Numbers 32:11

Summary

The verse states, using an oath formula, that the men who came up from Egypt aged twenty and above will not see the land sworn to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, because they did not "fill" after Moses (i.e., did not follow him completely).

Key words

• 'im ("if", H0518A) — the conditional particle here functions as the opening of a negative-oath formula rather than a true hypothetical; oaths in Hebrew often use "if" + imperfect to imply a strong negation ("they will surely not see").
• yir'u ("they will see", H7200G) — qal imperfect, expressing future/ongoing action; paired with 'im it carries the force of the sworn negation.
• ben ("a son of", H1121L) — construct noun used idiomatically with a number ('esrim shanah, "twenty years") to express age, literally "a son of twenty years."
• nishba'ti ("I swore", H7650) — niphal perfect, first person, marking a completed act of oath-taking that grounds the promise of the land to the patriarchs.
• milu ("they have filled", H4390) — piel perfect of the root for "to fill," used idiomatically with 'acharai ("after me", H0310A + suffix) to mean "to follow fully/completely."

What the text says

The sentence is built as a sworn declaration introduced by 'im ("if", H0518A) followed by the imperfect yir'u ("they will see", H7200G). In Biblical Hebrew, this "if + imperfect" construction at the start of a divine oath is a known idiom for emphatic negation — it does not present an open condition but functions rhetorically as "they will certainly not see." The subject is ha'anashim ha'olim mi-Mitzrayim ("the men who came up from Egypt"), specified further by the construct phrase mi-ben 'esrim shanah va-ma'lah ("from a son of twenty years and up", H1121L + H6242 + H8141), an idiomatic way of stating an age threshold.

The object is ha'adamah ("the land", H0127G), qualified by the relative clause 'asher nishba'ti le-Avraham le-Yitzchak u-le-Ya'aqov ("which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob"), using the niphal perfect nishba'ti (H7650) to mark a completed act of divine swearing. The causal clause ki lo' milu 'acharai ("for they did not fill after me") uses the piel perfect milu (H4390) with 'acharai (H0310A + 1st person suffix) — an idiom meaning "to follow completely/wholeheartedly," rather than a literal statement about filling something.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew 'im ("if") is rendered literally as conditional in the LXX (Ei, "if") and Vulgate (Si, "if"), preserving the oath-formula structure. The Spanish (SBLIBRE) and English (BSB) versions instead render the sense directly as negation ("Ninguno... verá" / "will not see"), reflecting the idiomatic force rather than the literal conditional wording. The LXX also adds a phrase not present in the Hebrew text, oi epistamenoi to kakon kai to agathon ("who know good and evil"), an expansion describing the men further. For lo' milu 'acharai ("they did not fill after me"), the BSB and SBLIBRE render the idiom interpretively as "did not follow wholeheartedly" / "no me obedecieron de todo corazón" ("did not obey with all their heart"), while the Vulgate gives noluerunt sequi me ("they were unwilling to follow me"), and the LXX has ou synepēkolouthēsan opisō mou ("they did not follow closely after me").