Exodus 16:2

Summary

The verse reports that the entire congregation of the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron while in the wilderness. The Hebrew frames this as a single collective action by "all" the community, directed against both leaders together.

Key words

• va-yillonu ("and they grumbled", H3885B) — niphal verbal stem with narrative vav; the niphal here conveys a reciprocal/collective complaining action, continuing the story sequence.
• kol ("all", H3605) — construct form meaning "all of," binding grammatically to the following noun to emphasize totality of the group.
• 'adat ("congregation of", H5712) — feminine singular construct, "assembly/congregation of," linked to "sons of Israel" to name the collective body as a single grammatical unit.
• bene ("sons/people of", H1121G) — masculine plural construct, forms a construct chain with "Israel," together with 'adat producing "the congregation of the sons of Israel."
• ba-midbar ("in the wilderness", H4057B) — noun with prefixed preposition and article, locating the action spatially at the end of the sentence.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with the verb va-yillonu ("and they grumbled"), placing the action before the subject — a common verb-first pattern in Biblical Hebrew narrative. The subject is then specified through a construct chain: kol-'adat bene-Yisra'el, "all the congregation of the sons of Israel," which treats the whole community as one grammatical and conceptual unit performing a single verbal action, even though the verb's niphal form and plural agreement show the many individuals are being acted through this collective identity.

The object of the grumbling is introduced twice with the preposition 'al ("on/against"): once before Mosheh ("Moses") and once before 'Aharon ("Aaron"), joined by the conjunction ve ("and"). This repetition of 'al rather than a single preposition governing both names gives grammatical parity to Moses and Aaron as separate targets of the action, even though they are linked as a pair. The final phrase, ba-midbar ("in the wilderness"), closes the sentence by anchoring the event in the desert setting, positioned after the object rather than after the subject or verb.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the verb as diegongyzen (imperfect, "was grumbling/murmured continuously"), suggesting an ongoing action, where the Hebrew va-yillonu is a single narrative-sequence verb form without inherent durative marking. The Vulgate's murmuravit (singular verb) agrees grammatically with the collective singular noun congregatio, matching Latin syntax, while the Hebrew verb yillonu is plural, agreeing with the plural sense of "sons of Israel" within the construct chain. The LXX and Vulgate both omit repeating a preposition equivalent to 'al before "Aaron," using instead a single governing preposition or case for both Moses and Aaron together, unlike the Hebrew's twofold 'al... ve'al.