Numbers 33:2
וַיִּכְתֹּב מֹשֶׁה אֶת־מוֹצָאֵיהֶם לְמַסְעֵיהֶם עַל־פִּי יְהוָה וְאֵלֶּה מַסְעֵיהֶם לְמוֹצָאֵיהֶֽם׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וַיִּכְתֹּ֨ב מֹשֶׁ֜ה אֶת־מוֹצָאֵיהֶ֛ם לְמַסְעֵיהֶ֖ם עַל־פִּ֣י יְהוָ֑ה וְאֵ֥לֶּה מַסְעֵיהֶ֖ם לְמוֹצָאֵיהֶֽם׃
καὶ ἔγραψεν Μωυσῆς τὰς ἀπάρσεις αὐτῶν καὶ τοὺς σταθμοὺς αὐτῶν διὰ ῥήματος κυρίου. καὶ οὗτοι σταθμοὶ τῆς πορείας αὐτῶν.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
quas descripsit Moyses juxta castrorum loca, quæ Domini jussione mutabant.
Moisés anotó los lugares de donde partían en cada etapa de su viaje, siguiendo la orden de Yehová. Este es el registro de sus viajes y sus puntos de partida:
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y Moisés escribió sus salidas conforme á sus jornadas por mandato de Jehová. Estas, pues, son sus estancias con arreglo á sus partidas.
At the LORD ’s command, Moses recorded the stages of their journey. These are the stages listed by their starting points:
✦ What the text says
Numbers 33:2
Summary
The verse states that Moses wrote down the departure points and stages of the Israelites' journey, doing so at the instruction of Yehovah. It then introduces a list by repeating the same two terms in reverse order, functioning as a heading for what follows.
Key words
- yikhTov ("he wrote down", H3789) — qal narrative verb, marking Moses as the subject of a sequential past action.
- motza'ei ("points of departure", H4161) — masculine plural construct noun, "departures of," requiring a following genitive (supplied by the pronominal suffix).
- mas'ei ("settings out", H4550) — masculine plural construct noun, paired with motza'ei, together forming a fixed expression for stages of travel.
- pi ("mouth of", H6310I) — construct noun used in the idiom 'al-pi ("upon the mouth of"), indicating the source or authority behind an action.
- 'Elleh ("these", H0428) — demonstrative particle, introducing the list that follows in the subsequent verses.
What the text says
The verse divides into two halves joined by ve ("and", H9002). The first half is a narrative clause: va-yikhTov ("and he wrote down") with Moses as subject, followed by the direct object motza'eiHem ("their departure-points," H4161 + H9028) and a second phrase le-mas'eiHem ("for/according to their settings-out," H9005 + H4550 + H9028). The two construct nouns motza'ei and mas'ei both derive from verbs of movement (going out and setting out) and here function together as a hendiadys describing the full itinerary — origin and stage — of the journey.
The clause ends with 'al-pi Yehovah ("upon the mouth of Yehovah," H5921A + H6310I + H3068G), an idiom placing the act of writing under Yehovah's directive. The construct chain pi Yehovah ("mouth of Yehovah") is common formula in the source language for divine command as the origin of an action.
The second half of the verse, introduced by 'Elleh ("these," H0428), reverses the two key terms: now mas'ei ("settings-out") precedes le-motza'eiHem ("for their departure-points"). This inversion creates a chiastic frame (departures/settings-out — settings-out/departures) that closes the introductory statement and opens the itinerary list that follows in the chapter.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders 'al-pi Yehovah ("upon the mouth of Yehovah") as διὰ ῥήματος κυρίου ("through the word of the Lord"), shifting the idiom from "mouth" to "word." The Vulgate omits an explicit equivalent for 'al-pi Yehovah within the main clause, instead placing the divine-command notion in a subordinate clause, quæ Domini jussione mutabant ("which they changed at the Lord's order"), attached to the camp locations rather than to Moses' act of writing.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.