Numbers 11:12

Summary

Moses addresses God with two rhetorical questions, denying that he conceived or gave birth to the people of Israel, and then quotes God's implied command that he carry them like a caregiver carries a nursing child to the land promised to their ancestors.

Key words

• he ("¿", H9008) — interrogative particle prefixed to 'anokhi, marking the sentence as a rhetorical question expecting a negative answer.
• harati ("did I conceive", H2029) — qal perfect, 1st person singular; completed action, paired with yeladti to form a double rhetorical question about origin/parentage.
• yeladtihu ("did I give birth to it", H3205) — qal perfect with pronominal suffix -hu ("it/him"), referring back to kol-ha'am hazeh ("all this people").
• sa'ehu ("carry it", H5375H) — qal imperative, 2nd person masculine singular, with suffix -hu; the quoted command attributed to God, forming the contrast with Moses' opening denial.
• ha'omen ("the foster-father", H0539) — qal participle, masculine singular, with definite article; describes an ongoing role ("the one who nourishes/carries") rather than a single action, used in the comparison clause introduced by ka'asher ("as", H0834D).

What the text says

The verse opens with the interrogative he (H9008) attached to 'anokhi ("I", H0595), followed by harati (H2029, qal perfect), producing a question with an expected negative answer: "Did I conceive...?" This is balanced by a second question introduced by 'im (H0518H, "or"), again with 'anokhi and the perfect verb yeladtihu (H3205), which carries the pronominal suffix -hu referring to kol-ha'am hazeh ("all this people", H3605 + H5971A + H2088). The repetition of 'anokhi in both clauses emphasizes the subject "I" against an implied "you" (God) who gave the command.

The second half of the verse shifts to a quoted imperative: sa'ehu (H5375H, qal imperative) "carry it," followed by a comparison clause with ka'asher (H0834D) and the same root yisa' (H5375H) in the imperfect, describing what ha'omen (H0539, qal participle) habitually does with ha-yonek (H3243J, "the suckling-child"). The participle form of 'omen presents this as a characteristic or ongoing role rather than a single completed action, distinguishing it grammatically from the perfect-tense verbs used for Moses' own denial of conception and birth.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew ha'omen (H0539, masculine participle, "the one who nourishes/foster-father") is rendered in the LXX as τιθηνός and in the Vulgate as nutrix, both of which are terms typically associated with a female nurse in Greek and Latin usage, though the Hebrew participle itself is masculine in form.