Exodus 24:18

Summary

The verse narrates Moses entering the cloud and going up the mountain, then states that he remained on the mountain for a period of forty days and forty nights. The action is presented as a sequence of three consecutive narrative events.

Key words

• va-yavo ("and he went", H0935G) — qal narrative verb form, marking the first sequential event: Moses entering.
• tokh ("midst of", H8432) — masculine singular noun in construct state, meaning "midst of [something]", requiring the following noun ha-'anan.
• ha-'anan ("the cloud", H6051) — definite noun completing the construct phrase be-tokh ha-'anan, "in the midst of the cloud".
• va-ya'al ("and he went up", H5927G) — second qal narrative verb, continuing the sequence after entering the cloud.
• va-yehi ("and he was", H1961) — third narrative verb, introducing a stative clause about Moses' duration on the mountain rather than another action.
• arba'im ("forty", H0705) — cardinal number, masculine plural, repeated for both yom ("day", H3117G) and laylah ("night", H3915).

What the text says

The verse is built from three narrative clauses linked by the vav consecutive (va, H9001), each advancing the story: Moses entered (va-yavo), then went up (va-ya'al), then was (va-yehi) on the mountain. The first clause specifies the manner of approach: Moses went be-tokh ha-'anan, "in the midst of the cloud" — the preposition be (H9003) plus the construct noun tokh (H8432) plus the definite ha-'anan (H6051) together locate his movement as occurring within the cloud, not merely toward it.

The second clause, va-ya'al 'el ha-har, marks a distinct action — ascending toward the mountain, using the preposition 'el ("to", H0413) with the definite noun har (H2022G). The third clause shifts from action verbs to the stative verb hayah ("to be", H1961) in narrative form, introducing a temporal statement: Moses' presence ba-har ("on the mountain") lasted arba'im yom ve-arba'im laylah, "forty days and forty nights." The number arba'im (H0705) is repeated for each time unit rather than stated once for both, giving equal grammatical weight to day and night as separate durations joined by the conjunction ve (H9002).

Differences between versions

The Hebrew text presents three distinct verbs (va-yavo, va-ya'al, va-yehi), preserving the sequence: entering the cloud, ascending the mountain, and then being there for the stated duration. The Vulgate (VULCLEM) compresses the first two Hebrew verbs into a single participial construction, "Ingressusque Moyses medium nebulæ, ascendit in montem", subordinating the cloud-entry to the ascent rather than presenting both as parallel finite narrative verbs. The BSB similarly merges the first two actions into one clause ("Moses entered the cloud as he went up"), where the Hebrew keeps va-yavo and va-ya'al as separate sequential actions.