Numbers 14:40

Summary

The verse narrates that the people rose early and climbed to the top of the hill country, declaring their intention to go up to the place Yehovah had designated, adding a final clause about their sin. The sentence combines narrative action (rising, climbing) with direct speech introduced by lemor ("saying", H0559).

Key words

• yash.Kimu ("they rose early", H7925) — hiphil (causative) form in narrative sequence; the causative stem suggests an intensified or deliberate action of getting up early, not merely "waking."
• hi.Ne.nu ("here we are", H2005 + suffix H9045) — interjection with attached pronominal suffix "we/our", functioning as a self-presenting formula opening the direct speech.
• 'a.Linu ("we will go up", H5927G) — sequential perfect (vav + perfect) continuing the logical sequence begun by hinnenu; in Biblical Hebrew narrative this form expresses a resolved future action following a declarative opening.
• ki ("that/because", H3588A) — a particle capable of introducing either a causal clause ("because") or a content clause ("that"); its function here determines whether "we have sinned" is presented as the reason for going up or as an appended statement.
• chaTanu ("we have sinned", H2398) — qal perfect, denoting a completed action, closing the speech.

What the text says

The verse is built on two narrative verbs joined by vav-consecutive: vayyashkimu ("and they rose early") and vayya'alu ("and they went up"), both marking sequential past actions typical of Hebrew narrative prose. The infinitive lemor ("saying") introduces direct speech, which opens with the interjection-plus-suffix hinnennu ("here we are"), followed by the sequential perfect ve'alinu ("and we will go up"), maintaining continuity with the preceding declaration. This construction presents the speech as an unbroken chain: presenting themselves, then affirming the action of ascending "to the place which Yehovah said" ('asher 'amar YHWH, relative clause with H0834A and H0559).

The final element, ki chatanu, uses the particle ki (H3588A), whose grammatical range includes both causal ("because") and declarative ("that") functions. In this position, attached at the end of the ascending declaration, the clause can be read either as the stated reason for their action ("we will go up... because we have sinned") or as a separate acknowledgment following the main clause.

Differences between versions

The LXX (ὅτι ἡμάρτομεν) and the Vulgate (quia peccavimus) both render ki causally, matching the sequence "we will go up... because we have sinned." The BSB reorders the English clauses, placing "we have indeed sinned" as an initial quoted statement and introducing an explicit contrastive "but" before "we will go up" — a structure not present in the Hebrew's linear vav-sequence. The SBLIBRE adds the verb "reconocemos" ("we acknowledge") before "hemos pecado," an interpretive expansion not found in the Hebrew, which has only ki chatanu ("that/because we have sinned") without any verb of recognition.