Numbers 9:5

Summary

Numbers 9:5 reports that the Israelites performed the Passover in the wilderness of Sinai, on the fourteenth day of the first month, at the time called "between the evenings," carrying out the observance exactly as Yehovah had commanded Moses.

Key words

• ya'aSu ("they observed/did", H6213H) — qal verb with narrative vav, opening the verse as a continuation of prior narrative action; the subject "they" refers to the Israelites, named explicitly only at the end of the verse.
• Pesach ("passover", H6453) — definite singular noun (with the article ha, H9009), the direct object of the first verb, marked by the object particle 'et (H0853).
• bein ha'arBayim ("between the evenings", H0996G + H6153) — bein in construct form governing the dual noun 'arBayim ("evenings," a paired/dual form), specifying a time frame rather than a single moment.
• tzivVah ("he had commanded", H6680) — piel perfect verb, intensive stem denoting a formal, authoritative command, completed prior to the main narrative action.
• ken 'aSu ("so they did", H3651C + H6213A) — adverb ken ("so") paired with a second occurrence of the verb "to do" (qal perfect), forming a closing statement that mirrors the opening verb ya'aSu.

What the text says

The verse is structured as a narrative report framed by two verbs built from the same root H6213 ("to do/make"): it opens with va-ya'aSu ("and they did/observed") and closes with ken 'aSu ("so they did"), creating an envelope structure that frames the entire verse as an act of compliance. Between these two verbs, the text specifies four elements: the object performed (ha-Pesach, "the passover"), the temporal setting (month, day, and the time phrase bein ha'arbayim), the geographic setting (midbar Sinai, "wilderness of Sinai," in construct form), and the standard of comparison (ke-khol 'asher tzivvah Yehovah 'et-Mosheh, "according to all that Yehovah had commanded Moses").

The time phrase bein ha'arbayim uses the dual noun 'arbayim ("evenings"), which the Hebrew treats as a plural/dual time period rather than a single point, though English and Spanish translations render it as "twilight," "entre las dos tardes," or "por la tarde." The verb tzivvah is in the piel stem, marking an intensive or formally authoritative act of commanding, and stands in the perfect (completed) aspect, indicating that Yehovah's command preceded the Israelites' action described by the surrounding verbs.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders bein ha'arbayim as "ad vesperam" ("toward evening"), collapsing the dual "evenings" into a single time reference, similar to the LXX's use of "τῇ...ἡμέρᾳ" without an explicit dual evening phrase in the provided text. The Vulgate also adds "tempore suo" ("in its time"), a phrase not present in the Hebrew text as given. The LXX text provided appears to omit an explicit rendering of midbar Sinai as a construct phrase, instead repeating "ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ" without clearly pairing it with "Sinai" in the fragment given.