Exodus 16:35

Summary

Exodus 16:35 states that the people of Israel ate manna for a period of forty years, until they reached an inhabited land, repeating that they ate manna until arriving at the border of the land of Canaan. The verse closes the manna narrative with a temporal and geographical framing of the entire wilderness period.

Key words

• 'akheLu ("they ate", H0398) — qal perfect, third person plural, appearing twice in the verse, marking a completed action viewed as a whole rather than an ongoing process.
• arba'Im ("forty", H0705) paired with shanah ("year", H8141) — a cardinal number modifying a singular noun, a common Hebrew construction for counting years.
• bo'Am ("their coming", H0935G) — qal infinitive with a third person masculine plural pronominal suffix (-m, H9048), functioning as "until they came," embedding the subject directly into the infinitive form.
• noShavet ("inhabited", H3427) — niphal participle, feminine singular, agreeing with 'Eretz ("land", H0776G); the niphal stem gives a passive/reflexive sense, describing the land as "one that is inhabited" or "settled."
• ketzeh ("border of", H7097A) — masculine singular construct noun, linking to 'Eretz Kena'an ("land of Canaan") in a chain of construct relationships.

What the text says

The verse is built on a repeated structure: subject + verb 'akheLu ("they ate") + object ha-Man ("the manna") + temporal/spatial clause introduced by 'ad ("until"). This repetition creates a parallel frame — first stating the total duration (arba'Im shanah, "forty years") and the arrival at "a land, inhabited" ('Eretz noShavet), then restating the eating of manna until arrival at "the border of the land of Canaan" (ketzeh 'Eretz Kena'an). The infinitive construct bo'Am, appearing twice with the pronominal suffix "them," ties the two halves together grammatically, each marking an endpoint to the manna-eating action.

The participle noShavet (niphal of the root behind "dwelling/settling") describes the land not by a proper name but by its condition — a land that is inhabited or settled — before the second half of the verse specifies the destination more precisely as the border of Canaan. This produces a movement from a general geographical description to a specific named boundary.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders 'Eretz noShavet as terram habitabilem ("habitable land"), which shifts the niphal participle's sense from "a land that is inhabited" toward "a land capable of being inhabited." The LXX (Swete text as given) has τὴν οἰκουμένην ("the inhabited world/land"), closer to the Hebrew's stative sense of an already-settled place. The Vulgate also adds an interpretive phrase, hoc cibo aliti sunt ("they were nourished by this food"), which has no direct counterpart among the Hebrew words listed. The LXX names Φοινίκης ("Phoenicia") where the Hebrew has Kena'an ("Canaan", H3667A), showing a difference in the geographical designation used for the same border reference.