Exodus 32:26

Summary

Moses stands at the entrance of the camp and issues a call using an elliptical phrase — "Who [belongs] to Yehovah?" — followed by "to me." In response, all the descendants of Levi gather themselves around him. The verse marks a collective action following the golden calf episode narrated earlier in the chapter.

Key words

• ya'amod ("he stood", H5975G) — qal narrative form; presents the action as the next event in sequence ("and then he stood").
• sha'ar ("gate of", H8179G) — construct noun, linking directly to "the camp"; locates the scene at a specific boundary point of the encampment.
• mi ("who?", H4310) — interrogative pronoun opening Moses' speech; grammatically a question, not a direct command.
• la-YHWH ("[belongs] to Yehovah", H9005 + H3068G) — preposition le + divine name; expresses possession or allegiance rather than motion or destination.
• ye'asfu ("they gathered themselves", H0622) — niphal narrative form; the niphal stem marks the action as reflexive/passive, i.e., the sons of Levi are the ones who bring themselves together, not merely gathered by another.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence built around mi la-YHWH is elliptical: it contains no verb of motion or command. Literally it reads "Who [is] to/for Yehovah?" followed immediately by 'elai ("to me", H0413 + suffix). The grammar does not supply an explicit imperative such as "come" or "join" — the sense of invitation is carried entirely by the juxtaposition of the question and the phrase "to me," left for the hearer to complete as an implicit summons.

The narrative then shifts to the niphal verb ye'asfu, "they gathered themselves" (H0622), describing the response of "all the sons of Levi" (kol-benei Levi, H3605 + H1121A construct chain). The niphal stem here emphasizes that the assembling is something the group does to itself, in reaction to Moses' words, rather than an action performed upon them by someone else.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew leaves the command implicit (mi la-YHWH — 'elai, "who [is] to Yehovah — to me"), without a finite command verb. The LXX renders this with an explicit imperative, ἴτω πρὸς μέ ("let him come to me"), supplying a verb not present in the Hebrew construction. The Vulgate similarly inserts an explicit verb, jungatur mihi ("let him be joined to me"), making the implied invitation grammatically overt where the Hebrew relies on ellipsis.