Numbers 33:35

Summary

The verse records one stage of the wilderness itinerary: the Israelites departed from Abronah and set up camp at Ezion-geber. It is a brief notice consisting of two parallel verbal clauses marking successive stops in the journey list of Numbers 33.

Key words

• va-yis'u ("and they set out", H5265) — qal narrative verb (vayyiqtol) with the narrative vav, indicating sequential action: departure follows the previous stop in the list.
• me-'Avronah ("from Abronah", H5684) — preposition min ("from") prefixed to the place name, marking the point of origin.
• va-yachanu ("and they encamped", H2583) — second qal narrative verb, parallel in form to va-yis'u, marking the resulting action: arrival and settling.
• be-'Etzyon Gaver ("at Ezion-geber", H6100) — preposition be ("at/in") prefixed to the place name, marking the destination.

What the text says

The verse is built on a fixed two-verb pattern that recurs throughout Numbers 33: a verb of departure (va-yis'u) followed by a prepositional phrase naming the place left, then a verb of encampment (va-yachanu) followed by a prepositional phrase naming the new location. Both verbs are qal narrative forms (vayyiqtol), which in Biblical Hebrew narrative chain events in temporal succession — first the setting out, then the encamping — without needing any additional connective words beyond the narrative vav itself. The subject "they" is not expressed by a separate pronoun but is carried in the verb's third-person masculine plural form, referring back to the people of Israel established earlier in the itinerary.

The two prepositions min ("from") and be ("at/in") mark the two poles of the movement: origin and destination. This terse, formulaic structure — verb + preposition + place name, twice — is characteristic of the itinerary genre in Numbers 33, where each verse typically records only the minimal information of departure and arrival, with no additional narrative detail, dialogue, or explanation.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew place names 'Avronah (H5684) and 'Etzyon Gaver (H6100) appear transliterated differently across versions: the LXX renders them as Sebrōna and Gessiōn Gaber, while the Vulgate uses Hebrona and Asiongaber. These are transliteration variants of the same proper names rather than differences in meaning or grammatical structure.