Numbers 14:35

Summary

Yehovah declares in first person that he has spoken and will carry out what he has said against "this evil congregation" that has gathered against him. The verse closes the divine sentence begun earlier in the chapter: the generation in question will meet its end and die in the wilderness.

Key words

• 'aNi ("I", H0589) — independent personal pronoun placed before the divine name, giving emphatic self-identification: "I, Yehovah."
• dibbarTi ("I have spoken", H1696G) — piel perfect, first person; the piel stem intensifies the verb "to speak," and the perfect aspect marks the declaration as already completed and binding.
• 'im lo ("if...not", H0518I + H3808) — the combination of conditional particle and negation forms a Hebrew oath-formula pattern ("if I do not do this..."), functioning as an emphatic asseveration rather than a real conditional.
• no'aDim ("has gathered", H3259) — niphal participle, masculine plural, describing the congregation's action as passive/reflexive gathering — "the ones who have banded together" against Yehovah.
• yiTammu ("they will meet their end", H8552) and yaMutu ("they will die", H4191) — both qal imperfect, third person plural, expressing future/ongoing action; the two verbs form a pair describing first the cessation of the group, then individual death.

What the text says

The verse opens with 'aNi Yehovah dibbarTi ("I, Yehovah, have spoken"), a self-contained declaration where the pronoun 'aNi reinforces the divine name that follows, and the perfect verb dibbarTi signals that the utterance is already fixed. This is followed by the oath construction 'im lo' zot 'e'eSeh ("if not this I will do"), a formula in which the conditional 'im plus negation lo' functions idiomatically as a strong affirmation: "surely I will do this," rather than a hypothetical.

The object of the action is kol-ha'eDah hara'Ah hazZot ("all this evil congregation"), specified further by the niphal participle no'aDim 'aLay ("the ones gathered against me"), which describes the group's collective stance using a passive/reflexive verbal form — the congregation is characterized by the very act of having assembled in opposition.

The final clause pairs two qal imperfect verbs, yiTammu ("they will meet their end") and yaMutu ("they will die"), both located spatially by bammidBar hazZeh ("in this wilderness") and sham ("there"). The sequence of verbs presents first a general termination, then the specific outcome of death, both set in the wilderness setting repeated twice in the verse (hazZeh, sham).

Differences between versions

The LXX renders 'im lo with εἰ μὴ and translates the oath formula as ποιήσω ("I will do"), matching the Hebrew asseverative sense. The Vulgate uses sicut locutus sum, ita faciam ("as I have spoken, so I will do"), making explicit the comparative logic that the Hebrew oath-formula implies without stating "as...so." Where the Hebrew has two parallel plural verbs, yiTammu and yaMutu, the Vulgate uses singular verbs deficiet and morietur, treating the congregation as a singular collective rather than maintaining the plural verbal agreement found in the Hebrew and the LXX (ἐξαναλωθήσονται, ἀποθανοῦνται).