Numbers 20:1

Summary

Numbers 20:1 narrates the arrival of the Israelites, described as the entire congregation, at the wilderness of Zin in the first month. The people settled at Kadesh, where Miriam died and was buried.

Key words

• va-yyavo'u ("and they came", H0935G) — qal narrative verb, third person masculine plural; opens the verse with the standard narrative chain (vav-consecutive) marking sequential action.
• ha-'edah ("the congregation", H5712) — feminine singular noun with the definite article, in apposition to kol ("all", H3605) and bene Yisra'el ("sons of Israel", H1121G/H3478), emphasizing the totality of the group that arrived.
• midbar-Tzin ("wilderness of Zin", H4057B/H6790) — construct chain naming the specific location, distinct from the wilderness of Sin mentioned elsewhere in the Pentateuch narrative.
• va-tamot ("and she died", H4191) — qal narrative verb, third person feminine singular, referring to Miriam; continues the narrative chain begun with va-yyavo'u.
• va-tikkaver ("and she was buried", H6912) — niphal (passive) narrative verb, third person feminine singular; the passive form does not specify who performed the burial.

What the text says

The verse is built entirely on a chain of narrative vav-consecutive verbs (va-yyavo'u, va-yyeshev, va-tamot, va-tikkaver), a standard structure in Biblical Hebrew prose that presents four sequential events: arrival, settling, death, and burial. This chain creates a tightly compressed narrative unit moving from the collective action of "all the congregation" (kol ha-'edah, H3605/H5712) to the individual death of one named person, Miriam (Miryam, H4813G).

The phrase bene Yisra'el kol ha-'edah ("the sons of Israel, all the congregation") places two descriptions of the group in apposition, first the ethnic/genealogical designation and then the communal one, both governed by the single verb va-yyavo'u. The verb va-tikkaver ("and she was buried") is grammatically niphal, a passive/reflexive stem, so the Hebrew does not identify an agent for the burial — the text states only that the burial occurred, not who carried it out. The adverb sham ("there", H8033G) appears twice, anchoring both the death and the burial to the same location, Kadesh, without repeating the place name.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders va-tikkaver ("she was buried") with the phrase "sepulta in eodem loco" ("buried in that same place"), making explicit the identity of location between death and burial, whereas the Hebrew simply repeats the adverb sham ("there") twice without stating that it is "the same" place, though the referent is identical. The LXX and other versions preserve the twofold "there" more closely to the Hebrew structure.