Numbers 21:13

Summary

The verse narrates the Israelites' departure from a previous location and their encampment beyond the Arnon river, describing this river's course through the wilderness up to Amorite territory. It closes with an explanatory clause identifying the Arnon as the boundary separating Moab from the Amorites.

Key words

• na.sa.'U ("they set out", H5265) — qal perfect, marking a completed action that began the itinerary notice.
• va.yaḥanu ("and they encamped", H2583) — narrative form with the vav-consecutive, linking sequentially to the previous verb ("they set out... and then encamped").
• 'ever ("side of", H5676G) — construct noun, requiring a following genitive (here Arnon) to specify "the other side of the Arnon."
• yo.tze' ("goes out/extends", H3318I) — qal participle, describing an ongoing geographic feature (the wilderness's extension) rather than a completed action.
• ki ("that/for", H3588A) — subordinating particle introducing the explanatory clause about the Arnon's role as a border.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with two verbs in sequence: na.sa.'U ("they set out", perfect) followed by va.yaḥanu ("and they encamped", narrative form), a typical pairing in itinerary notices that marks departure and arrival as connected stages of movement. The location of encampment is given through the construct phrase me.'ever 'Arnon ("from the other side of Arnon"), followed by a relative clause introduced by 'a.sher ("which") that further qualifies the wilderness (ba.midbar) using the participle yo.tze' ("that goes out/extends"). The participial form presents this extension as a standing geographic characteristic rather than a single event, describing how the wilderness reaches toward the border (ge.vul, construct "border of") of the Amorites.

The final clause, introduced by ki, functions as an explanatory aside: it restates that the Arnon itself constitutes the border (ge.vul) of Moab, specifying this with the paired preposition bein... u.vein ("between... and between") linking Moab and the Amorites. This construction with repeated bein is common in Hebrew for marking a boundary between two parties.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders the participle yo.tze' ("goes out from") with prominet in finibus Amorrhæi ("projects into the borders of the Amorite"), using "in" (into) where the Hebrew preposition mi (H9006, "from") and the LXX's ἀπὸ ("from") indicate motion away from the Amorite border rather than into it. The LXX combines the two Hebrew verbs na.sa.'U and va.yaḥanu into a participial construction (ἀπάραντες παρενέβαλον, "having departed, they encamped"), differing stylistically from the Hebrew's sequential finite verbs but preserving the same sequence of events.