Numbers 12:8

American Standard Version (1901)

with him will I speak mouth to mouth, even manifestly, and not in dark speeches; and the form of Jehovah shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant, against Moses?

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

פֶּ֣ה אֶל־פֶּ֞ה אֲדַבֶּר־בּ֗וֹ וּמַרְאֶה֙ וְלֹ֣א בְחִידֹ֔ת וּתְמֻנַ֥ת יְהוָ֖ה יַבִּ֑יט וּמַדּ֙וּעַ֙ לֹ֣א יְרֵאתֶ֔ם לְדַבֵּ֖ר בְּעַבְדִּ֥י בְמֹשֶֽׁה׃

Transliteration

Peh ʾel-peh ʾădabbēr-bō ūmarʾeh wə-lōʾ ḇəḥîdōt ūtəmūnat YHWH yabbîṭ ūmaddūaʿ lōʾ yərēʾtem lədabbēr bə-ʿaḇdî ḇə-Mōšeh

Grammar Details

• *Peh*: masculine singular noun - 'mouth'
• *ʾel-peh*: preposition + masculine singular noun - 'to mouth'
• *ʾădabbēr-bō*: Piel imperfect, 1st person singular + preposition + 3rd person masculine singular suffix - 'I speak with him'
• *ūmarʾeh*: conjunction + masculine singular noun - 'and appearance'
• *wə-lōʾ*: conjunction + negative particle - 'and not'
• *ḇəḥîdōt*: preposition + feminine plural noun - 'in riddles'
• *ūtəmūnat*: conjunction + feminine singular construct - 'and form of'
• *YHWH*: proper noun - 'the LORD'
• *yabbîṭ*: Hiphil imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular - 'he beholds'
• *ūmaddūaʿ*: conjunction + interrogative - 'and why'
• *lōʾ*: negative particle - 'not'
• *yərēʾtem*: Qal perfect, 2nd person masculine plural - 'you feared'
• *lədabbēr*: preposition + Piel infinitive construct - 'to speak'
• *bə-ʿaḇdî*: preposition + masculine singular noun + 1st person singular suffix - 'against my servant'
• *ḇə-Mōšeh*: preposition + proper noun - 'against Moses'

Word Meanings

• *Peh* *ʾel-peh*: mouth to mouth/face to face
• *ūmarʾeh*: and appearance/and visibly/clearly
• *ḇəḥîdōt*: in riddles/in dark sayings
• *təmūnat*: form/likeness/manifestation
• *yabbîṭ*: he beholds/he looks upon/he sees
• *yərēʾtem*: you feared/you were afraid

Referenced Verses

• Deut 34:10 : 10 And there hath not arisen a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom Jehovah knew face to face,
• 1 Cor 13:12 : 12 For now we see in a mirror, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know fully even as also I was fully known.
• Exod 33:11 : 11 And Jehovah spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his minister Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the Tent.
• Exod 24:10-11 : 10 and they saw the God of Israel; and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and as it were the very heaven for clearness. 11 And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: and they beheld God, and did eat and drink.
• Exod 33:23 : 23 and I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see my back; but my face shall not be seen.
• Ps 49:4 : 4 I will incline mine ear to a parable: I will open my dark saying upon the harp.
• Isa 40:18 : 18 To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?
• Isa 46:5 : 5 To whom will ye like me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be like?
• Ezek 17:2 : 2 Son of man, put forth a riddle, and speak a parable unto the house of Israel;
• Ezek 20:49 : 49 Then said I, Ah Lord Jehovah! they say of me, Is he not a speaker of parables?
• Matt 13:35 : 35 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world. [
• Luke 10:16 : 16 He that heareth you heareth me; and he that rejecteth you rejecteth me; and he that rejecteth me rejecteth him that sent me.
• John 1:18 : 18 No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared [him] .
• John 14:7-9 : 7 If ye had known me, ye would have known my Father also: from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. 8 Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. 9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and dost thou not know me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; how sayest thou, Show us the Father? 10 Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I say unto you I speak not from myself: but the Father abiding in me doeth his works.
• John 15:15 : 15 No longer do I call you servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I heard from my Father, I have made known unto you.
• John 15:24 : 24 If I had not done among them the works which none other did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.
• Exod 34:5-7 : 5 And Jehovah descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of Jehovah. 6 And Jehovah passed by before him, and proclaimed, Jehovah, Jehovah, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness and truth; 7 keeping lovingkindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin; and that will by no means clear [the guilty], visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation.
• 2 Cor 3:18 : 18 But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit.
• 2 Cor 4:4-6 : 4 in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn [upon them] . 5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. 6 Seeing it is God, that said, Light shall shine out of darkness, who shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
• Ps 17:15 : 15 As for me, I shall behold thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with [beholding] thy form.
• 1 Thess 4:8 : 8 Therefore he that rejecteth, rejecteth not man, but God, who giveth his Holy Spirit unto you.
• 1 Tim 6:16 : 16 who only hath immortality, dwelling in light unapproachable; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom [be] honor and power eternal. Amen.
• 2 Pet 2:10 : 10 but chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of defilement, and despise dominion. Daring, self-willed, they tremble not to rail at dignities:
• Jude 1:8 : 8 Yet in like manner these also in their dreamings defile the flesh, and set at nought dominion, and rail at dignities.
• Deut 4:15 : 15 Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of form on the day that Jehovah spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire.
• Heb 1:3 : 3 who being the effulgence of his glory, and the very image of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had made purification of sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
• Col 1:15 : 15 who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation;
• Exod 34:30 : 30 And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him.
• Num 14:14 : 14 and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that thou Jehovah art in the midst of this people; for thou Jehovah art seen face to face, and thy cloud standeth over them, and thou goest before them, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night.
• Exod 20:4 : 4 Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any likeness [of any thing] that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
• Exod 33:19 : 19 And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and will proclaim the name of Jehovah before thee; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.