Exodus 34:32

Summary

Exodus 34:32 narrates that after a prior event, all the Israelites approached, and someone (grammatically unspecified in the immediate clause but understood from context) commanded them everything that Yehovah had spoken to him on Mount Sinai.

Key words

• niggeshu ("they drew near", H5066G) — niphal perfect, third person plural; the niphal stem often carries passive or reflexive nuance, here functioning as "they approached/were brought near," marking a completed collective action.
• vaytzaVem ("and he commanded them", H6680) — piel narrative form with third-person plural suffix -m ("them", H9038); the piel stem intensifies the verb "to command," and the narrative vav (H9001) links this action sequentially to the preceding clause.
• dibber ("he had spoken", H1696G) — piel perfect of the same intensive stem family, describing a prior completed act of speaking, subordinated by the relative particle asher ("that", H0834A).
• 'et (H0853) — the direct object marker, untranslated but signaling that "all that Yehovah had spoken" is the grammatical object of the commanding.
• be.Har ("on the mountain of", H2022G) — construct singular noun, linking directly to Sinai (H5514G) to form the place name "Mount Sinai."

What the text says

The verse opens with the temporal phrase achare-khen ("after thus/this", H0310A + H3651C), setting the action after a preceding event. The subject kol-bene Yisra'el ("all the sons/people of Israel", H3605 + H1121G + H3478) is introduced as the one who "drew near" (niggeshu, niphal), a verb form that can suggest the people were brought into proximity rather than simply approaching on their own initiative, though niphal often functions as a simple passive-reflexive in narrative Hebrew.

The second clause, joined by the narrative vav on vaytzaVem ("and he commanded them"), does not name its subject explicitly in this verse; the third-person singular verb form relies on the preceding narrative context to identify who commands. The object of the commanding is marked by 'et and consists of the entire relative clause kol asher dibber Yehovah itto ("all that Yehovah had spoken with him"), where itto ("with him", H0854 + H9033) indicates Yehovah's speech was directed to this same unnamed third-person subject. The final phrase, be-har Sinai, locates this prior speech act on Mount Sinai using a construct chain.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew and LXX leave the subject of "commanded" unspecified within this verse's own wording (relying on prior context), rendering it simply "he" (Greek eneteilato, third singular). The Vulgate similarly uses "quibus praecepit" ("to whom he commanded"). The Spanish BSB and SBLIBRE translations explicitly insert "Moses" as the subject, making explicit what the Hebrew and LXX leave implicit through verb agreement alone. The LXX also renders niggeshu ("they drew near") with proselthon pros auton ("they approached him"), adding the explicit directional object "to him" not present as a separate word in the Hebrew clause.