Exodus 24:17

Summary

The verse describes how the glory of Yehovah appeared to the Israelites: its visual appearance was like a fire that consumes, located at the top of the mountain, visible before the eyes of the people of Israel.

Key words

• mar'eh ("appearance of", H4758) — construct-state noun, meaning it must be joined to what follows ("appearance of X"); it specifies that what is being described is the visual perception of something, not the thing itself.
• kevod ("glory of", H3519) — also construct, linking to Yehovah; together with mar'eh the phrase reads "the appearance of the glory of Yehovah," a doubled construct chain.
• 'okhelet ("consuming", H0398) — qal participle, feminine singular, agreeing with 'esh ("fire", H0784), which is grammatically feminine; the participle form presents the fire as continuously or actively "doing" the consuming, rather than as a completed or static state.
• rosh ("top of", H7218I) — construct noun, "top of [the mountain]," placing the phenomenon spatially at the mountain's summit.
• 'einei ("eyes of", H5869H) — dual construct form (eyes naturally come in pairs), part of the idiom le-'einei ("to/before the eyes of"), meaning "in the sight of" or "visible to."

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built on a chain of construct relationships: mar'eh kevod Yehovah — "the appearance of the glory of Yehovah." This construction separates the mar'eh ("appearance," i.e., what is visually perceived) from the kevod ("glory") itself, suggesting the text speaks specifically of how the glory was seen, not necessarily describing its full nature. This phrase functions as the subject of an implied "to be" clause (no verb "to be" appears in Hebrew here), followed by the comparative preposition ke ("like," H9004) introducing the simile: ke-'esh 'okhelet — "like a consuming fire."

The participle 'okhelet ("consuming") describes the fire not as having consumed or as one that will consume, but as one actively engaged in the act — a durative, ongoing image. This fire is located be-rosh ha-har ("on the top of the mountain," H7218I + H2022G with the definite article H9009), fixing the phenomenon spatially. The final phrase, le-'einei benei Yisra'el ("to the eyes of the people/sons of Israel," H5869H + H1121G), uses the dual noun 'einei within a fixed idiom meaning "in the sight of" — indicating this appearance was specifically visible to, or witnessed by, the Israelites as observers.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders mar'eh as species ("appearance/form") and 'okhelet as ardens ("burning") rather than a form directly parallel to "consuming." The SBLIBRE paraphrase shifts the syntax, making the Israelites' visual perspective ("para los israelitas que observaban desde abajo") explicit as the grammatical subject of the comparison, whereas in the Hebrew the mar'eh ("appearance") itself is the subject, with the Israelites appearing only in the final prepositional phrase le-'einei benei Yisra'el.