Exodus 33:4

Summary

The people hear a "bad word/matter" and respond with mourning: they enter a state of grief and no one puts on personal ornaments. The verse links a report (unspecified content, referred to only as "this bad word") to a visible change in communal behavior.

Key words

• va-yish-Ma' ("and it heard", H8085G) — qal narrative verb, third person, opening the sequence with the vav that chains this clause to the preceding narrative.
• ha-da-Var ha-Ra' ha-Zeh ("the word/matter — the bad — this", H1697G, H7451A, H2088) — a noun with two attached modifiers, each carrying its own definite article (a normal Hebrew agreement pattern), producing the sense "this bad word/report."
• va-yit-'a-Ba-lu ("and they mourned", H0056) — hithpael narrative form, third person plural; the hithpael stem often marks reflexive or self-directed action, here describing the people putting themselves into a state of mourning.
• Sha-tu ("they placed", H7896H) — qal perfect, third plural, marking a completed action, negated by lo' ("not", H3808).
• 'ish 'ed-Yo 'a-Lav ("anyone... his ornament... on himself", H0376I, H5716, H5921A) — 'ed-Yo is a construct-form noun with a possessive suffix ("his ornament"), followed by a preposition with a further pronominal suffix ("on himself"), producing the idiom "no man put his ornament on himself."

What the text says

The verse opens with a narrative vav-consecutive construction: va-yish-Ma' ha-'Am ("and the people heard"), followed by the direct object marked with 'et (H0853, untranslated) plus ha-da-Var ha-Ra' ha-Zeh. The triple stacking of the definite article on "word," "bad," and "this" is standard Hebrew syntax for a noun modified by an adjective and a demonstrative, all agreeing in definiteness — it does not imply repetition or emphasis beyond normal grammatical concord.

The second clause, va-yit-'a-Ba-lu, uses the hithpael stem of the root behind H0056, which frequently expresses a reflexive or intensive sense — the people are represented as entering into mourning as an action performed upon themselves, rather than simply "being sad." The final clause negates a completed (perfect) action: ve-lo' sha-Tu 'ish 'ed-yo 'a-Lav, literally "and a man did not place his ornament on himself." The noun 'ed-Yo ("his ornament", H5716) is in construct form with a pronominal suffix, and the following prepositional phrase 'a-Lav ("on himself") reinforces the reflexive framing of the whole verse: hearing leads to self-directed mourning and the withholding of self-adornment.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the Hebrew va-yit-'a-Ba-lu ("they mourned," hithpael) with katepénthēsen ("mourned greatly/deeply"), a single verb, and adds the phrase en penthikois ("in mourning garments"), specifying a means of mourning not explicit in the Hebrew, which only states that ornaments were not put on. The LXX also does not translate the final clause about ornaments as a separate negated statement in the same way; it compresses the report of ornament-avoidance into the phrase "in mourning garments," differing from the Hebrew's explicit "no one placed his ornament on himself." The Vulgate's nullus ex more indutus est cultu suo ("no one dressed in his customary attire") interprets 'ed-yo ("his ornament") more broadly as customary dress/attire rather than strictly jewelry, in contrast to modern renderings like BSB and SBLIBRE, which specify "jewelry."