Numbers 11:17

Summary

YHWH announces to Moses that he will descend and speak with him, take a portion of the ruach ("spirit", H7307G) that is on Moses, and place it upon a group of others so that they may carry the burden of the people together with him, freeing him from carrying it alone.

Key words

• ya.rad.Ti ("I will come down", H3381) — qal sequential perfect, first person; opens the chain of divine actions announced for the future.
• 'a.tzal.Ti ("I will share/withdraw", H0680) — qal sequential perfect; governs min-ha-Ruach ("some of the spirit"), indicating a partitive taking, not a total removal.
• Ru.ach ("spirit", H7307G) — feminine singular noun, definite by the article ha-; the entity that is taken in part and placed on others.
• na.se.'U ("they will carry", H5375H) — qal sequential perfect, third person plural; same verbal root as tisa' later in the verse, creating a lexical echo between "carrying" the spirit's effect and "carrying" the burden.
• le.va.De.kha ("alone", H0905H + suffix) — construct noun with second-person suffix, closing the verse by negating solitary responsibility: lo'-tisa' 'atah levadekha ("you will not carry it, you, alone").

What the text says

The verse is built as a chain of sequential perfects (ve- + perfect) beginning with ya.rad.Ti ("I will come down") and continuing through di.bar.Ti ("I will speak"), 'a.tzal.Ti ("I will share"), sam.Ti ("I will put"), and na.se.'U ("they will carry"). This grammatical pattern presents a series of future actions tied together as one continuous divine plan, each step following logically from the previous one. The subject shifts from first person singular (YHWH speaking) through the first four verbs to third person plural (na.se.'U, "they") for the result, marking the transition from divine action to human consequence.

The verb 'a.tzal.Ti ("I will share", H0680) takes the partitive preposition min ("some of") before ha-Ruach ("the spirit"), specifying that only a portion of what is on Moses ('a.sher 'a.lei.kha, "which is on you") will be transferred, not its entirety. The final clause uses the same root nasa' ("to carry", H5375H) twice — once as na.se.'U ("they will carry") describing the others, and once as ti.Sa' ("you will carry") in the negated imperfect describing Moses — linking the reception of the spirit directly to the shared physical/administrative task of masa' ha-'am ("the burden of the people", H4853A construct + H5971A). The construct phrase le.va.De.kha ("to your alone") reinforces the contrast between solitary and shared responsibility that frames the entire verse.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders ve-yaradti ve-dibarti 'immekha sham ("I will come down and speak with you there") with the verb order katabēsomai kai lalēsō ekei meta sou, placing ekei ("there") differently but preserving the same two verbs. Where the Hebrew has masa' ha-'am ("burden of the people," a construct noun phrase), the LXX uses tēn hormēn tou laou ("the impulse/onset of the people"), a distinct semantic choice from the Hebrew "burden." The Vulgate's tradamque eis, ut sustentent tecum onus populi ("and I will hand it over to them, that they may sustain with you the burden of the people") expands the terse Hebrew ve-sam.ti 'aleihem ve-nas'u into an explicit purpose clause not marked as such in the Hebrew syntax.