Exodus 2:25

God saw ¹  the Israelites, and God understood…. ² 

Ex 1:8; Ex 3:7,8; Ex 4:31; 1Sa 1:11; 2Sa 16:12; Job 33:27; Ps 1:6; Ps 55:22; Mt 7:23; Lu 1:25

¹ tn Heb “and God saw.”

² tn Heb “and God knew” (יָדַע, yada’). The last clause contains a widely used verb for knowing, but it leaves the object unexpressed within the clause, so as to allow all that vv. 23-24 have described to serve as the compelling content of God’s knowing. (Many modern English versions supply an object for the verb following the LXX, which reads “knew them.”) The idea seems to be that God took personal knowledge of, noticed, or regarded them. In other passages the verb “know” is similar in meaning to “save” or “show pity.” See especially Gen 18:21, Ps 1:6; 31:7, and Amos 3:2. Exodus has already provided an example of the results of not knowing in 1:8 (cf. 5:2).