Exodus 15:27

Summary

The verse narrates the arrival of the group at Elim, describing the site as having twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and records that they set up camp there beside the water.

Key words

• va-yyaVo'u ("and they came", H0935G) — qal verb with narrative vav, marking the next event in the sequence of the journey.
• 'eiLimah ("Elim", H0362) — proper name with a directional he suffix ("-ah") attached, indicating motion toward the place ("to Elim").
• she-Teim 'esReh ("twelve", H8147/H6240) — a feminine dual numeral joined to a singular numeral in construct form, together functioning as "twelve of," governing the noun that follows.
• 'eiNot Mayim ("springs of water", H5869M/H4325G) — a plural feminine noun in construct state followed by a plural masculine noun, forming the genitive phrase "springs of water."
• va-yyachaNu ("and they encamped", H2583) — qal verb with narrative vav, the second main action of the verse, closing the sequence begun with "they came."

What the text says

The verse is built on two narrative-vav verbs — va-yyaVo'u ("and they came", H0935G) and va-yyachaNu ("and they encamped", H2583) — which frame the entire report: arrival at Elim, then encampment by the water. Between these two verbal anchors sits a nominal clause introduced by ve-Sham ("and there", H8033G), which has no verb of its own; the adverb "there" functions as the predicate location, and the numerals "twelve" (she-Teim 'esReh) and "seventy" (shiv'Im) are simply attached to their nouns without any verb "to be," a common feature of Hebrew existential/descriptive clauses. The construct chain 'eiNot Mayim ("springs of water") shows the noun "springs" governing "water," a genitive-type relation rendered in English with "of."

The place name 'eiLimah carries a directional he (H9011) attached directly to the proper noun, showing motion "toward Elim" built into the noun form itself rather than expressed by a separate preposition. The final phrase, 'al-ha-Mayim ("at the water", H5921A + H9009 + H4325G), repeats the same noun for "water" used earlier in "springs of water," now with the definite article, referring back to the previously mentioned water source.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the numeral as ιβ ("12") using a Greek numeral abbreviation and gives πηγαὶ ὑδάτων ("springs of waters"), plural in the genitive, corresponding to the Hebrew construct. The Vulgate specifies "filii Israël" ("sons of Israel") as the subject of "venerunt," a subject not explicit in the Hebrew clause, which uses only the third-person plural verb form va-yyaVo'u without naming the subject. The Vulgate also uses "castrametati sunt" ("they made camp") for va-yyachaNu, an idiomatic Latin military expression rather than a direct lexical equivalent.