Exodus 16:17

Summary

The verse states that the Israelites did as instructed and gathered the substance described earlier in the chapter, with some individuals gathering in greater quantity and others in smaller quantity. The Hebrew describes this variation through two paired participles rather than a comparative construction.

Key words

• va-yilqetu ("they gathered", H3950) — qal narrative verb, continuing the sequential storyline; denotes the act of collecting the substance.
• ha-marbeh ("the one who made much", H7235A) — hiphil (causative) participle with definite article, from a root meaning "to increase/multiply"; functions as a substantive, literally "the increaser" or "the one who caused abundance."
• ha-mam'it ("the one who made little", H4591) — hiphil participle with definite article, from a root meaning "to diminish"; parallel construction to ha-marbeh, literally "the one who caused scarcity."
• ken ("so", H3651C) — adverb confirming that the action performed matches a prior command or instruction.
• bene Yisrael ("sons/people of Israel", H1121G construct + H3478) — construct phrase identifying the collective subject of the actions.

What the text says

The sentence has two main clauses joined by narrative vav (H9001): first, "the sons of Israel did so" (va-ya'asu ken bene Yisrael), confirming compliance with a prior directive; second, "and they gathered" (va-yilqetu), introducing the object of the gathering through two paired participles rather than a direct object noun.

The grammatical core of the verse lies in ha-marbeh (H7235A) and ha-mam'it (H4591). Both are hiphil participles — a causative verbal form — with the definite article attached, which allows them to function as nouns ("the one who...") rather than as adjectives modifying a noun for "quantity." The Hebrew does not say "some gathered more" as a comparative statement about amounts; grammatically it says "they gathered, the-increaser and the-diminisher," treating the increasing and the diminishing as agents or types of persons performing the gathering. This participial, agent-focused phrasing is a feature that plain comparative translations ("more," "less") do not preserve, since it frames the variation as characteristic of the gatherers' action (causing much/causing little) rather than simply describing differing quantities collected.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the two Hebrew participles as ὁ τὸ πολὺ ("the one [gathering] the much") and ὁ τὸ ἔλαττον ("the one [gathering] the less"), supplying an implied object (τὸ πολὺ, τὸ ἔλαττον) that is not explicit in the Hebrew, which uses standalone substantival participles without a stated object. The Vulgate similarly shifts to a distributive comparative construction, alius plus, alius minus ("one [gathered] more, another less"), using adjectives of quantity (plus, minus) rather than the Hebrew's causative participles denoting action. Modern translations (BSB, RV1909, SBLIBRE) follow this comparative pattern ("some more, some less"), which conveys the outcome but not the agentive, causative form present in the Hebrew marbeh/mam'it.