Exodus 16:1
וַיִּסְעוּ מֵֽאֵילִם וַיָּבֹאוּ כָּל־עֲדַת בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶל־מִדְבַּר־סִין אֲשֶׁר בֵּין־אֵילִם וּבֵין סִינָי בַּחֲמִשָּׁה עָשָׂר יוֹם לַחֹדֶשׁ הַשֵּׁנִי לְצֵאתָם מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרָֽיִם׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
Tap a word to see its entry
✦ The same verse in five languages
וַיִּסְעוּ֙ מֵֽאֵילִ֔ם וַיָּבֹ֜אוּ כָּל־עֲדַ֤ת בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ אֶל־מִדְבַּר־סִ֔ין אֲשֶׁ֥ר בֵּין־אֵילִ֖ם וּבֵ֣ין סִינָ֑י בַּחֲמִשָּׁ֨ה עָשָׂ֥ר יוֹם֙ לַחֹ֣דֶשׁ הַשֵּׁנִ֔י לְצֵאתָ֖ם מֵאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרָֽיִם׃
XVIἐξ Αἰλείμ, καὶ ἡλθοσαν πᾶσα συναγωγὴ υἱῶν Ἰσραὴλ εἰς τὴν ἔρημον Σεῖν, ὅ ἐστιν ἀνὰ μέσον Αἰλεὶμ καὶ ἀνὰ μέσον Σεινά. τῇ δὲ πεντεκαιδεκάτη ἡμέρᾳ τῷ μηνὶ τῷ δευτέρῳ ἐξεληλυθότων αὐτῶν ἐκ γῆς Αἰγύπτου
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Profectique sunt de Elim, et venit omnis multitudo filiorum Israël in desertum Sin, quod est inter Elim et Sinai, quintodecimo die mensis secundi, postquam egressi sunt de terra Ægypti.
Toda la comunidad de los israelitas salió de Elim y llegó al desierto de Sin, que está entre Elim y el Sinaí. Llegaron allí el día quince del segundo mes, después de haber salido de Egipto.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y PARTIENDO de Elim toda la congregación de los hijos de Israel, vino al desierto de Sin, que está entre Elim y Sinaí, á los quince días del segundo mes después que salieron de la tierra de Egipto.
On the fifteenth day of the second month after they had left the land of Egypt, the whole congregation of Israel set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai.
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse narrates the departure of the entire Israelite community from Elim and their arrival at the wilderness of Sin, located between Elim and Sinai. It also specifies the date of this movement: the fifteenth day of the second month after leaving Egypt.
Key words
- va-yyis'u ("and they set out", H5265) — qal verb with narrative vav, marking sequential action that opens the verse ("and then they set out").
- 'adat ("congregation of", H5712) — feminine singular noun in construct state, linking to bene Yisra'el to form "the congregation of the sons of Israel."
- midbar ("wilderness of", H4057B) — masculine singular construct noun, joined to the place name Sin to specify which wilderness is meant.
- tzeta ("their going out", H3318G) — qal infinitive with pronominal suffix -m ("their"), forming a temporal clause "in their going out," i.e., "when they went out."
- chamishah 'asar ("fifteen", H2568 + H6240) — compound cardinal number construction, giving the specific day of the month.
What the text says
The verse is built from two narrative verbs joined by the narrative vav: va-yyis'u ("and they set out", H5265) and va-yyavo'u ("and they came", H0935G), both qal forms describing sequential movement — first departure, then arrival. The subject of both verbs is the long construct chain kol-'adat bene-Yisra'el ("all the congregation of the sons of Israel"), where kol (H3605), 'adat (H5712), and bene (H1121G) stack in construct relationships to build a single complex subject before the verb's object is stated.
The destination is marked by 'el-midbar-Sin ("to the wilderness of Sin"), further specified by a relative clause introduced by 'asher ("which", H0834A): "which is between Elim and Sinai." Here bein (H0996G) appears twice, governing each place name to express the geographical position of the wilderness relative to the two locations.
The final clause anchors the event in time using a prepositional and infinitival construction: ba-chamishah 'asar yom la-chodesh ha-sheni ("on the fifteenth day of the second month") followed by le-tzetam me-'eretz Mitzrayim ("at their going out from the land of Egypt"). The infinitive tzeta (H3318G) with the suffix -m ("their") creates a temporal reference point — the date is measured from the moment of departure from Egypt, not from an absolute calendar.
Differences between versions
The LXX (Swete) and Vulgate follow the Hebrew structure closely, rendering the construct chains and temporal clause in parallel fashion. The Vulgate uses "postquam egressi sunt" ("after they went out") for the Hebrew infinitival clause le-tzetam, shifting the infinitive construction into a finite temporal clause with postquam. The BSB reorders the verse, placing the date clause at the beginning rather than following the Hebrew's sequence of departure-arrival-location-date.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.