Numbers 33:38

Summary

The verse reports that Aaron the priest went up Mount Hor at the command of Yehovah and died there. It dates this event precisely: the fortieth year after Israel's departure from Egypt, on the first day of the fifth month.

Key words

• va-i.ya.'Al ("and he went up", H5927G) — qal narrative verb with vav, marking Aaron's ascent as the next event in the story sequence.
• ko.Hen ("priest", H3548) — masculine singular noun with definite article, identifying Aaron by his cultic office rather than simply by name.
• pi ("mouth of", H6310I) — construct noun forming the idiom 'al-pi Yehovah, literally "on the mouth of Yehovah," expressing the source of the command.
• va-i.Ya.mot ("and he died", H4191) — qal narrative verb with vav, continuing the same chain of sequential action as the previous verb.
• le.Tzet ("in the going out of", H3318G) — qal infinitive with prefixed preposition le, used to anchor the date formula to the exodus event rather than stating it as an independent clause.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a chain of two narrative verbs joined by the vav: va-i.ya.'Al ("and he went up") and va-i.Ya.mot ("and he died"), both qal forms that present the ascent and death as sequential, connected events — first the climb, then, at that location (Sham, "there", H8033G), the death. The subject is given with full title, 'a.ha.Ron ha-ko.Hen ("Aaron the priest"), rather than by name alone, marking his priestly office at the moment of this report.

The reason for the ascent is stated with the construct phrase 'al-pi Yehovah ("on the mouth of Yehovah," H6310I + H3068G), an idiom placing the action under Yehovah's directive without a finite verb of command — the noun pi ("mouth") functions here as the vehicle for expressing an order or instruction.

The date is not given as a simple calendar note but is built around the infinitive construct le.Tzet ("in the going out of," H3318G), governing be.nei-Yis.ra.'El ("the people of Israel") as its subject and me-'E.retz mitz.Ra.yim ("from the land of Egypt") as the point of departure. This grammatical structure ties the date of Aaron's death to the exodus event itself rather than to an independent civil calendar, so the fortieth year, fifth month, and first day are all measured from that departure.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders 'al-pi Yehovah ("on the mouth of Yehovah") as διὰ προστάγματος κυρίου ("through the command/order of the Lord"), making explicit as a noun ("command") what the Hebrew idiom expresses through the image of "mouth." The Vulgate similarly interprets the phrase as jubente Domino ("the Lord commanding"), using an ablative absolute construction rather than the Hebrew's construct-noun idiom. Both versions convey the same directive sense but do so through different grammatical devices than the Hebrew original.