Numbers 20:12

Summary

Yehovah addresses Moses and Aaron, stating the reason they will not lead the assembly into the land: they did not trust him in a way that would have shown his holiness before the Israelites. As a consequence, Yehovah declares that they will not bring this congregation into the land he has given.

Key words

he'emantem ("you believed", H0539) — hiphil perfect, 2nd person masculine plural. The hiphil (causative) stem of the root for "believe/trust" describes a completed state of trust that did not occur; the perfect aspect marks it as a finished (non-)action in the past relative to the speech moment.

lehaqdisheni ("to treat me as holy", H6942G) — hiphil infinitive with 1st person suffix -ni ("me"). The infinitive, introduced by the preposition le- ("to"), expresses purpose or result: the trust that was lacking was meant to lead to this specific outcome of showing Yehovah's holiness.

le'einei ("to the eyes of", H5869A) — construct dual noun, literally "the two eyes of," used idiomatically for "in the sight of." It is in construct relation with bnei Yisra'el ("sons of Israel", H1121G/H3478), forming the phrase "before the eyes of the people of Israel."

tavi'u ("you will bring", H0935P) — hiphil imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural. The imperfect here marks future action; the hiphil stem is causative ("cause to enter/bring"), contrasting with the qal form natati ("I have given", H5414G) used for Yehovah's own action later in the verse.

qahal ("assembly", H6951) — masculine singular noun with definite article and demonstrative hazzeh ("this", H2088), referring to the collective group being addressed indirectly through Moses and Aaron.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative formula vayyomer Yehovah ("and Yehovah said", H0559/H3068G), a standard sequential verb form marking a new step in the story, addressed el-Mosheh ve'el-Aharon ("to Moses and to Aaron"). The causal clause is introduced by ya'an ("because", H3282), which sets up the reasoning for what follows: lo-he'emantem bi ("you did not believe/trust in me"). The verb he'emantem takes the object marked by the preposition bi ("in me", H9003+H9030), a common construction for expressing trust directed toward a person.

The purpose of that trust is stated through the infinitive lehaqdisheni ("to treat me as holy"), followed by the construct phrase le'einei bnei Yisra'el ("before the eyes of the sons of Israel"). The consequence is introduced by lakhen ("therefore", H3651C) and expressed with the negated imperfect lo tavi'u ("you will not bring"), governing the direct object et-haqahal hazzeh ("this assembly") and the destination el-ha'aretz ("into the land"). The land is further specified by the relative clause asher natati lahem ("which I have given to them"), using the qal perfect natati ("I have given") — a simple, non-causative verb form contrasting grammatically with the causative tavi'u used for Moses and Aaron's action.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew lehaqdisheni ("to treat me as holy") is rendered in the LXX as hagiasai me ("to sanctify me"), a close lexical match. The Vulgate renders it as ut sanctificaretis me ("that you might sanctify me"), also close. The BSB translates this phrase as "to show My holiness," which shifts the causative sense of "making holy/treating as holy" toward a demonstrative sense of "displaying holiness," a nuance not explicit in the Hebrew infinitive itself.