Numbers 21:5

Summary

The people speak against God and Moses, complaining about being brought out of Egypt to die in the wilderness. They state there is no bread and no water, and that their appetite has grown disgusted with the food available to them.

Key words

• y.da.Ber ("it spoke", H1696G) — piel narrative form, giving the verb an intensive nuance beyond simple speaking; combined with the vav it opens the episode as a direct continuation of the story.
• he.'e.li.Tu.nu ("have you brought us up", H5927H + H9035) — hiphil perfect (causative, completed action) with 1st person plural suffix "us"; the causative stem frames the exodus as something Moses/God caused to happen to them, and the question Mah ("why?", H4100) attached to it turns the statement into an accusatory question.
• 'ein ("there not... of", H0369) — construct noun expressing non-existence; used twice (for lechem, "food/bread", H3899G, and mayim, "water", H4325G), each time governing the following noun as "there is no X."
• naf.She.nu ("our self/appetite", H5315I + H9025) — construct noun with 1st plural suffix; nephesh here functions as the seat of appetite/desire rather than an abstract "soul."
• Ka.tzah ("it loathes", H6973) — qal perfect, 3rd feminine singular, agreeing with the feminine noun nephesh; describes a completed state of revulsion, not an ongoing process.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative vav on y.da.Ber ("it spoke," H1696G), a piel form that marks the people's speech as forceful — the same root appears elsewhere for hostile or complaint-driven speech. The object of this speech is introduced by two parallel prepositional phrases, be.lo.Him ("against God," H0430G) and u.ve.mo.Sheh ("and against Moses," H4872), placing the divine and human leadership together as the target of complaint.

The accusatory question begins with la.Mah ("why?", H4100) attached to he.'e.li.Tu.nu ("you all have brought us up," H5927H), a hiphil perfect that frames the exodus from Egypt as an action deliberately caused upon the people, followed by the purpose clause la.Mut ("to die," H4191, qal infinitive) ba.mid.Bar ("in the wilderness," H4057B) — presenting death in the wilderness as the perceived outcome of that causative act.

The subsequent clauses, introduced by ki ("for/that," H3588A), give the stated grounds: two construct-based existential negations, 'ein Lechem ("there is no bread," H0369+H3899G) and ve.'ein Mayim ("and there is no water," H0369+H4325G). The final clause shifts from external lack to internal reaction: naf.She.nu Ka.tzah ("our appetite loathes," H5315I+H6973), a qal perfect agreeing grammatically with the feminine nephesh, followed by ba.Lechem ha.qe.lo.Kel ("the worthless/wretched food," H3899G+H7052) — repeating the word for "food/bread" but now qualified as qelokel, a term for something contemptible or without value.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders y.da.Ber with katelalei ("was speaking against/murmuring"), adding the participle legontes ("saying") not present as a separate word in the Hebrew, which the Hebrew conveys directly through the verb chain. The Vulgate's locutusque similarly keeps the sequential sense. Where the Hebrew has two separate negations 'ein... ve'ein ("there is no... and there is no"), the LXX collapses them with οὐδὲ ("nor"), and the Vulgate uses two independent clauses (deest panis, non sunt aquae). For qelokel ("worthless," H7052), the LXX gives diakenō ("empty/vain") and the Vulgate levissimo ("very light/trifling"), both interpretive renderings of a term whose exact sense the Hebrew construction leaves somewhat open.