Exodus 32:15

וַיִּפֶן וַיֵּרֶד מֹשֶׁה מִן־הָהָר וּשְׁנֵי לֻחֹת הָעֵדֻת בְּיָדוֹ לֻחֹת כְּתֻבִים מִשְּׁנֵי עֶבְרֵיהֶם מִזֶּה וּמִזֶּה הֵם כְּתֻבִֽים׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וַיִּ֜פֶן וַיֵּ֤רֶד מֹשֶׁה֙ מִן־הָהָ֔ר וּשְׁנֵ֛י לֻחֹ֥ת הָעֵדֻ֖ת בְּיָד֑וֹ לֻחֹ֗ת כְּתֻבִים֙ מִשְּׁנֵ֣י עֶבְרֵיהֶ֔ם מִזֶּ֥ה וּמִזֶּ֖ה הֵ֥ם כְּתֻבִֽים׃

Greek (Septuagint)

Καὶ ἀποστρέψας Μωυσῆς κατέβη ἀπὸ τοῦ ὄρους· καὶ αἱ δύο πλάκες τοῦ μαρτυρίου ἐν ταῖς χερσὶν αὐτοῦ, πλάκες λίθιναι, καταγεγραμμέναι ἐξ ἀμφοτέρων τῶν μερῶν αὐτῶν, ἔνθεν καὶ ἔνθεν ἦσαν γεγραμμέναι·

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

Et reversus est Moyses de monte, portans duas tabulas testimonii in manu sua, scriptas ex utraque parte,

Spanish

Moisés se dio la vuelta y bajó de la montaña, llevando en sus manos las dos tablas del pacto. Estaban escritas por los dos lados, tanto por el frente como por el reverso.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Y volvióse Moisés, y descendió del monte trayendo en su mano las dos tablas del testimonio, las tablas escritas por ambos lados; de una parte y de otra estaban escritas.

English

Then Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back.

✦ What the text says

Summary

Exodus 32:15 narrates Moses turning and descending the mountain carrying the two tablets of testimony. The verse emphasizes that these tablets were inscribed on both sides — written from one edge to the other.

Key words

va-yifen ("and he turned", H6437G) — qal narrative verb, opening the sequence of action with the standard "and then..." narrative chain.
lu.Chot ("tablets of", H3871) — feminine plural construct noun, twice used: first as she.Nei lu.Chot ha.'e.Dut ("two tablets of the testimony") and later absolutely as lu.Chot ("tablets") describing their physical state.
'e.Dut ("testimony", H5715) — feminine singular noun, defined by the article ha-, identifying the content/legal-covenantal nature of what is written on the tablets.
ke.tu.Vim ("written", H3789) — qal passive participle, masculine plural, appearing twice (word 18 and word 29), forming a frame around the description of the writing surfaces.
mi-she.Nei 'ev.rei-Hem ("from the two sides of them", H8147 + H5676G + H9028) — construct chain with dual number and plural noun plus 3rd person plural suffix, specifying the two-sided nature of the inscription.

What the text says

The verse divides into two narrative movements joined by vav-consecutive verbs: va-yifen ("and he turned", H6437G) and va-yered ("and he went down", H3381), both qal narrative forms describing Moses' sequential action of turning and descending from ha-Har ("the mountain", H2022G). The subject mo.Sheh ("Moses", H4872) appears between these two verbs, a common Hebrew narrative pattern.

The second half of the verse shifts to describing the tablets themselves. The phrase u-she.Nei lu.Chot ha-'e.Dut be-ya.D-o ("and two tablets of the testimony in his hand", H8147+H3871+H5715+H3027H+H9023) uses a construct chain: she.Nei ("two of", dual construct) governs lu.Chot ("tablets of", plural construct), which governs ha-'e.Dut ("the testimony"). This produces a stacked genitive structure not directly reproducible in English without prepositions.

The final clause repeats lu.Chot ("tablets", H3871) without the article, followed by ke.tu.Vim ("written", H3789), a qal passive participle. The description mi-she.Nei 'ev.rei-Hem mi-Zeh u-mi-Zeh ("from their two sides, from this and from this", H8147+H5676G+H9028+H2088+H2088) uses repetition of the demonstrative Zeh ("this", H2088) to indicate two-sidedness idiomatically — literally "from this [side] and from this [side]." The verse closes with hem ke.tu.Vim ("they were written", H1992+H3789), repeating the participle ke.tu.Vim to frame the entire description of the tablets' inscribed state.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders lu.Chot as πλάκες λίθιναι ("stone tablets"), adding the word "stone" (λίθιναι) which has no corresponding lexical item in the Hebrew text provided. The Vulgate's scriptas ex utraque parte ("written on each side") condenses the Hebrew's doubled mi-Zeh u-mi-Zeh ("from this and from this") and the repeated participle ke.tu.Vim into a single Latin phrase, without reproducing the Hebrew's twofold repetition of "written."

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.