Numbers 10:30

Summary

The verse records a reply in which the speaker refuses to go with the group, stating instead that he will return to his own land and his own kindred. The Hebrew phrasing repeats the verb "to go" at both ends of the sentence, framing a sharp contrast between what he will not do and what he will do.

Key words

• elekh ("I will go", H1980G) — qal imperfect, first person; appears twice, once negated and once affirmed, creating a frame around the whole utterance.
• ki ("that/if", H3588B) combined with 'im ("except", H0518B) — together they form a restrictive construction, commonly rendered "but rather" or "except that," which sets up the alternative destination.
• artzi ("my land", H0776G) — noun in construct form with a first-person suffix, meaning literally "land of me."
• moladti ("my kindred", H4138) — feminine noun in construct with a first-person suffix; denotes place of birth or family origin, "kindred of me."
• lo ("not", H3808) — simple negation attached directly to the first occurrence of elekh, denying participation in the journey with the group.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a chiasm: lo elekh ("I will not go") opens the statement, and elekh ("I will go") closes it, with the destination — artzi ("my land") and moladti ("my kindred") — placed in between, joined by ki im, a restrictive pairing that functions like "but rather" or "except." This structure allows the second elekh to pick up and reverse the negated verb from the first clause, so the same verb form serves both a negative and a positive statement, sharpening the contrast between refusal and intention. The construct forms artzi and moladti, each carrying the first-person suffix -i ("my"), tie the destination tightly to the speaker's own point of origin, distinguishing "my land" from wherever the addressee's expedition is headed.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders moladti ("my kindred", H4138) as γενεάν ("generation" or "family lineage"), a term with a broader sense than the Hebrew word for birthplace or kin group. The Vulgate adds "tecum" ("with you") after "non vadam," a phrase not present in the Hebrew text, and further expands with "in qua natus sum" ("in which I was born"), an explanatory clause absent from the Hebrew, which only says "to my land and to my kindred I will go." The Vulgate also uses "revertar" ("I will return") for the second elekh, where the Hebrew repeats the same verb "to go" used earlier in the verse.