Exodus 24:9

Summary

The verse lists the group that went up: Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy from the elders of Israel. The Hebrew verb is singular, agreeing grammatically with Moses as the first-named subject, while the rest of the group is joined by conjunctions.

Key words

• va-Ya'al ("and he went up", H5927G) — qal narrative verb, third person masculine singular, continuing the story sequence ("and then he went up").
• Mosheh ("Moses", H4872) — proper noun, grammatically the subject that the singular verb agrees with.
• shiv'im ("seventy", H7657) — cardinal number, masculine plural, quantifying the group of elders.
• mi-zziqnei ("of [the] elders of", H2205G) — masculine plural noun in construct state with the preposition mi ("of", H9006), forming "some of the elders of."
• Yisra'el ("Israel", H3478) — proper noun, functioning as the second term of the construct chain, specifying whose elders are meant.

What the text says

The clause opens with the narrative verb va-Ya'al ("and he went up"), inflected in the third person masculine singular. Because Hebrew verbs of this kind agree with a single primary subject even when a compound list follows, the singular form here formally links the action to Mosheh ("Moses") as the lead figure, with the additional names — Aharon ("Aaron", H0175), Nadav ("Nadab", H5070G), and Avihu' ("Abihu", H0030) — added through the conjunction ve/va ("and", H9002/H9001) rather than each governing their own verb form.

The final element, ve-shiv'im mi-zziqnei Yisra'el ("and seventy of the elders of Israel"), uses the construct pattern mi-zziqnei ("of the elders of") to indicate a subset: not "seventy elders" as a complete class, but "seventy from among the elders of Israel." The word ziqnei ("elders of", H2205G) is itself an adjective functioning as a substantive in construct with Yisra'el ("Israel", H3478), meaning the text specifies these are elders belonging to Israel specifically.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew names Avihu' ("Abihu", H0030) as a distinct person joined by the conjunction va, matching the Septuagint's Ἀβιοὺδ and the Vulgate's Abiu. The Vulgate's de senioribus Israël ("of the elders of Israel") mirrors the Hebrew construct mi-zziqnei Yisra'el closely, while the Septuagint's τῆς γερουσίας Ἰσραήλ ("of the council/senate of Israel") renders the elders as a collective body (γερουσία) rather than repeating the plural "elders" form found in the Hebrew and Vulgate. The BSB's "Moses went up with Aaron" introduces an explicit "with," where the Hebrew simply strings the names together with conjunctions after the singular verb.