Exodus 15:20

Summary

The verse narrates that Miriam, identified as "the prophetess" and sister of Aaron, took a hand-drum and led out all the women, who followed her playing hand-drums and dancing. The action is presented as a direct continuation of the preceding narrative through two sequential verb forms.

Key words

• ti.Kach ("she took", H3947G) — qal narrative form (vav + prefix conjugation), marking the next event in the story sequence; subject is Miriam.
• ne.vi.'Ah ("prophetess", H5031) — feminine singular noun with definite article, functioning as a title attached to Miriam's name.
• 'a.Chot ("sister of", H0269) — feminine singular noun in the construct state, linking Miriam directly to 'a.ha.Ron ("Aaron", H0175) as the following word.
• 'et- ("‹obj.›", H0853) — direct object marker preceding ha.Tof ("the tambourine", H8596), signaling that the noun is the definite direct object of the verb, though the marker itself has no independent translation.
• te.Tze.na ("they went out", H3318G) — qal narrative form, third-person feminine plural, indicating that "all the women" (khol-ha.Na.shim) are the grammatical subject of this second action.

What the text says

The sentence is built on two narrative (vav-consecutive) verbs, ti.Kach ("she took") and te.Tze.na ("they went out"), which present the actions as sequential events within the ongoing story rather than as isolated statements. The first clause names the subject with three appositional elements — mir.Yam ("Miriam", H4813G), ha.ne.vi.'Ah ("the prophetess", H5031), and 'a.Chot 'a.ha.Ron ("sister of Aaron", H0269+H0175) — stacking identification (name, role, kinship) before the verb's object, ha.Tof ("the tambourine", H8596), marked by the direct-object particle 'et- (H0853) and followed by be.ya.Dah ("in her hand", H3027G+H9024), a possessive construct with pronominal suffix.

The second clause shifts subject to khol-ha.na.Shim ("all the women", H3605+H0802G), a construct chain meaning "all of the women," who move 'a.cha.Rei.ha ("behind her", H0310A+H9034) — a form built on a construct noun with a pronominal suffix referring back to Miriam. The manner of their going out is specified by two parallel prepositional phrases, be.tu.Pim ("with tambourines", H8596) and u.vi.m.cho.Lot ("and with dancing", H4246), both introduced by the preposition be-/vi- ("with", H9003) and joined by the conjunction u- ("and", H9002).

Differences between versions

The LXX opens with a participle, Λαβοῦσα ("having taken"), rather than a finite narrative verb, subordinating Miriam's action to the following clause, whereas the Hebrew presents ti.Kach as an independent sequential verb. For m.cho.Lot ("dancing", H4246), the LXX has χορῶν ("choruses/dances") and the Vulgate choris ("with choruses/dances"), both broader terms than the Hebrew noun, which denotes dancing specifically.