| 2. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with vayyarev {וַיָּ֤רֶב | way-yā-reḇ} ‘and he quarreled’, a wayyiqtol verb initiating the narrative, followed by the subject haam {הָעָם֙ | hā-ʿām} ‘the people’. The prepositional phrase ʿim-mōšeh {עִם־מֹשֶׁ֔ה | ʿim-mō-šeh} ‘with Moses’ marks the object of contention. The subsequent wayyiqtol vayyōmerū {וַיֹּ֣אמְרוּ | way-yō-mer-rû} ‘and they said’ introduces the imperative clause tenu-lanū {תְּנוּ־לָ֥נוּ | tə-nû-lā-nû} ‘give to us’, completed by mayim {מַ֖יִם | ma-yim} ‘water’ and the coordinated imperfect ve-nishteh {וְנִשְׁתֶּ֑ה | wə-niš-teh} ‘and we will drink’. A second wayyiqtol vayyōmer {וַיֹּ֤אמֶר | way-yō-mer} ‘and he said’ shifts to Moses addressing lahem {לָהֶם֙ | lā-hem} ‘to them’. Moses’ speech features parallel interrogatives mah-terivun {מַה־תְּרִיבוּן֙ | mah-tə-rî-vûn} ‘why do you quarrel’ with im-mā-dî {עִמָּדִ֔י | ʿim-mā-dî} ‘with me’, and mah-tenasūn {מַה־תְּנַסּ֖וּן | mah-tə-nas-sûn} ‘why do you test’ with et-Yahweh {אֶת־יְהוָֽה | ʾeṯ-Yə-hō-wāh} ‘the LORD’. This parallelism underscores that challenging Moses equates to testing the divine provision. In translation, past tense preserves the narrative flow of the wayyiqtol forms, while rendering the Hebrew imperfects as present-tense questions maintains their urgent, ongoing force. |