Bible Strands
Exodus 4:31
and they believed. And when they heard that the LORD had attended to the Israelites and had seen their affliction, they bowed down and worshiped.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The Israelites respond after Aaron relays the LORD’s message to Moses and Moses performs the designated signs before them. They acknowledge God’s direct intervention regarding their affliction.
The words — וַֽיַּאֲמֵן (wayyaʾămēn) translates as "and he believed," describing the people’s response to the reported divine action. פָקַד (paqad) means "he had observed" or "attended to," indicating God’s direct notice of their suffering.
The thread — This pattern of divine observation appears in Exodus 2:25, where God sees the Israelites, and Exodus 3:18, which predicts the elders will listen to Moses. The response of worship follows the recognition of God’s active presence in Exodus 12:27.
Why it lands — The text records a concrete sequence: hearing a report of God’s attention, believing that report, and physically bowing. It requires the reader to recognize that faith and worship follow the verification of God’s intervention, not mere speculation.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And the people believed: and when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped.
Cross-references
- Exodus 3:18 The elders of Israel will listen to what you say, and you must go with them to the king of Egypt and tell him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Now please let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness, so that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.’
- Exodus 2:25 God saw the Israelites and took notice.
- Exodus 12:27 you are to reply, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when He struck down the Egyptians and spared our homes.’” Then the people bowed down and worshiped.
- Psalms 106:12 Then they believed His promises and sang His praise.
- Genesis 24:26 Then the man bowed down and worshiped the LORD,
- Exodus 3:7 The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the affliction of My people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their oppressors, and I am aware of their sufferings.
- Exodus 3:16 Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—has appeared to me and said: I have surely attended to you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt.
- Luke 8:13 The seeds on rocky ground are those who hear the word and receive it with joy, but they have no root. They believe for a season, but in the time of testing, they fall away.
- Exodus 4:8 And the LORD said, “If they refuse to believe you or heed the witness of the first sign, they may believe that of the second.
- 1 Chronicles 29:20 Then David said to the whole assembly, “Bless the LORD your God.” So the whole assembly blessed the LORD, the God of their fathers. They bowed down and paid homage to the LORD and to the king.