נָסַע

From the study of Exodus 14:10

Range of meaning

To pull up tent pegs, break camp, set out, and travel in stages. It is the normal word for a caravan or army moving from one camp to the next. Numbers 33 lists Israel's journey as a chain of these moves.

Against the English

"Marching" (KJV, BSB, WEB) catches the military feel. YLT's "journeying" is closer to the root but sounds too gentle. The form is an ongoing participle ("was marching on"), and the subject is the single word "Egypt" with a singular verb. Nearly every English version turns this into "the Egyptians," plural.

Used elsewhere in the period

Israel "set out" (vayyis'u) from Rameses (12:37) and from Succoth (13:20). In 14:15 God commands "tell the sons of Israel to set out." In 14:19 the angel of God "set out" and moved behind Israel. Rashi reads the singular "Egypt marching" as the Egyptians coming "with one heart, like one man." He also gives a midrashic reading (a traditional Jewish interpretive story) that Israel saw the heavenly prince of Egypt coming to help them.

From the study of Exodus 14:15

Range of meaning

Its root picture is pulling up tent pegs (compare Judg 16:3, 14, where Samson pulls up a gate or a peg). From that it means to break camp and set out on the next stage of a journey. It is the standard verb of the travel lists in Exodus and Numbers: "they set out from Rameses… from Succoth" (Exod 12:37; 13:20; Num 33).

Against the English

"Go forward" (KJV, BSB, ESV, NASB, WEB) suggests a direction or an attitude. NIV "move on" and NLT "get moving" convey urgency. YLT "journey" is closest to the technical sense. None of them shows the concrete picture of a whole camp packing up.

How it drifted

"Go forward" became a sermon slogan, and the phrase now carries the sense of personal progress or pressing on in life. The Hebrew is a march order for a specific camp at a specific place.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint uses ἀναζεύγνυμι (anazeugnymi, "break camp, march off"), its regular word for nasaʿ. The Vulgate has proficiscantur ("let them set out"). The same verb runs through this chapter: Egypt is "marching (nōsēaʿ) after them" (v.10), and the angel of God and the cloud "set out (wayyissaʿ)" and move behind Israel (v.19).

From the study of Exodus 14:19

Range of meaning

The basic idea is pulling up something fixed in the ground: tent pegs (compare Isa 33:20, 'whose stakes will never be pulled up') or uprooting. From this comes the everyday travel sense: to break camp and set out on the next leg of a journey. Of an army, it means to strike camp and march.

Against the English

BSB 'withdrew… moved', KJV 'removed… went', WEB/ESV/NASB 'moved', YLT 'journeyeth'. All give the motion. None keeps the picture of a camp packing up, which is the word's home meaning in Exodus and Numbers.

Used elsewhere in the period

It is the key verb of the wilderness itinerary: 'they set out from Rameses… and camped' (Exod 12:37; 13:20; Num 33, where it occurs dozens of times). In Num 9:17-23 and 10:11-36 the people nāsaʿ exactly when the cloud lifts. The Septuagint here uses exairō, 'lift off, depart', which keeps something of the 'pulling up' idea.