Exodus 16:12

Summary

Exodus 16:12 records Yehovah's declaration that he has heard the complaints of the Israelites, followed by instructions to Moses to tell them they will eat meat at twilight and be satisfied with bread in the morning. The verse concludes with a stated purpose: that the people will know Yehovah as their God.

Key words

• sha.Ma'.ti ("I have heard", H8085) — qal perfect, first person: a completed action, indicating the hearing is already accomplished before the speech that follows.
• te.lu.Not ("grumblings of", H8519) — feminine plural construct, grammatically bound to be.Nei Yis.ra.'El ("sons of Israel", H1121/H3478), forming the phrase "grumblings of the sons of Israel."
• da.Ber ("speak", H1696) — piel imperative, an intensive command form directing Moses to relay the message.
• 'ar.Ba.yim ("two evenings", H6153) — masculine dual noun, marking a paired/double form rather than a simple singular "evening," within the construct phrase bein ha'arbayim ("between the two evenings").
• da'.Tem ("you will know", H3045) — qal sequential perfect (vav-consecutive), linking this clause to the preceding imperfects (to.khe.Lu, tis.be.'u) as the next link in a narrative/logical chain.

What the text says

The verse opens with a first-person perfect verb, sha.Ma'.ti ("I have heard", H8085), establishing that the divine speaker has already registered the people's te.lu.Not ("grumblings", H8519), a feminine plural construct noun bound to be.Nei Yis.ra.'El ("sons of Israel", H1121/H3478). This is followed by a command, da.Ber ("speak", H1696), in the piel imperative — an intensive stem used for direct instruction — telling Moses to convey a message using the infinitive le.'Mor ("saying", H0559), a common formula introducing reported speech.

The content of the message uses two imperfect verbs, to.khe.Lu ("you will eat", H0398) and tis.be.'u ("you will be satisfied", H7646), both second person plural, describing future or ongoing actions tied to specific times: bein ha'arbayim ("between the two evenings", H0996/H6153) for eating meat, and ba.Bo.ker ("in the morning", H1242) for being satisfied with La.chem ("bread", H3899). The dual form 'ar.Ba.yim ("two evenings", H6153) marks a paired time unit rather than a single evening.

The sequence then shifts grammatically with vi.da'.Tem ("and you will know", H3045), a sequential (vav-consecutive) perfect that continues the chain begun by the imperfects, presenting knowing as the resulting or following event. The clause introduced by ki ("that", H3588) states the content of what will be known: 'a.Ni Yah.weh 'e.lo.hei.Khem ("I [am] Yehovah your God", H0589/H3068/H0430/H9026), where 'e.lo.hei ("God of", H0430) is a masculine plural construct noun bound to the second person plural suffix -Khem ("your", H9026).

Differences between versions

The LXX renders ki ("that", H3588) as ὅτι but omits an equivalent to vi.da'.Tem ("and you will know", H3045) as a separate verb before it, connecting the clause more directly with "καὶ ὅτι ἐγὼ κύριος" ("and that I am the Lord"), whereas the Hebrew and Vulgate (scietisque) both preserve a distinct verb of knowing ("and you will know that..."). The Vulgate's scietisque matches the Hebrew's sequential perfect structure more closely than the LXX's construction.