιέω κύριος ὁ ῥῆμα οὗτος ἐπί ὁ γῆ

And God fixed a limit, saying, To-morrow the Lord will do this thing on the land.

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)

וְשַׁוִי יְיָ זִמְנָא לְמֵימָר מְחַר יַעְבֵּד יְיָ פִּתְגָמָא הָדֵין בְּאַרְעָא:

(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)

וּקְבַע יְיָ זִמְנָא לְמֵימָר מְחָר יַעֲבֵיד יְיָ יַת פִּתְגָמָא הָדֵין בְּאַרְעָא

And the Lord set a time, saying, Tomorrow will the Lord do this thing in the land.

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 9:5 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 →

Joseph Benson's Commentary

Exo 9:5. The Lord appointed a set time — This appointing of a set or particular time, both for bringing on the plagues and removing them, and that at as short a distance as the nature of the appointment would admit, and the leaving it once, at least, to Pharaoh himself to fix it, seems to have been intended to prevent the Egyptians, who were possessed with highly superstitious notions of the influence of the heavenly bodies at particular times, from thinking that Moses took advantage of his knowledge of those times to work his miracles.

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

Tyndale Open Study Notes

Tyndale Open Resources

9:5-6 Prediction again played an important role. These events were being directed by the One who is sovereign over all that happens.

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 5. To-morrow the Lord shall do this] By thus foretelling the evil, he showed his prescience and power; and from this both the Egyptians and Hebrews must see that the mortality that ensued was no casualty, but the effect of a predetermined purpose in the Divine justice.

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

(5) The Lord appointed a set time.—As murrain is not uncommon in Egypt, especially in the Delta, and the coming affliction might therefore be ascribed by the Egyptians to natural causes, God took care to mark its miraculous character (1) by appointing a time; (2) by exempting the cattle of Israel; (3) by making the disease fatal to all the cattle of the Egyptians that were left “in the field.”

Tomorrow.—The delay allowed any Egyptians who believed Moses to save their cattle by housing 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

5. To-morrow] cf. Exo_8:23.

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 Lord appointed a set time,.... For the coming of this plague, that it might plainly appear it came from him, and was not owing to any natural cause:

saying, tomorrow the Lord shall do this thing in the land; thus giving him time and space, as he had often done before, to consider the matter well, repent of his obstinacy, and dismiss the people of Israel, and so prevent the plague coming upon the cattle, as threatened.

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

Land. Moses related all this to the king, according to the Samaritan copy.

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).

The Pulpit Commentary

To-morrow. God may have interposed the interval in order that such as believed the announcement might save their animals by bringing them in out of the fields. All the cattle diedi.e, all that were "in the field" (ver. 3).

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

unfoldingWord translationNotes

Door43 World Missions Community

fixed a time

"set a time" or "appointed a time"

All the cattle of Egypt died

This is exaggerated to emphasize the seriousness of the event. There were still some animals alive that were afflicted by later plagues. However, it may be best to translate this with the word "All." (See: Hyperbole and Generalization)

cattle of Egypt

Here "Egypt" refers to the people of Egypt. AT: "the cattle belonging to the people of Egypt" (See: Metonymy)

Pharaoh investigated

Pharaoh collected facts about the situation.

behold

The word "behold" here shows that Pharaoh was surprised by what he saw.

his heart was stubborn

Here "heart" refers to Pharaoh. AT: "he refused to change his mind" (See: Synecdoche)

translationWords

Yahweh

Egypt

Israel

Pharaoh

people group

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

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 10 words (9 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is mâchâr (“tomorrow”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word mâchâr carries the sense “tomorrow.” How does it shape the verse?
Genesis 30:33 shares the word «tomorrow» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
“LORD” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
The verb «וַיָּ֥שֶׂם» is Qal Sequential Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Joseph Benson's Commentary and Tyndale Open Study Notes read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 10 Hebrew ↔ 17 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 9 words in this verse.
“LORD” occurs 2× in this single verse.
9 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 10 words in this verse.