Exodus 34:30

Summary

The verse narrates that Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses after he descended, and they observed that the skin of his face was radiant. This radiance frightened them, so that they hesitated to approach him.

Key words

• va-yar ("he saw", H7200G) — qal verb in narrative form, establishing the first sequential action: Aaron's seeing.
• khol ("all", H3605) in construct with benei ("sons/people of", H1121G) — together they form "all the sons of Israel," marking the totality of the group who saw Moses.
• qaran ("it shone", H7160) — qal perfect, a completed state; the verb describing what had happened to the skin of Moses' face.
• or panav ("skin of his face", H5785 + H6440H) — construct chain: or ("skin of") governs panav ("his face"), the site where the shining is located.
• va-yire'u ("they were afraid", H3372G) — qal narrative verb, the second main action of the sequence, describing the people's reaction.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a chain of narrative (vav-prefixed) verbs: first va-yar ("he saw"), then va-yire'u ("they were afraid"), each advancing the story by one step. Between these two actions sits an explanatory clause introduced by ve-hinneh ("and behold", H2009), which shifts from narration into direct presentation of what was seen: the state expressed by qaran ("it shone"), a perfect verb indicating something already completed by the time it is observed. The subject of the shining is or panav ("the skin of his face"), a construct phrase where or ("skin of") specifies which part of "his face" is meant.

The subject of the initial verb, va-yar, is compound: Aharon ("Aaron") together with khol benei Yisra'el ("all the sons of Israel"), joined by the object marker 'et before Mosheh ("Moses"). The final clause explains the fear using an infinitive construct, migeshet ("from drawing near", H5066G), governed by the preposition mi ("from"), meaning the fear was specifically about approaching him, not fear in a general sense.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew text specifies khol benei Yisra'el ("all the sons of Israel"), while the LXX renders this as "all the elders of Israel" (πάντες οἱ πρεσβύτεροι Ἰσραὴλ), naming a specific group rather than the whole people. Regarding qaran ("it shone", H7160), the Vulgate translates it as "cornutam" ("horned"), describing Moses' face as having horns, whereas the Hebrew verb refers to shining or radiance, and the LXX describes the face as "glorified" (δεδοξασμένη) in appearance.