Numbers 12:7

Summary

The verse presents a divine declaration contrasting Moses with other prophets. It states that Moses is not like them, and describes him as "faithful" throughout "all" the speaker's "house."

Key words

• lo' ("not", H3808) — negation opening the clause, immediately paired with khen to negate a manner or comparison ("not thus").
• khen ("thus", H3651C) — adverb of manner; together with lo' forms the phrase "not so," setting up the contrast with what precedes in the surrounding speech.
• 'avD ("servant", H5650) — masculine singular noun in construct form, meaning "servant of ___," here linked to the following name Moses via the possessive suffix construction "my servant."
• bayiT ("house", H1004M) — masculine singular noun in construct form ("house of ___"), preceded by khol ("all", H3605) also in construct, producing "in all the house of my [house]."
• ne'eMan ("faithful/entrusted", H0539) — Niphal participle (passive/reflexive stem) of the root meaning "to be firm, faithful, trustworthy." As a participle it functions like an adjective, describing an ongoing state or characteristic of the subject rather than a single completed action.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence divides into two parts. The first, lo'-khen 'avDi Mosheh ("not thus, my servant Moses"), is a short nominal clause without a verb, common in Biblical Hebrew for direct, emphatic assertions. It negates a manner (khen, "thus") rather than a verb, implying a contrast with something stated earlier in the passage — Moses is being distinguished from a manner of prophetic communication described just before this verse.

The second part, bekhol-beiTi ne'eMan hu' ("in all my house, faithful he"), places the prepositional phrase bekhol-beiTi ("in all the house of me") before the predicate, a common Hebrew word order for emphasis. The predicate itself consists of the Niphal participle ne'eMan followed by the independent pronoun hu' ("he"). The Niphal stem of the root 'mn (from which ne'eMan comes) conveys a passive or stative sense — "to be made firm" or "to be trustworthy" — rather than an active verb, presenting Moses's faithfulness as an established state or condition, not an action he performs. The pronoun hu' at the end reinforces the subject, a construction typical for identifying or emphatic statements in Hebrew ("he is the one who...").

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders ne'eMan ("faithful", H0539) as fidelissimus ("most faithful"), a superlative form, where the Hebrew participle itself carries no explicit degree of comparison. The SBLIBRE Spanish translation renders the phrase bekhol-beiTi ne'eMan hu' as "a quien he confiado toda mi casa" ("to whom I have entrusted all my house"), shifting the passive/stative sense of ne'eMan into an active verb ("I have entrusted") with a different grammatical subject than the Hebrew's participial construction centered on Moses himself.