Exodus 34:29

Summary

The verse narrates the moment Moses descends Mount Sinai carrying the two tablets of the testimony. The Hebrew states that Moses did not know that the skin of his face had become radiant as a result of his having spoken with God (or "with him").

Key words

• va-yehi ("and it was", H1961) — narrative qal verb with the vav-consecutive marker, signaling the transition into a new episode of the story.
• be-redet ("in his coming down", H3381) — qal infinitive construct with the preposition be-, expressing a temporal clause ("when/while X came down"). This same infinitive form recurs (be-ridto, H3381) later in the verse, creating a doubled reference to the descent from the mountain, once before the tablets clause and once after.
• qaran ("it shone", H7160) — qal perfect, third person masculine singular, describing a completed state affecting 'or panav ("skin of his face"). The root is shared with the noun for "horn" (qeren), a lexical overlap that becomes significant across translations.
• 'or panav ("skin of his face", H5785 + H6440) — a construct chain: "skin" governs "face," with the pronominal suffix -o ("his") attached to panav.
• be-dabbero ("in his speaking", H1696) — piel infinitive construct with pronominal suffix, the intensive stem of "to speak," indicating the circumstance causing the radiance: the act of speaking, here "with him" (itto, H854 + suffix).

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built around the narrative formula va-yehi, which introduces the temporal clause be-redet Mosheh me-har Sinai ("when Moses came down from Mount Sinai"). Between this opening temporal clause and its resumption, the text inserts a description of what Moses was carrying — the two tablets of the testimony, bi-yad Mosheh ("in the hand of Moses") — before repeating the descent clause with be-ridto min ha-har ("in his coming down from the mountain"). This repetition creates a frame around the tablets, and the main clause proper — "Moses did not know" — only follows after this frame is closed.

The core statement, u-Mosheh lo yada' ("and Moses did not know"), is followed by a ki-clause explaining what he did not know: that qaran 'or panav, "the skin of his face shone." The final clause, be-dabbero itto, attributes this shining to the circumstance of his speaking with the divine figure.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew verb qaran ("it shone", H7160) shares its root with the noun qeren ("horn"). The LXX renders this idea with dedoxastai ("has been glorified"), emphasizing brightness/glory rather than the horn-associated root. The Vulgate instead uses cornuta esset ("was horned"), a literal rendering tied to the "horn" sense of the root, producing a different image than either the Hebrew's "shone" or the LXX's "glorified."