Numbers 9:21
וְיֵשׁ אֲשֶׁר־יִהְיֶה הֶֽעָנָן מֵעֶרֶב עַד־בֹּקֶר וְנַעֲלָה הֶֽעָנָן בַּבֹּקֶר וְנָסָעוּ אוֹ יוֹמָם וָלַיְלָה וְנַעֲלָה הֶעָנָן וְנָסָֽעוּ׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וְיֵ֞שׁ אֲשֶׁר־יִהְיֶ֤ה הֶֽעָנָן֙ מֵעֶ֣רֶב עַד־בֹּ֔קֶר וְנַעֲלָ֧ה הֶֽעָנָ֛ן בַּבֹּ֖קֶר וְנָסָ֑עוּ א֚וֹ יוֹמָ֣ם וָלַ֔יְלָה וְנַעֲלָ֥ה הֶעָנָ֖ן וְנָסָֽעוּ׃
καὶ ἔσται ὅταν γένηται ἡ νεφέλη ἀφ’ ἑσπέρας ἕως πρωί, καὶ ἀναβῇ ἡ νεφέλη τὸ πρωί, καὶ ἀπαροῦσιν, ἡμέρας ἢ νυκτός.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Si fuisset nubes a vespere usque mane, et statim diluculo tabernaculum reliquisset, proficiscebantur: et si post diem et noctem recessisset, dissipabant tentoria.
A veces la nube se quedaba desde la tarde hasta la mañana, y cuando se levantaba por la mañana, ellos avanzaban; ya fuera de día o de noche, cuando la nube se levantaba, ellos se ponían en marcha.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y cuando era que la nube se detenía desde la tarde hasta la mañana, cuando á la mañana la nube se levantaba, ellos partían: ó si había estado el día, y á la noche la nube se levantaba, entonces partían.
Sometimes the cloud remained only from evening until morning, and when it lifted in the morning, they would set out. Whether it was by day or by night, when the cloud was taken up, they would set out.
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse describes a specific case within the larger pattern of Israel's movements guided by the cloud: when the cloud remained only from evening until morning, its lifting at dawn signaled the people to set out, whether that departure occurred during the day or at night.
Key words
- Yesh ("there [was]", H3426) — introduces a case or circumstance, often translated "sometimes" or "there were times when," marking this as one instance among several patterns described in the surrounding verses.
- yih.Yeh ("it was", H1961) — qal imperfect of the verb "to be," here used to describe the ongoing state of the cloud remaining in place; combined with 'a.Sher ("that/who", H0834A) it forms the clause "that the cloud would be."
- na.'a.Lah ("it was taken up", H5927H) — niphal (passive) sequential perfect, appearing twice (lines 12, 24); the passive form indicates the cloud's lifting is presented without specifying an agent, simply as an event that occurs.
- na.Sa.'u ("they set out", H5265) — qal sequential perfect, appearing twice (lines 18, 28); the plural form refers to the people's collective departure, grammatically dependent on the prior lifting of the cloud.
- yo.Mam ("by day", H3119) and Lay.lah ("night", H3915) — paired adverb and noun joined by 'o ("or", H0176A), forming a merism that covers any time, day or night.
What the text says
The Hebrew sentence is built as a chain of sequential perfects (ve-consecutive forms) following an initial "there was" (Yesh) construction. This creates a repetitive narrative rhythm: the cloud remains (yih.Yeh), then is lifted (na.'a.Lah), then the people set out (na.Sa.'u). This three-part sequence occurs twice in the verse, with the second occurrence adding the temporal qualifier "whether by day or night" ('o yo.Mam va.Lay.lah), indicating that the timing of the cloud's lifting — not a fixed schedule — determined when the people moved.
The repetition of na.'a.Lah... na.Sa.'u (cloud lifted → they set out) within a single verse reinforces the causal and immediate relationship between the cloud's movement and the people's departure: the passive verb form for the cloud's lifting contrasts with the active verb form for the people's departure, structurally placing the cloud's action as the trigger and the people's response as consequence.
Differences between versions
The Vulgate (VULCLEM) adds explanatory material not present in the Hebrew word-by-word data, such as "statim diluculo tabernaculum reliquisset" ("immediately at dawn they would leave the tabernacle") and "dissipabant tentoria" ("they would take down the tents"), specifying actions (leaving the tabernacle, dismantling tents) that are not explicit in the Hebrew text's verbs na.'a.Lah or na.Sa.'u. The LXX (LXXSWETE) renders the sequence more closely to the Hebrew structure, using ἀναβῇ ("it goes up") for na.'a.Lah and ἀπαροῦσιν ("they will depart") for na.Sa.'u, without the added interpretive details found in the Vulgate.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.