Numbers 10:12

Summary

The verse reports two consecutive events: the people of Israel departed from the wilderness of Sinai, moving stage by stage, and the cloud came to rest in the wilderness of Paran. The Hebrew presents this as one continuous narrative sequence using two verbs joined by the narrative vav.

Key words

• yis'u ("they set out", H5265) — qal verb in the narrative (vav-consecutive) form, marking the first event in sequence: the departure of the people.
• mas'ei ("journeyings", H4550) — masculine plural noun in construct, combined with the suffix hem ("their", H9028) to form "their journeyings/stages," describing the manner of travel rather than a single move.
• midbar ("wilderness of", H4057B) — construct noun appearing twice (with Sinai and with Paran), linking each location name directly to the term "wilderness."
• yishkon ("it settled down", H7931) — qal narrative verb from the root shakan, the same root that produces the noun for "dwelling place" (mishkan); it denotes coming to rest or taking up residence, not merely stopping.
• he'anan ("the cloud", H6051) — definite singular noun, the subject of the second verb, identified with the definite article as a previously known entity in the narrative.

What the text says

The verse is built as two parallel narrative clauses joined by vav-consecutive verbs (va-yis'u ... va-yishkon), the standard Biblical Hebrew mechanism for sequential storytelling ("and they set out... and it settled"). The first clause names the subject, bene Yisra'el ("the people of Israel", H1121G + H3478), as those departing, and specifies the mode of departure through the construct phrase le-mas'ei hem ("according to their journeyings"), suggesting travel in stages rather than a single uninterrupted march. The point of departure is given by the construct chain mi-midbar Sinai ("from the wilderness of Sinai").

The second clause shifts subject to he'anan ("the cloud"), using the verb yishkon, built on the root that also underlies the noun for the sacred "dwelling place." This root choice frames the cloud's arrival in Paran not as a mere pause but as a settling or taking-up-residence, paralleling the construct phrase be-midbar Paran ("in the wilderness of Paran").

Differences between versions

The LXX renders yishkon ("it settled down/dwelt") as ἔστη ("it stood" or "stopped"), a more neutral verb of halting rather than dwelling. The Vulgate uses recubuit ("it lay down/reclined"), again differing from the dwelling-nuance carried by the Hebrew root shakan. For le-mas'ei hem ("according to their journeyings"), the LXX has σὺν ἀπαρτίαις αὐτῶν ("with their baggage/equipment"), shifting the phrase from describing the manner of travel to describing accompanying goods, whereas the Hebrew construct noun mas'ei focuses on the stages of movement itself.