Numbers 21:17

Summary

Numbers 21:17 introduces a short song attributed to Israel, addressed to a well. The verse has two parts: a narrative frame ("then Israel sang this song") and the quoted song itself, which commands the well to rise and calls on a group to sing to it.

Key words

• 'az ("then", H0227A) — adverb marking a temporal transition; in Biblical Hebrew narrative it often introduces a past event even though followed by an imperfect verb.
• ya.Shir ("it sang", H7891) — qal imperfect, third person masculine singular. Despite imperfect morphology (which typically signals ongoing/future action), the 'az + imperfect construction here functions as a narrative past, "sang."
• 'a.Li ("spring up", H5927G) — qal imperative, feminine singular. The feminine form matches be'er ("well", H0875), which is grammatically feminine, showing the well is being directly addressed.
• 'e.nu ("sing/answer", H6030C) — qal imperative, masculine plural. This shifts the addressee from the well (singular, feminine) to a group of people (plural, masculine), who are commanded to respond.
• lah ("to her/it", H9034) — pronominal suffix attached to the preposition la (H9005), feminine singular, referring back to the well.

What the text says

The verse opens with a narrative clause using 'az ("then") followed by ya.Shir ("sang"), a qal imperfect verb. This combination is a recognized Biblical Hebrew pattern where the imperfect after 'az conveys a completed past action rather than its usual ongoing or future sense. The subject is Yisra'el ("Israel", H3478), and the object is marked by 'et (H0853, untranslated) governing ha-shirah ha-zot ("this song"), a feminine singular noun with a demonstrative.

The quoted song itself contains two imperative verbs with different grammatical addressees. 'a.Li ("spring up") is feminine singular, agreeing with the feminine noun be'er ("well"), so the command is directed at the well itself, treated as a personified addressee. The second imperative, 'e.nu ("sing" or "answer"), is masculine plural, shifting the address to a group of people — presumably those present — who are told to respond "to it" (lah, feminine suffix referring to the well). This grammatical shift from singular feminine to plural masculine within two short clauses marks two distinct addressees within the same short poetic unit.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders be'er ("well") with a locative phrase, "ἐπὶ τοῦ φρέατος" ("at/upon the well"), rather than as a vocative address as in the Hebrew imperative 'a.Li. The LXX verb "Ἐξάρχετε" ("lead/begin") differs from the Hebrew 'e.nu ("sing/answer"). The Vulgate's "Ascendat puteus" ("let the well rise") parallels the Hebrew imperative sense of 'a.Li, but its "Concinebant" ("they were singing together") uses an imperfect tense, framing the group's singing as an ongoing action rather than the direct imperative found in the Hebrew 'e.nu.