Numbers 33:24

Summary

The verse records a single stage in the itinerary of the Israelites' wilderness journey: departure from Mount Shapher and encampment at Haradah. It is one link in the chain of station-by-station notices that make up Numbers 33.

Key words

• va-yis'u ("and they set out", H5265) — qal narrative verb (vav-consecutive) with 3rd person masculine plural subject, marking sequential action: "and then they set out."
• har ("mountain of", H2022G) — masculine singular noun in construct state, linking directly to the following proper name to form "Mountain of Shapher."
• Shafer ("Shapher", H8234) — proper name identifying the mountain from which the group departs.
• va-yachanu ("and they encamped", H2583) — qal narrative verb, same pattern as va-yis'u, continuing the sequence: "and then they encamped."
• Charadah ("Haradah", H2732) — proper name of the place where the encampment occurs, governed by the preposition ba ("at", H9003).

What the text says

The verse is built on a symmetrical two-part structure, each half opening with a narrative vav-consecutive verb (va-yis'u ... va-yachanu), the standard form used throughout Numbers 33 to link successive travel stages as a continuous sequence of events. The first verb, va-yis'u ("they set out", H5265), takes the preposition me- ("from", H9006) attached to the construct phrase har-Shafer ("Mountain of Shapher"), where har ("mountain of", H2022G) stands in construct relation to the place name Shafer (H8234). The second verb, va-yachanu ("they encamped", H2583), takes the preposition ba- ("at", H9003) attached to the place name Charadah (H2732).

The grammatical parallelism between the two clauses — verb + preposition + place name — reflects the formulaic, list-like character of this chapter, where each verse typically records one departure and one arrival with minimal narrative elaboration. No additional information (duration, distance, events) is supplied; the Hebrew simply states the sequence of movement using construct and prepositional phrases to anchor each verb to its geographic location.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew place name Shafer (H8234) appears in the LXX as Σάφαρ (Saphar) and in the Vulgate as "Sepher," close transliterations with minor vocalic shifts. The Hebrew Charadah (H2732) is rendered in the LXX as Χαραδάθ (Charadath), adding a final -th, while the Vulgate gives "Arada," dropping the initial ch-sound present in the Hebrew and Greek forms.