Numbers 33:11

Summary

The verse records a stage in the itinerary of the Israelites: they depart from Yam Suf ("Sea of Reeds", H3220G/H5488G) and set up camp in the midbar Sin ("wilderness of Sin", H4057B/H5512B). It is a two-part travel notice built on the standard "set out / encamped" formula used throughout the itinerary list of Numbers 33.

Key words

• va-yyis'u ("and they set out", H5265) — qal verb with narrative vav, marking a new consecutive event; plural form indicates the group (Israel) as the subject.
• Yam ("sea of", H3220G) — masculine singular noun in construct state, meaning it must be joined to the following word "Suf" to form a proper name.
• Suf ("reed[s]", H5488G) — noun functioning as part of the place name, literally "reeds," attached to Yam to produce "Sea of Reeds."
• va-yyachanu ("and they encamped", H2583) — qal verb with narrative vav, parallel in form to va-yyis'u, continuing the chain of sequential actions.
• midbar ("wilderness of", H4057B) — masculine singular noun in construct state, linking to "Sin" to name the specific wilderness region.

What the text says

The verse is built entirely on two parallel verbal clauses joined by the narrative vav (H9001), a grammatical feature that chains events in sequence: first "they set out" (va-yyis'u), then "they encamped" (va-yyachanu). Both verbs are qal, plural, and carry the same narrative form, producing a rhythmic, formulaic structure typical of the itinerary lists in Numbers 33, where each verse follows this same departure-arrival pattern.

The geographical terms are expressed through construct chains: mi-Yam-Suf ("from the sea of reeds") uses the preposition min (H9006) plus the construct noun Yam (H3220G) bound to Suf (H5488G), while be-midbar-Sin ("in the wilderness of Sin") uses the preposition be (H9003) plus the construct noun midbar (H4057B) bound to the place name Sin (H5512B). In each case, the construct noun cannot stand alone grammatically; it depends on the following word to complete its meaning, which is a standard feature of Hebrew naming conventions for bodies of water and desert regions.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew Yam Suf (literally "Sea of Reeds") is rendered in the Septuagint as θαλάσσης ἐρυθρᾶς ("Red Sea"), and this same rendering — "Red Sea" — appears in the Spanish (RV1909, SBLIBRE) and English (BSB) translations. The Vulgate excerpt provided does not include this first clause, beginning instead directly with "castrametati sunt in deserto Sin" ("they camped in the desert of Sin"), so no comparison for Yam Suf is available from that source in this fragment.