Numbers 33:12

Summary

Numbers 33:12 records one stage of the Israelites' itinerary: they departed from the wilderness of Sin and set up camp at Dophkah. The verse consists of two short narrative clauses linked by consecutive verb forms.

Key words

• va-yis'u ("and they set out", H5265) — qal narrative form, third person masculine plural, marking sequential action ("and then they set out").
• mi-midbar ("from the wilderness of", H4057B) — masculine singular construct noun with preposition mi ("from", H9006); the construct form links it to the following place name.
• Sin (H5512B) — proper name identifying the specific wilderness region.
• va-yachanu ("and they encamped", H2583) — qal narrative form, third person masculine plural, paralleling the first verb and continuing the sequence.
• Dofqah (H1850) — proper name of the encampment site, introduced by the preposition be ("at", H9003).

What the text says

The verse is built on two verbs in the narrative (vav-consecutive) pattern: va-yis'u ("and they set out") and va-yachanu ("and they encamped"). Both are qal, third person masculine plural, describing the collective action of the group referred to earlier in the itinerary list. This grammatical structure — two sequential narrative verbs — is typical of the travel-log style found throughout Numbers 33, where each verse marks a single stage: departure from one place, arrival at another.

The first clause uses the construct phrase mi-midbar Sin ("from the wilderness of Sin"), where midbar ("wilderness", H4057B) stands in construct relationship with the proper name Sin, meaning the phrase functions as a single geographic designation rather than two separate ideas. The second clause uses the preposition be ("at", H9003) attached directly to the place name Dofqah, indicating the location of encampment rather than motion toward it — a common preposition for stationary location following verbs of settling or camping.

No additional grammatical elements (subjects, objects, adjectives) are present; the verse's entire content is the two-verb sequence with attached place names.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the place name Dofqah (H1850) as Ῥαφακά (Rhaphaka), a form differing from the Hebrew consonants. The Vulgate gives Daphca, closer to the Hebrew Dofqah than the LXX's rendering. The Hebrew wilderness name Sin (H5512B) appears in the LXX as Σείν (Sein), a transliteration matching the Hebrew form. The Vulgate does not name the wilderness explicitly in this verse, instead using the phrase "Unde egressi" ("From there having departed"), condensing the reference to the wilderness of Sin into a pronominal reference to the previous verse's location.