Numbers 20:27

Summary

The verse records that Moses acted in accordance with a command from Yehovah, and that he (with the parties involved) went up Mount Hor while the entire congregation watched.

Key words

• va-ya'as ("and he did", H6213A) — qal narrative verb, third person masculine singular, marking the next sequential event: Moses' compliance.
• tzivah ("he had commanded", H6680) — piel perfect, an intensive completed action, indicating a prior directive already given by Yehovah before this verse's action.
• va-ya'alu ("and they went up", H5927G) — qal narrative verb, third person masculine plural, shifting the subject from Moses alone to a plural group ascending the mountain.
• le-'einei ("to the eyes of", H5869H) — construct dual noun with preposition, literally "to the eyes of," forming the idiom "in the sight of."
• kol-ha'edah ("all the congregation", H3605 + H5712) — construct chain, "all of the congregation," specifying the collective witnessing body.

What the text says

The verse divides into two clauses joined by the narrative vav. The first clause, va-ya'as Moshe ka'asher tzivah Yehovah ("and Moses did as Yehovah had commanded"), uses the qal narrative verb ya'as ("he did", H6213A) with Moses as subject, followed by the relative particle 'asher ("as", H0834D) introducing a subordinate clause. That subordinate clause uses tzivah ("he had commanded", H6680), a piel perfect verb, which grammatically marks the command as an action completed prior to and independent of the narrative sequence — it does not carry the vav-narrative form itself, distinguishing the prior instruction from the ongoing storyline.

The second clause, va-ya'alu 'el-Hor ha-har ("and they went up to Hor, the mountain"), switches the verb to third-person masculine plural, ya'alu ("they went up", H5927G), signaling a change of grammatical subject from Moses alone to a plural group. The Hebrew text does not explicitly name who besides Moses is included in "they" within this verse; the plural form itself carries that information. The mountain is designated with a construct-like naming pattern, Hor ha-har ("Hor, the mountain"), where hor ("Hor", H2023G) functions as the proper name and ha-har ("the mountain", H2022G) as the appositional noun with definite article.

The final phrase, le-'einei kol-ha'edah ("to the eyes of all the congregation", H5869H + H3605 + H5712), uses the dual construct noun 'einei ("eyes of") to form an idiom of public visibility, modified by the construct chain kol-ha'edah ("all of the congregation"), specifying the collective audience witnessing the ascent.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the second clause with a singular verb, anebibasen auton ("he brought him up"), where the Hebrew has the plural ya'alu ("they went up", H5927G). This shifts the grammatical subject from a plural group in the Hebrew to Moses acting upon a singular "him" in the Greek. The Vulgate's ascenderunt ("they ascended") matches the Hebrew plural form.