Numbers 11:5

Summary

The verse records a complaint in which the speakers recall the food they ate "for nothing" in Egypt: fish, and a list of five vegetables (cucumbers, watermelons, leeks, onions, garlic). The Hebrew syntax marks each food item explicitly as a direct object, giving the list a formal, itemized quality.

Key words

• za.Khar.nu ("we remember", H2142) — qal perfect, 1st person plural: a completed act of recollection, the verb that opens and governs the whole sentence.
• chi.Nam ("for nothing", H2600) — adverb modifying no.Khal ("we ate", H0398), specifying that the fish was obtained without cost or payment.
• no.Khal ("we ate", H0398) — qal imperfect, 1st person plural, used here for a repeated or habitual past action ("we used to eat"), inside a relative clause introduced by 'a.Sher- ("which", H0834A).
• 'et- (H0853) — the direct object marker, repeated before nearly every noun in the list (fish, cucumbers, watermelons, leeks, onions, garlic), structurally binding each item to the verb za.Khar.nu.
• ha. ("the", H9009) — the definite article prefixed to every food noun, marking each item as a specific, known category rather than a generic reference.

What the text says

The sentence has one main verb, za.Khar.nu ("we remember"), which takes a series of definite direct objects marked by 'et-/'et. The first object, ha.da.Gah ("the fish", H1710), is followed by a relative clause — 'a.Sher-no.Khal be.mitz.Ra.yim chi.Nam ("which we ate in Egypt for nothing") — that describes the circumstances of eating the fish specifically, not the vegetables. After this clause, the sentence resumes the object list with four more items (ha.qi.shu.'Im, ha.'a.va.ti.Chim, he.cha.Tzir, ha.be.tza.Lim, ha.shu.Mim), each introduced again by the object marker and the definite article, joined by the conjunction ve. ("and", H9002).

This repeated use of 'et before every noun is a feature of Hebrew syntax that has no direct equivalent in English or Spanish; it formally flags each noun as grammatically definite and objectival, producing a rhythmic, list-like structure. The adverb chi.Nam ("for nothing", H2600) qualifies only the imperfect verb no.Khal ("we ate", H0398), describing repeated action in the past — the food was consumed freely, without cost, during the time in Egypt.

Differences between versions

The LXX (Swete) repeats τὰ κρόμμυα ("onions") twice in its list, where the Hebrew lists five distinct items (qi.shu.'Im, 'a.va.ti.Chim, cha.Tzir, be.tza.Lim, shu.Mim) with no repetition. The Vulgate renders chi.Nam ("for nothing", H2600) as "gratis," matching the adverbial sense of the Hebrew, and separates the vegetable list with "in mentem nobis veniunt" ("they come to mind"), an addition not present in the Hebrew verb structure, which relies on the single verb za.Khar.nu governing the whole list.