Numbers 10:31
וַיֹּאמֶר אַל־נָא תַּעֲזֹב אֹתָנוּ כִּי׀ עַל־כֵּן יָדַעְתָּ חֲנֹתֵנוּ בַּמִּדְבָּר וְהָיִיתָ לָּנוּ לְעֵינָֽיִם׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וַיֹּ֕אמֶר אַל־נָ֖א תַּעֲזֹ֣ב אֹתָ֑נוּ כִּ֣י׀ עַל־כֵּ֣ן יָדַ֗עְתָּ חֲנֹתֵ֙נוּ֙ בַּמִּדְבָּ֔ר וְהָיִ֥יתָ לָּ֖נוּ לְעֵינָֽיִם׃
καὶ εἶπεν Μὴ ἐγκαταλίπῃς ἡμᾶς, οὗ εἳνεκεν ἦσθα μεθ’ ἡμῶν ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ, καὶ ἔσῃ ἐν ἡμῖν πρεσβύτης·
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Et ille: Noli, inquit, nos relinquere: tu enim nosti in quibus locis per desertum castra ponere debeamus, et eris ductor noster.
Moisés insistió: “No nos dejes, por favor; porque tú conoces los lugares donde debemos acampar en el desierto, y puedes ser nuestro guía.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y él le dijo: Ruégote que no nos dejes; porque tú sabes nuestros alojamientos en el desierto, y nos serás en lugar de ojos.
“ Please do not leave us,” Moses said, “ since you know where we should camp in the wilderness, and you can serve as our eyes.
✦ What the text says
Summary
Numbers 10:31 records a request (traditionally attributed to Moses) that a companion not abandon the group, based on his knowledge of where to camp in the wilderness. The verse closes by describing what this person will become for the group: "eyes."
Key words
- ta'azov ("you leave", H5800A) — qal jussive, expressing a negated wish/command: "may you not leave," softened by the preceding particle na' ("please", H4994).
- ken ("thus", H3651B) — adverb combined with the preposition 'al ("since", H5921B) forming the causal phrase "since/for this reason."
- yada'ta ("you know", H3045) — qal perfect, marking a completed state of knowledge, not an ongoing action.
- chanotenu ("our encamping", H2583) — qal infinitive with a pronominal suffix ("our"), functioning as a verbal noun: literally "our encamping in the wilderness."
- le'einayim ("into eyes", H5869A) — feminine dual noun with the preposition le ("into/for"), producing the idiom "you will become for us into eyes."
What the text says
The verse opens with the narrative va-yomer ("and he said," H0559), introducing direct speech. The core request is built from 'al na' ta'azov 'otanu — a negated jussive softened by the particle of entreaty na', making the sense "please do not leave us" rather than a flat prohibition. The direct object marker 'otanu (H0853 + suffix) explicitly marks "us" as the object of "leave."
The causal clause ki 'al-ken yada'ta chanotenu bamidbar links knowledge to the request. The construction 'al-ken ("since/for this reason") introduces the perfect verb yada'ta ("you know" — completed, established knowledge), whose object is the infinitive-with-suffix chanotenu ("our encamping"), followed by bamidbar ("in the wilderness," H4057B with article). Grammatically, this is a nominalized action: "you have known our-encamping-in-the-wilderness," i.e., knowledge of the group's camping movements/locations.
The final clause, ve-hayita lanu le'einayim, uses the sequential perfect hayita ("you will become," H1961) continuing the verb chain from yada'ta. The double preposition construction lanu le'einayim ("for us, into eyes") uses the dual noun 'einayim (H5869A) — the dual form referring to the paired organs "eyes." The idiom expresses that this person will function as the group's means of seeing/perceiving, without the Hebrew specifying further what that role entails beyond the image of eyes.
Differences between versions
The Hebrew le'einayim ("into eyes") is rendered by the LXX as πρεσβύτης ("elder" or "experienced one"), a term unrelated to sight, and by the Vulgate as ductor noster ("our guide/leader"), an interpretive gloss rather than a literal rendering of "eyes." Both versions replace the ocular idiom with a role-based term, while the Hebrew text itself preserves the concrete image of "eyes" without further explanation.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.