Numbers 16:43

Summary

The verse reports that Moses and Aaron went to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. It is a short narrative notice marking a change of location, using simple past-tense verbal action introduced by the narrative vav.

Key words

• va-yyavo ("and he came/went", H0935G) — qal verb in the narrative (vav-consecutive) form, marking sequential action in the story; grammatically singular but governs the compound subject that follows.
• Mosheh ("Moses", H4872) — proper noun, first of the two subjects of the verb.
• Aharon ("Aaron", H0175) — proper noun joined by ve ("and", H9002), forming the compound subject with Moses.
• penei ("face of", H6440G) — masculine plural noun in construct state, used idiomatically with the preposition 'el ("to", H0413) to mean "to the front of" or "before."
• 'Ohel mo'ed ("tent of meeting", H0168G + H4150I) — construct chain naming the specific structure; 'Ohel ("tent") is construct singular governing mo'ed ("meeting").

What the text says

The sentence follows a standard Hebrew narrative pattern: the verb va-yyavo ("and he came", H0935G) opens the clause in the vav-consecutive form, which in Biblical Hebrew narrative indicates a new sequential event following what precedes it. Although the verb is morphologically singular (third person masculine singular), it takes a compound subject — Mosheh ("Moses", H4872) ve-Aharon ("and Aaron", H0175) — a common construction in Hebrew where a singular verb precedes and governs two or more coordinated subjects.

The destination is expressed through the construct phrase 'el-penei 'Ohel mo'ed — literally "to the face of the tent of meeting." Here penei ("face of", H6440G) functions idiomatically, not literally, to indicate "the front of" or "before" a location, a common idiom in Biblical Hebrew for describing proximity or entrance to a structure. The final construct chain 'Ohel mo'ed ("tent of meeting", H0168G + H4150I) names the specific sacred tent, with 'Ohel ("tent") in construct state directly governing mo'ed ("meeting").

Differences between versions

The Hebrew text states only that Moses and Aaron "came" (va-yyavo, H0935G) to the front of the tent, with no indication of urgency or motive. The Vulgate renders this action as fugerunt ("they fled"), introducing a sense of flight not present in the Hebrew verb, and the Vulgate additionally includes material about a cloud covering the tent and the appearance of the "glory of the Lord," which is not part of the Hebrew or LXX text as given here. The LXX (Swete) uses eisēlthen ("he entered") with kata prosōpon ("according to the face/front"), matching the Hebrew idiom of "before" the tent without the added notion of flight found in the Vulgate.