Numbers 23:22

Summary

The verse identifies 'El ("God", H0410G) as the one who brought the people out of Egypt, using a participial construction that presents this as an ongoing characteristic action. The verse then compares his strength to the to'afot ("horns of", H8443) a re'em ("wild ox", H7214), an animal noted for its power.

Key words

• 'el ("God", H0410G) — a bare divine name/noun functioning as the subject of the clause, without article, emphasizing a title-like designation.
• motzi'am ("bringing them out", H3318H) — hiphil (causative) participle construct, masculine singular, meaning "the one causing to go out." Its participial form casts the action not as a single past event but as a characteristic, ongoing role of the subject.
• to'afot ("horns of", H8443) — feminine plural construct noun, grammatically bound to re'em, forming the phrase "horns of a wild ox."
• re'em ("wild ox", H7214) — masculine singular noun, the animal to which the comparison of strength is made.
• lo ("to him", H9033 + H9005) — pronominal suffix attached to the preposition, anchoring the comparison back to 'El as the one who possesses this strength.

What the text says

The clause opens with 'el as subject followed immediately by the participle motzi'am, "bringing them out." Because Biblical Hebrew participles denote an ongoing or characteristic action rather than a single completed event, the construction presents the exodus from Egypt as an enduring feature of this God's identity, not merely a historical marker on the same footing as a plain verb tense. The pronominal suffix -m ("them") attached to the participle supplies the object without a separate pronoun, and the phrase is completed by min-Mitzrayim, "from Egypt."

The second half of the verse builds a comparative clause using ke-, "like," attached to the construct phrase to'afot re'em, "horns of a wild ox." The construct chain ties the abstract quality (horns, here understood as a symbol of strength) tightly to the specific animal, the re'em. The final element, lo, "to him," closes the sentence by attributing this quality of strength back to the grammatical subject of the first clause, 'El.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew to'afot re'em ("horns of a wild ox") is rendered in the LXX as doxa monokerōtos ("glory of a one-horned animal"), replacing "horns" with doxa ("glory") and rendering re'em as a single-horned creature rather than simply "wild ox." The Vulgate similarly shifts the image, using fortitudo ("strength") similis rhinocerotis ("like a rhinoceros"), diverging from the Hebrew's specific noun to'afot ("horns") by substituting an abstract term for physical strength. The BSB and SBLIBRE follow the Hebrew more closely with "strength like a wild ox," while the RV1909 follows the Vulgate's tradition with "unicornio."