Numbers 21:33

Summary

The verse narrates a transition in the Israelites' journey: they turn and go up toward Bashan, where Og, king of Bashan, comes out with his entire people to confront them in battle at Edrei. The sentence sets up the military encounter that follows in subsequent verses.

Key words

• va-yifnu ("and they turned", H6437G) — qal narrative verb with vav, marking a new sequential action; the subject (Israel/the people) is understood from context.
• derekh ("[the] direction of", H1870K) — construct noun linking to ha-Bashan, indicating the road or route taken, not a proper place-name itself.
• melekh ("[the] king of", H4428G) — construct noun forming the title "king of Bashan," identifying Og's position.
• li-qra'tam ("to meet them", H7122H) — infinitive with prefixed preposition li ("to") and suffix -m ("them"), expressing purpose: Og's advance is directed toward encountering the Israelites.
• 'ammo ("his people", H5971A) — construct noun with possessive suffix -o ("his"), specifying that the entire population/army belongs to Og.

What the text says

The verse is built from a chain of narrative verbs connected by the vav consecutive: va-yifnu ("and they turned", H6437G), va-ya'alu ("and they went up", H5927G), and va-yetze' ("and he went out", H3318G). This chain structure presents the events as a sequential narrative: first the unnamed group turns and ascends toward Bashan, then Og responds by going out. The grammatical subject of the first two verbs is not explicitly named in this verse but continues from the preceding narrative context.

The phrase derekh ha-Bashan ("the direction/way of Bashan") uses the construct form of derekh (H1870K) to specify the road leading toward the region of Bashan, rather than naming Bashan as the destination directly. Og's title, melekh ha-Bashan ("king of Bashan"), employs the same construct pattern with melekh (H4428G), a common formula for royal titles in this narrative.

The purpose clause li-qra'tam ("to meet them", H7122H) uses an infinitive with the preposition li- and a pronominal suffix, indicating that Og's exit had the specific aim of confrontation. The phrase hu' ve-khol 'ammo ("he and all his people") emphasizes that Og did not act alone — his entire people accompanied him. The final phrase la-milchamah 'Edre'i ("for battle, [at] Edrei") specifies both the purpose (battle) and location (Edrei) of the encounter, with Edre'i appearing without a preposition in the Hebrew, functioning adverbially to indicate place.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders li-qra'tam ("to meet them") as εἰς συνάντησιν αὐτοῖς ("for a meeting with them"), a nominal construction rather than an infinitive, though the sense of purpose is preserved. The Vulgate uses occurrit eis ("he met/encountered them"), a finite verb form, followed by pugnaturus ("about to fight") to render the purpose expressed by la-milchamah ("for battle"), splitting what the Hebrew conveys in two separate phrases into a verb plus a future participle.