Numbers 11:2

Summary

The verse narrates three sequential events joined by narrative vav: the people cry out to Moses, Moses prays to Yehovah, and the fire subsides. The structure is a simple chain of cause and response, each clause introduced by a converted imperfect verb.

Key words

• yitz'aq ("it cried out", H6817) — qal narrative form; describes the people's action as a plain, direct outcry, without reflexive or intensive nuance.
• 'am ("people", H5971A) — masculine singular noun with the definite article ha (H9009), marking it as "the people" as a collective body.
• yitpallel ("he prayed", H6419) — hithpael narrative form of the root p-l-l; the hithpael stem often carries a reflexive or self-involved sense, distinguishing this verb from a simple qal "to speak" or "to ask."
• tishqa' ("it died out", H8257) — qal narrative, feminine (agreeing with 'esh, "fire," a common-gender noun treated as feminine here); the root can carry a sense of "sinking" or "subsiding" rather than simply "ending."
• 'esh ("fire", H0784) — common gender noun, definite, the subject of the final clause.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as three clauses linked by narrative vav (H9001), each advancing the story in sequence: "and it cried out... and he prayed... and it died out." This chain structure is typical of Biblical Hebrew narrative, where each vav-prefixed verb marks a new event following the previous one in time. The subject of the first clause is ha'am ("the people"), who direct their outcry 'el-Mosheh ("to Moses", H0413 + H4872). The second clause shifts the subject to Mosheh himself, who directs his action 'el-YHWH ("to Yehovah"). The verb yitpallel is in the hithpael stem, which in this root often marks the reflexive or self-referential nuance of "praying" as an act done by oneself toward God, distinct from ordinary speech. The third clause names ha'esh ("the fire") as the grammatical subject of tishqa', a qal verb whose root meaning relates to sinking or subsiding, here used to describe the fire's cessation.

Differences between versions

The Septuagint text given renders the third element of Moses' address as πρὸς Τύριον ("toward Tyrios"), where the Hebrew text has 'el-YHWH ("to Yehovah", H3068G). The Vulgate and Spanish/English translations align with the Hebrew, rendering this as "ad Dominum," "a Jehová," and "to the LORD" respectively. The Vulgate's absorptus est ignis ("the fire was swallowed up") reflects a sense of the root shaqa' closer to "sinking" or "being absorbed," while the English and Spanish versions ("died down," "se apagó") render it more generally as extinguishing.