Numbers 13:25

Summary

Numbers 13:25 reports that the scouts returned from surveying the land after a period of forty days. The Hebrew sentence is brief, consisting of a single main verb followed by two prepositional phrases specifying what they returned from and when.

Key words

• va-yashuvu ("and they returned", H7725) — qal narrative verb, third person masculine plural, continuing the story sequence ("and then they returned").
• tur ("spying out", H8446) — qal infinitive construct, functioning as a verbal noun ("from touring/spying out").
• ha-aretz ("the land", H0776) — feminine singular noun with definite article, the object of the scouting.
• qetz ("end of", H7093) — masculine singular noun in construct state, linking directly to the following number ("end of forty days").
• arba'im yom ("forty days", H0705 + H3117) — cardinal number plus singular noun yom ("day"), the standard Hebrew construction where the singular noun follows a numeral above ten.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative verb va-yashuvu ("and they returned", H7725), which carries the story forward from the preceding account of the scouting mission. This verb is followed by two parallel prepositional phrases, both introduced by min ("from", H9006): the first, mi-tur ha-aretz ("from spying out the land"), specifies the activity they are returning from; the second, mi-qetz arba'im yom ("from the end of forty days"), specifies the time elapsed. The word tur (H8446) is an infinitive construct, a verbal noun form that in Biblical Hebrew often follows a preposition to express purpose or ongoing action — here it names the scouting mission itself as a completed task.

The phrase qetz arba'im yom uses qetz (H7093) in construct state, meaning literally "end of," which fixes the forty-day period as a bounded, completed span rather than an approximate duration. The number arba'im ("forty", H0705) precedes the noun yom ("day", H3117), which remains singular despite the plural sense — a common pattern in Hebrew numerals where the counted noun stays in the singular form after certain cardinal numbers.

Differences between versions

The Septuagint and Vulgate texts supplied for this reference do not correspond to the Hebrew content of Numbers 13:25. Instead, they describe the naming of a valley ("Φάραγξ βότρυος" / "Nehelescol, id est Torrens botri") after a cluster of grapes cut there by the Israelites — content matching Numbers 13:24 rather than the return of the scouts after forty days. The Spanish (RV1909, SBLIBRE) and English (BSB) translations align with the Hebrew text's content about the return after forty days.