Deuteronomy 31:15

Summary

Deuteronomy 31:15 describes Yehovah appearing at the tent in a pillar of cloud, with the cloud-pillar then positioning itself over the entrance of the tent. The verse uses two sequential narrative verbs to depict first the appearance and then the specific placement of the cloud.

Key words

• va-yeRa ("and he appeared", H7200G) — niphal narrative form; the niphal stem often carries passive or reflexive nuance, so the verb marks Yehovah's presence becoming visible/manifest, chained by the narrative vav to what follows.
• Ohel ("tent", H0168G) — masculine singular noun, appears twice (lines 5 and 17), each time with the definite article, anchoring the scene at "the tent."
• ammud ("pillar of", H5982G) — masculine singular construct noun, appearing twice; construct form links it directly to anan ("cloud"), producing "pillar of cloud."
• anan ("cloud", H6051) — masculine singular noun; in its second occurrence (line 13) it carries the definite article he (H9009), shifting from indefinite "a pillar of cloud" to "the pillar of the cloud," referring back to the cloud just introduced.
• va-ya'aMod ("and it stood", H5975G) — qal narrative verb, describing the pillar's action of taking position, distinct from the niphal used for Yehovah's appearing.

What the text says

The verse is built as two parallel narrative clauses, each introduced by a vav-prefixed verb (va-yeRa, "and he appeared"; va-ya'aMod, "and it stood"), which is the standard Hebrew way of sequencing events in narrative prose. In the first clause, the subject is Yehovah (YHVH, H3068G), and the verb yeRa is niphal, which in Biblical Hebrew often expresses that a subject becomes visible or manifest rather than performing a direct transitive action. The location is given twice with different prepositions: ba-Ohel ("in/at the tent," H0168G) and be-ammud anan ("in a pillar of cloud," construct chain H5982G + H6051), so the appearing happens both "at the tent" and "in a pillar of cloud."

The second clause shifts subject to the ammud ha-anan ("the pillar of the cloud"), now with the definite article added to anan (line 12, H9009), marking it as the same cloud already mentioned. This pillar "stood" (ya'aMod, qal, H5975G) specifically al petach ha-Ohel ("over the entrance of the tent," H6607 construct + H0168G), giving a precise spatial detail not present in the first clause. The construct chains (ammud anan, petach ha-Ohel) show typical Hebrew possessive/descriptive linking without a separate word for "of."

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the first verb as katebē ("he went down") rather than "he appeared," and adds en nephelē ("in a cloud") without the construct "pillar" in that first clause, differing from the Hebrew va-yeRa... be-ammud anan. The LXX also specifies "the tabernacle of testimony" (tēs skēnēs tou martyriou), a phrase absent in the Hebrew, which reads simply ha-Ohel ("the tent"). The Vulgate follows a shorter structure, stating that the Lord "appeared there in a pillar of cloud, which stood in the entrance of the tabernacle," compressing the Hebrew's two-clause structure into one main verb ("appeared") plus a relative clause ("which stood"), rather than two independent narrative verbs as in the Hebrew.