Exodus 13:22

Summary

The verse states that the pillar of cloud did not depart from before the people by day, nor did the pillar of fire depart by night. A single negated verb governs both the daytime and nighttime manifestations, describing a continuous, uninterrupted presence before the people.

Key words

• yaMish ("it departed", H4185) — imperfect verb form of the root מוש, negated by lo' ("not", H3808); the imperfect here conveys a durative or habitual past action ("did not used to depart") rather than a single completed event.
• 'ammud ("pillar of", H5982G) — masculine singular noun in construct state, appearing twice to form two parallel construct chains ("pillar of the cloud" / "pillar of the fire"); the construct form links each pillar to the element that constitutes it.
• yomam ("by day", H3119) — adverb marking the temporal scope of the first pillar's presence, paired with laylah ("night", H3915) for the second.
• lifney ("before", H6440G) — plural construct noun (literally "faces of"), forming the idiomatic expression "before the people," indicating spatial precedence or presence in front of the group.
• ha'am ("the people", H5971A) — singular noun with definite article, the collective group before whom both pillars remain positioned.

What the text says

The clause opens with the negation lo' directly attached to the single verb yaMish, which then governs two coordinated subjects: 'ammud he'anan ("the pillar of the cloud") marked by yomam ("by day"), and, joined by the conjunction ve ("and"), 'ammud ha'esh ("the pillar of the fire") marked by laylah ("night"). Grammatically, one negated imperfect verb applies to both pillars, meaning the Hebrew does not repeat the negation for the second element — the absence of departure is stated once and extends across both temporal phases (day and night).

The prepositional phrase lifney ha'am ("before the people") closes the sentence and applies to both pillars collectively, indicating that neither manifestation left its position relative to the people. The imperfect aspect of yaMish suggests a repeated or ongoing situation rather than a single instant, consistent with a description of sustained accompaniment rather than one isolated occurrence.

Differences between versions

The LXX uses the aorist verb exelipen ("did not fail/cease," from ἐκλείπειν), which frames the action as a completed past event rather than the durative sense suggested by the Hebrew imperfect yaMish. The Vulgate's defuit ("was lacking," from deesse) similarly shifts the semantic field from "departing" to "being absent," and it restates the negation twice (Numquam... nec), splitting the single Hebrew clause into two explicitly negated clauses for the day and night pillars, whereas the Hebrew carries one negated verb across both.