Numbers 20:5

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Why have you made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in to this evil place? it is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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וְרִמּ֔וֹן

rimmôwn

H7416

“and · pomegranate”

Conjunction + Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute

Appears 32× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Exodus 28:33

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H7426

TWOT: 2170

pomegranate - as tree - as fruit - as pomegranate shaped ornaments in temple

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

18: words
17: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Shared distinctive vocabulary

וְרִמּ֔וֹן pomegranate H7416 occurs in 25 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

3 verbs
8 nouns
1 adjective
1 pronoun
1 preposition
4 particles

Verb forms

הֶֽעֱלִיתֻ֨נוּ֙ Hiphil · Perfect
לְהָבִ֣יא Hiphil · Infinitive Construct
לִשְׁתּֽוֹת Qal · Infinitive Construct

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

הַמָּק֥וֹם place H4725 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 41 words from the Hebrew and 39 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 18 Hebrew tokens and 29 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Numbers 20:5 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Numbers 16:14 Moreover you haven't brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, nor given us inheritance of fields and vineyards: will you put out the eyes of these men? we won't come up.
Deuteronomy 8:15 who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, [in which were] fiery serpents and scorpions, and thirsty ground where was no water; who brought you forth water out of the rock of flint;
Nehemiah 9:21 Yes, forty years did you sustain them in the wilderness, [and] they lacked nothing; their clothes didn't grow old, and their feet didn't swell.
Jeremiah 2:2 Go, and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says Yahweh, I remember for you the kindness of your youth, the love of your weddings; how you went after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.
Jeremiah 2:6 Neither said they, Where is Yahweh who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought and of the shadow of death, through a land that none passed through, and where no man lived?
Ezekiel 20:36 Like as I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I enter into judgment with you, says the Lord Yahweh.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Numbers 20:5 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וְלָמָ֤ה הֶֽעֱלִיתֻ֨נוּ֙ מִמִּצְרַ֔יִם לְהָבִ֣יא אֹתָ֔נוּ אֶל הַמָּק֥וֹם הָרָ֖ע הַזֶּ֑ה לֹ֣א מְק֣וֹם זֶ֗רַע וּתְאֵנָ֤ה וְגֶ֨פֶן֙ וְרִמּ֔וֹן וּמַ֥יִם אַ֖יִן לִשְׁתּֽוֹת

Why have you made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in to this evil place? it is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Numbers 20:5 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ἵνα τίς οὗτος ἀναἄγω ἐγώ ἐκ αἴγυπτος παραγίγνομαι εἰς ὁ τόπος ὁ πονηρός οὗτος τόπος οὗ οὐ σπείρω οὐδέ συκῆ οὐδέ ἄμπελος οὐδέ ῥοά οὐδέ ὕδωρ εἰμί πίνω

And therefore is this? You⌃ have brought us up out of Egypt, that we should come into this evil place; a place where there is no sowing, neither figs, nor vines, nor pomegranates, neither is there water to drink.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

On this verse, The Pulpit Commentary discusses the Septuagint’s reading. Read the note in Commentary ↓

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וּלְמָא אַסֶקְתּוּנָא מִמִצְרַיִם לְאַיְתָאָה יָתָנָא לְאַתְּרָא בִישָׁא הָדֵין לָא אֲתַר כְּשַׁר לְבֵית זְרַע וְאַף לָא תְּאֵנִין וְגוּפְנִין וְרִמוֹנִין וּמַיָא לֵית לְמִשְׁתֵּי

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וּלְמָא אַסֵיקְתּוּנָא מִמִצְרַיִם לְאַיְתָאָה יָתָן לְאַתְרָא בִּישָׁא הָדֵין לָא אֲתַר כְּשַׁר לְבֵית דְרַע וְאוּף לָא לְמִנְצַב תֵּינִין וְגוּפְנִין וְרוֹמָנִין וּמוֹי לֵית לְמִשְׁתֵּי

And why didst thou make us come up out of Mizraim., to bring us to this evil place, a place which is not fit for sowing, or for planting fig trees, or vines, or pomegranates, and where there is no water to drink?

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Numbers 20:5 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Num 20:5 And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in unto this evil place? it [is] no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither [is] there any water to drink.

Ver. 5. Neither is there any water to drink.] Thirst, a most eager appetite, enrageth their affections, and makes them thus hot with Moses.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt,.... They represent that affair in such a light, as if they were forced out of Egypt by Moses and Aaron against their wills; or at least were overpersuaded by them to do what they had no inclination to, namely, to come out of Egypt; though they were in the utmost bondage and slavery, and their lives were made bitter by it, and they cried by reason of their oppression, and the hardships they endured; but this was all forgot. Aben Ezra says, it is a strange word which is here used, which shows the confusion they were in:

to bring us unto this evil place; dry and barren, where there were neither food nor drink, as follows:

it is no place of seed; or fit for sowing, as the Targum of Jonathan, any sort of seed, as wheat, barley, rye, rice, &c.

or of figs, or vines, or pomegranates; it is not a soil fit to plant such trees in, nor would they grow were they planted:

neither is there any water to drink; for them and their cattle, and therefore must be a miserable place for so large a body of people to subsist in.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

5. No place of seed — That is, No place for sowing seed. We call attention to the fact that in this complaint there is no mention of a lack of pasturage. They murmur because there are no arable lands, and delicious fruits, and abundant waters. Travellers agree in the opinion that before the wilderness was stripped of its trees for making charcoal for Egyptian markets, its numerous ravines were covered with grass. Revelation F.W. Holland, after spending many months in wandering on foot over the Sinaitic Peninsula, says: “It is wonderful how apparent difficulties melt away as one’s acquaintance with the country increases. I see no difficulty in the provision of sufficient pasturage for the flocks and herds if, as I have shown, there are good reasons for supposing the rainfall was in former days larger than it is at present. I have several times’ seen the whole face of the country, especially in the wadies, marvelously changed in appearance by a single shower. A slight increase to the present rainfall would produce an enormous addition to the present amount of pasturage.”

Pomegranates — Recent researches have discovered this fruit on Egyptian sculptures, thus proving that this native of Asia was cultivated in Egypt at a very early date. As its name indicates, it is a “grained apple,” red when ripe, and grows on a bush.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Pulpit Commentary

No place of seed. Septuagint, topov ou ou speiretai . A place where there is no sowing, and therefore no harvest.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Scofield Reference Notes

C. I. Scofield

water

(See Scofield "Num 20:8").

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Numbers, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 18 words (17 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is rimmôwn (“pomegranate”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word rimmôwn carries the sense “pomegranate.” How does it shape the verse?
How does Exodus 28:33, which shares the word «pomegranate», read alongside this verse?
What does the repetition of “place” (2× in this one verse) do in this verse?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
«הֶֽעֱלִיתֻ֨נוּ֙» is a Hiphil Perfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and John Gill's Exposition read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 18 Hebrew ↔ 29 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 16 words in this verse.
“place” occurs 2× in this single verse.
17 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 18 words in this verse.