Numbers 20:5

Summary

The verse records a complaint (rhetorical question) addressed to those who led the people out of Egypt, accusing them of bringing the group to a bad place. The second half of the verse describes that place through a series of negations: it lacks seed/grain, fig trees, vines, pomegranates, and water to drink.

Key words

• he'eliTunu ("have you brought us up", H5927G) — hiphil (causative) perfect, 2nd person plural: "you caused us to go up," implying the subject(s) acted upon the people rather than the people acting themselves.
• lehaVi' ("to bring", H0935P) — hiphil infinitive construct, expressing purpose ("in order to bring"), dependent on the preceding verb.
• ha-maKom ha-Ra' ha-Zeh ("this evil place", H4725 + H7451H + H2088) — noun with two attached modifiers (adjective ra' and demonstrative zeh), each carrying its own definite article, a construction that binds noun, quality, and pointing gesture together.
• meKom Zera' ("place of seed", H4725 + H2233G) — construct chain (maqom in construct form mekom): "place of," followed by "seed," meaning a place suited for sowing.
• Mayim 'Ayin ("water there-is-not", H4325G + H0369) — the noun mayim followed by the negative existential particle 'ayin, literally "water — non-existence," used instead of the simpler negation lo' seen earlier in the verse.

What the text says

The verse opens with the interrogative lamah ("why?", H4100) attached to the causative verb he'eliTunu, a hiphil perfect form that frames the exodus not as something the people did themselves but as something done to them by others — "you made us go up." The infinitive lehaVi' that follows shares the same causative (hiphil) stem, extending the accusation: the purpose of that "bringing up" was "to bring us" to "this evil place," marked by the object marker 'otanu (H0853) that has no independent gloss but signals the direct object "us."

The second half of the verse shifts from a finite clause to a series of nominal negations describing the place. The first negation uses lo' ("not," H3808) with the construct phrase mekom zera' ("a place of seed"), meaning it is not suited for sowing. Three items — te'enah ("fig tree," H8384), gefen ("vine," H1612), rimmon ("pomegranate," H7416) — are joined by simple conjunctions (ve-) without any repeated verb or negation, listed as absent by implication from the initial lo'. The final clause changes strategy: instead of continuing with lo', it uses mayim 'ayin ("water there-is-not"), placing the noun mayim before the existential negator 'ayin, followed by the qal infinitive lishtot ("to drink," H8354), producing the sense "water there is none, to drink."

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the accusation using ἀνήγαγες ("you led up," singular), where the Hebrew he'eliTunu is plural ("you all brought us up"), narrowing the addressees to one implied leader rather than a group. The LXX also uses the passive-oriented τόπος οὗ οὐ σπείρεται ("a place where it is not sown") for mekom zera', shifting the construct noun phrase into a relative clause. The Vulgate similarly turns the list into verbal clauses ("qui seri non potest," "qui nec ficum gignit"), rather than preserving the string of bare nouns joined by simple conjunctions found in the Hebrew.