Numbers 11:3

Summary

Numbers 11:3 explains why a location received the name Taberah: it is described as the place where "the fire of Yehovah" (H0784 + H3068) burned among the people. The verse follows the common biblical pattern of naming a place based on an event that occurred there.

Key words

• vayyiqra ("and someone called", H7121H) — qal narrative verb form, the impersonal "he called" that opens naming etiologies in Hebrew narrative.
• shem ("name of", H8034) — construct noun linking "name" to "the place," standard grammar for naming formulas.
• Tav'erah ("Taberah", H8404) — the proper name itself, built from the same root as the verb ba'arah used two words later, creating a wordplay between the place-name and its cause.
• va'arah ("it had burned", H1197A) — qal perfect, marking completed action prior to the naming; the subject ("it," feminine) is the fire mentioned later in the clause.
• esh ("fire of", H0784) — construct noun governing "Yehovah," forming the phrase "fire of Yehovah."

What the text says

The verse divides into two clauses joined by the particle ki ("for," H3588A). The first clause, vayyiqra shem-hamaqom hahu Tav'erah, is a standard naming formula: "and [someone] called the name of that place Taberah." The subject of vayyiqra is unspecified (grammatically third-person masculine singular, often rendered impersonally as "it was called" or "he called"), which is typical for Hebrew naming etiologies where no specific agent is named.

The second clause supplies the reason for the name: ki-va'arah bam esh Yehovah, "for the fire of Yehovah had burned among them." The verb va'arah is in the perfect aspect, indicating an action completed before the moment of naming — the burning happened first, and the naming followed. The construct phrase esh Yehovah ("fire of Yehovah") attaches the noun "fire" directly to the divine name without an intervening preposition, a construction that in Hebrew indicates close association or possession between the two nouns.

The name Tav'erah itself shares its consonantal root (ב-ע-ר) with the verb va'arah ("burned"), so the text builds an explicit etymological link between the event (burning) and the resulting place-name.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders Tav'erah not as a transliterated proper name but as a translated common noun, Ἐνπυρισμός ("burning" or "conflagration"), preserving the meaning of the root rather than the sound of the Hebrew name. The Vulgate does the same, rendering it as Incensio ("burning," a Latin noun). The Hebrew, by contrast, presents Tav'erah as a proper name (H8404) while separately using the cognate verb va'arah to explain its meaning — a distinction the LXX and Vulgate collapse into a single translated term. Additionally, the LXX phrase παρὰ Κυρίου ("from the Lord") uses a prepositional construction, whereas the Hebrew esh Yehovah and the Vulgate ignis Domini both use a direct construct/genitive form ("fire of Yehovah/the Lord").