Numbers 33:7

Summary

Numbers 33:7 records one stage of the Israelites' wilderness itinerary: departure from Etham, a turn toward Pi-hahiroth (located opposite Baal-zephon), and encampment before Migdol. The verse is built entirely on a chain of narrative verbs marking sequential movement.

Key words

• va-yis'u ("and they set out", H5265) — plural narrative verb, subject "they" (the people), opening the sequence of travel.
• va-yashov ("and he turned back", H7725G) — narrative verb in the singular, despite the plural subject implied by the surrounding verbs; grammatically distinct from yis'u and yachanu.
• asher ("which/that", H0834A) — relative particle introducing a clause that identifies the location of Pi-hahiroth relative to Baal-zephon.
• penei ("face of", H6440G) — masculine plural construct noun, used twice (lines 12 and 18) to express spatial relation ("in front of," "before").
• va-yachanu ("and they encamped", H2583) — plural narrative verb, closing the sequence with the stationary act of camping.

What the text says

The verse follows the standard itinerary pattern of Numbers 33: a chain of vav-consecutive narrative verbs (va-yis'u, va-yashov, va-yachanu) marks successive actions — departure, a turn, and encampment. Two of these verbs, yis'u and yachanu, are plural, matching the collective people as subject. The middle verb, yashov ("he turned back", H7725G), is singular, which is a notable grammatical feature: the text does not explicitly restate a singular subject, and the shift in verbal number is preserved in the Hebrew without further explanation.

The location of Pi-hahiroth is not given as an isolated toponym but is defined relationally: the relative clause introduced by asher ("which", H0834A) states that it is "upon the penei ('face of', H6440G) Baal-zephon" — a construct expression meaning "in front of" or "facing" that location. The same construct noun penei recurs at the end of the verse to describe the position of the encampment relative to Migdol ("before Migdol"). This repetition of the same grammatical construction (construct plural of "face") ties the two geographic references together stylistically, even though the toponyms themselves differ.

Differences between versions

The LXX gives the place-name as Bouthan where the Hebrew has Etam ("Etham", H0864), a divergence in the toponym itself. Where the Hebrew verb is yashov ("he turned back", H7725G), the LXX instead uses parenebalon ("they encamped"), aligning that clause with an encampment verb rather than a turning motion. The Vulgate opens with Inde egressi venerunt ("from there, having gone out, they came"), which does not preserve a separate "turning back" verb and does not name Etham within this verse, differing structurally from both the Hebrew and the LXX.