A HIGH HAND — the raised arm, the gesture of somebody doing a thing openly and meaning it. ⚠ The phrase is the same in both of its famous uses, and they point opposite ways. At Exodus 14:8 and again at Numbers 33:3 (not yet on these pages), Israel walks out of Egypt b'yad ramah — head up, in the sight of all Egypt, and it is glorious. At Numbers 15:30 a person acts b'yad ramah and is said to be REVILING Jehovah, with no offering available: the whole sacrificial system of that chapter covers only what is done through error, and this is where it stops. Identical two words; the difference is entirely who the hand is raised against. ⚠ Only two versions checked here keep the picture — ASV 'with a high hand' and the 1909 Reina-Valera 'con altiva mano', the oldest-register witness on each shelf — while KJV and Geneva read 'presumptuously', NIV 'defiantly', NWT 1984 'deliberately', Douay-Rheims 'through pride', RV60 'con soberbia'. Every modern version gives the reader the meaning and takes away the link to the Exodus. → first discussed at Num 15:30