Exodus 34:4

Summary

Exodus 34:4 narrates that Moses carved two new stone tablets like the first ones, rose early, went up Mount Sinai as commanded by Yehovah, and took the two stone tablets in his hand. The verse is a chain of four consecutive narrative actions performed by Moses.

Key words

• va-yifSol ("and he cut out", H6458) — qal narrative form; the vav-consecutive marks this as the first sequential action, with Moses as implied subject (named only later in the verse).
• shenei-luChot 'avaNim ("two tablets of stone(s)", H8147/H3871/H0068G) — construct chain: "two" governs "tablets of," which governs "stone(s)"; this exact phrase appears twice, opening and closing the verse.
• ka-rishoNim ("like the former [tablets]", H9004/H7223G) — preposition + article + ordinal number, establishing a comparison to the earlier tablets without naming them again.
• tzivVah ("he had commanded", H6680) — piel perfect, denoting a completed prior action; the perfect aspect marks this as background to the main narrative sequence.
• be-yaDo ("in his hand", H9003/H3027G/H9023) — noun with pronominal suffix in construct, specifying that Moses personally carried the tablets.

What the text says

The Hebrew verse is built entirely on four narrative (vav-consecutive) verbs, each introduced by the same conjunction va ("and", H9001) followed by a prefixed verb form: va-yifSol ("and he cut out"), va-yashKem ("and he rose early"), va-ya'al ("and he went up"), and va-yiQach ("and he took"). This chain structure is a common feature of Biblical Hebrew narrative prose, presenting a sequence of discrete completed actions without needing to repeat the subject "Moses" each time — the subject noun moSheh ("Moses", H4872) appears only once, attached to the second verb, while grammatical gender and person markers on the verbs themselves carry the subject information throughout.

The phrase shenei luChot 'avaNim ("two tablets of stone(s)") forms a construct chain that recurs verbatim at the beginning and end of the verse, framing the action: the tablets that Moses cuts are the same tablets he later carries up the mountain. The comparison ka-rishoNim ("like the former [tablets]", H7223G) uses the preposition ka ("like/as", H9004) attached directly to the ordinal number, avoiding a separate verb of comparison — a construction not always visible in translations. The clause ka'aSher tzivVah Yehovah 'oTo ("as Yehovah had commanded him") uses a piel perfect verb (tzivVah) to mark the commanding as a prior, completed event relative to the narrative sequence of cutting, rising, and ascending.

Differences between versions

The LXX (SWETE) renders the sequence with an aorist participle ὀρθρίσας ("having risen early") subordinated to the main verb ἀνέβη ("he went up"), differing from the Hebrew's flat chain of four equally-weighted vav-consecutive verbs. The LXX also names Μωυσῆς ("Moses") only once, before "rose early," rather than after, as in the Hebrew. The Vulgate (VULCLEM) similarly subordinates the rising ("de nocte consurgens") to the ascending ("ascendit"), and adds "portans secum tabulas" ("carrying the tablets with him") at the end, rephrasing the Hebrew's final clause va-yiQach be-yaDo shenei luChot 'avaNim ("and he took in his hand the two tablets of stone") as a participial clause rather than a fourth independent narrative verb.