Leviticus 10:20

Summary

The verse states that Moses heard (a preceding explanation, not contained in this clause itself) and that it "was good in his eyes." It closes an exchange narrated earlier in the chapter with a brief notice of Moses' reaction.

Key words

• yishma' ("he heard", H8085G) — qal narrative form of the verb "to hear," continuing the narrative chain begun with the vav; it marks Moses as the one who receives the report.
• Mosheh ("Moses", H4872) — proper name, subject of both verbs in the verse.
• yitav ("it was good", H3190) — qal narrative form of the verb "to be good," impersonal in construction; its subject is not a person but the situation described by the following prepositional phrase.
• 'einav ("his eyes", H5869I) — feminine dual noun in construct with the pronominal suffix -o ("his", H9023); dual number reflects that "eyes" in Hebrew is grammatically paired.
• be- ("in", H9003) — preposition attached to 'einav, forming the idiom "in his eyes," i.e., "in his view/estimation."

What the text says

The verse is built as two short clauses joined by the narrative vav, a construction that chains sequential events: "and he heard... and it was good..." The first clause, va-yishma' Mosheh ("and Moses heard"), has Moses as grammatical subject of the verb shama' ("to hear", H8085G). The second clause uses an impersonal construction: va-yitav be-'einav ("and it was good in his eyes"). Here the verb yatab ("to be good", H3190) does not take Moses as its direct subject; rather, the subject is implicit (the matter just heard), and Moses appears only through the prepositional phrase be-'einav ("in his eyes"), with the suffix -o ("his") pointing back to him.

This idiom — something being "good in the eyes of" someone — expresses a subjective judgment or approval rather than an objective moral evaluation. The grammar places the emphasis on Moses' perception: the text does not say Moses declared something good, but that something was good "in his eyes," locating the judgment inside his own perspective.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the second clause with ēresen autō ("it pleased him"), using a verb of pleasing rather than reproducing the Hebrew idiom "good in the eyes of." The Vulgate goes further, rendering it as recepit satisfactionem ("he received satisfaction"), turning the impersonal Hebrew construction into an active statement about Moses accepting or receiving something. The Spanish and English versions (RV1909, BSB, SBLIBRE) likewise convert the idiom into verbs like "se dio por satisfecho," "was satisfied," or "estuvo de acuerdo" ("agreed"), none of which preserve the Hebrew's literal locating of the judgment "in his eyes."