Numbers 14:33

Summary

Numbers 14:33 states that the children of the generation being addressed will be ro'im ("shepherds", H7462B) in the wilderness for forty years, bearing the consequences of their parents' zenutei ("prostitution/unfaithfulness", H2184) until the pigrei ("corpses", H6297) of that generation are finished in the wilderness.

Key words

• ro'im ("shepherds", H7462B) — qal participle, masculine plural, describing an ongoing state/activity: the children continuously "shepherding" or wandering in the wilderness during this period.
• na.se.'u ("they will bear", H5375H) — qal sequential perfect, continuing the narrative sequence begun by the imperfect yihyu; indicates the children will "carry" or "bear" something belonging to the parents.
• zenutei-khem ("your prostitution[s]", H2184 + H9026) — masculine plural noun in construct with a 2nd person masculine plural suffix, literally "the prostitutions of you (pl.)," the thing the children will bear.
• tom ("to be finished/completed", H8552) — qal infinitive, marking the temporal endpoint of the forty-year period, tied to the word pigrei.
• pigrei-khem ("your corpses", H6297 + H9026) — masculine plural construct noun with 2nd person plural suffix, "the corpses of you (pl.)," specifying whose bodies must be finished/consumed.

What the text says

The verse is structured in two parts joined by the narrative ve ("and", H9001). The first part uses the imperfect yihyu ("they will be", H1961) with the participle ro'im ("shepherds", H7462B) to describe a durative future state: the children will exist as shepherds — or according to some renderings, wanderers — in the midbar ("wilderness", H4057B) for a specified duration, arba'im shanah ("forty years", H0705 + H8141). The second part shifts to the sequential perfect nase'u ("they will bear", H5375H), continuing the temporal sequence and introducing what the children carry: zenuteikhem, literally "the prostitutions of you (plural)" — a plural construct noun with the second-person suffix pointing back to the parents being addressed, not the children.

The clause is bounded temporally by 'ad-tom ("until it is finished", H5704 + H8552), an infinitive construction marking a terminus. What is "finished" is specified by pigreikhem ("your corpses", H6297), again suffixed to the second-person plural — the parents, not the children. The repetition of bammidbar ("in the wilderness", H4057B) at both the start and end of the verse frames the entire statement geographically, beginning and ending in the same location.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders ro'im ("shepherds", H7462B) with νεμόμενοι ("being pastured/grazing"), a passive/middle participle differing from the active qal participle in Hebrew. The Vulgate uses vagi ("wandering"), diverging further from the pastoral image of "shepherds" toward "wanderers." The Vulgate also adds patrum ("of the fathers") to cadavera ("corpses"), specifying "corpses of the fathers," a clarification not present in the Hebrew pigreikhem ("your corpses"), which grammatically refers to the addressees themselves rather than explicitly naming them as fathers.