Numbers 9:22

Summary

The verse describes the variable duration of the cloud's presence over the tabernacle — whether two days, a month, or many days — and states that as long as it remained, the Israelites stayed camped, but when it lifted, they set out on their journey.

Key words

• ha'arikh ("made long", H0748) — hiphil (causative) infinitive from the root meaning "to be long," indicating the cloud itself caused the duration to extend; the causative form frames the cloud as the active agent controlling time.
• he'anan ("the cloud", H6051) — masculine singular noun with definite article, the subject of the extending action described by ha'arikh.
• lishkon ("to dwell", H7931) — qal infinitive expressing purpose or manner, "in dwelling," describing how the cloud remained over the tabernacle.
• yachanu ("they encamped", H2583) — qal imperfect, third person masculine plural, denoting an ongoing or repeated action tied to the cloud's presence.
• he'alot ("was taken up", H5927) — niphal (passive) infinitive, marking the cloud's lifting as something that happens to it rather than an action it performs, contrasting with the active ha'arikh.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with a series of time expressions joined by 'ov ("or", H0176A): yomayim ("two days", H3117G dual), chodesh ("a month", H2320G), and yamim ("days", H3117G plural). These are governed by the temporal clause behaʼarikh he'anan ("when the cloud made long"), using the hiphil infinitive construction with the preposition be- ("when/in"). This grammar places the cloud as the causative subject of duration — the text does not simply say the cloud "stayed" but that it "caused to be long," giving the cloud an active grammatical role.

The following infinitive lishkon ("to dwell") plus the prepositional phrase 'alav ("over it," referring to the tabernacle) describes the manner of the cloud's remaining. The main clause then shifts to finite verbs: yachanu ("they encamped") and lo yissa'u ("they did not set out"), both qal imperfect plural, describing the Israelites' sustained inaction paired with the cloud's continued presence. The final clause uses a niphal infinitive, he'alot ("in its being taken up"), marking the cloud's departure as a passive event, followed again by yissa'u ("they set out"), the same finite verb repeated to show the symmetrical response: cloud lifts, people move.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders the three time expressions as "biduo aut uno mense vel longiori tempore" ("two days, or one month, or a longer time"), interpreting the plural yamim ("days", H3117G) as an indefinite extended period rather than a separate count of "days." The RV1909 similarly renders the final term as "un año" ("a year"), diverging from the Hebrew yamim ("days"), which does not specify a year. The LXX text provided is fragmentary, showing only "μηνός... λοῦσιν οἱ υἱοὶ Ἰσραὴλ καὶ οὐ μὴ ἀπάρωσιν" ("...of a month... the sons of Israel shall camp and shall not set out"), preserving the negated future verb corresponding to lo yissa'u but without enough text to compare the full list of time expressions.