Exodus 34:33

Summary

The verse narrates that Moses finished speaking with the people and then placed a veil over his face. It marks the transition point between his speech and the act of covering his face, using two sequential narrative verbs.

Key words

• va-yeChal ("and he finished", H3615G) — piel narrative verb; the piel stem gives an intensive/completive sense ("brought to completion"), not merely "stopped."
• mi-daBer ("from speaking", H1696G) — piel infinitive with the preposition mi ("from", H9006); together they form the idiom "finished from speaking," i.e., "finished speaking."
• 'iTam ("with them", H0854 + H9038) — preposition with 3rd person plural suffix, identifying the audience Moses had been addressing.
• va-yiTen ("and he put/gave", H5414H) — qal narrative verb, the second main action of the verse, simple (non-intensive) stem contrasting with the piel of yeChal.
• masVeh ("a veil", H4533) — masculine singular noun, the object placed 'al-paNav ("upon his face", H6440H + H9023), governed by the preposition 'al ("over", H5921A).

What the text says

The verse contains two narrative clauses joined by the vav-consecutive pattern (marked twice as va, H9001), which chains sequential events: first Moses completes his speaking, then he places the veil. The first clause uses the piel verb yeChal ("he finished") combined with the piel infinitive daBer ("speaking") preceded by mi ("from"). This mi + infinitive construction after a verb of finishing is a standard Hebrew way of expressing "finished doing X," here rendered word-for-word as "finished from speaking with them."

The second clause shifts to the qal stem with yiTen ("he put"), a simple action verb without the intensive nuance of the first verb. The object of this action, masVeh ("a veil"), is placed 'al-paNav ("over his face"), where paNav is the construct plural noun "face" plus the 3rd person masculine singular suffix "his." The construct form of paNav combined with the suffix indicates possession — the face belongs to Moses himself, the subject of both verbs in the sentence. The grammar thus presents a tight two-step sequence: cessation of speech, followed immediately by the physical act of veiling.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (Impletisque sermonibus, "and the words having been completed") uses a passive/ablative construction focused on the words being finished, rather than explicitly naming Moses as the one who "finished speaking," though he is understood as the subject of the following clause. The LXX (ἐπειδὴ κατέπαυσεν λαλῶν πρὸς αὐτούς, "when he ceased speaking to them") renders the Hebrew's completive piel yeChal with katépausen ("ceased"), a term emphasizing cessation rather than completion. Modern translations (BSB, RV1909, SBLIBRE) uniformly render the construction as "finished speaking," aligning with the Hebrew idiom's sense of completion rather than mere cessation.