Discovery BoxNumbers 14:13-14 
Context14:13 Moses said to the Lord, “When the Egyptians hear 1 it – for you brought up this people by your power from among them – 14:14 then they will tell it to the inhabitants 2 of this land. They have heard that you, Lord, are among this people, that you, Lord, are seen face to face, 3 that your cloud stands over them, and that you go before them by day in a pillar of cloud and in a pillar of fire by night.
1 tn The construction is unusual in that we have here a perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive with no verb before it to establish the time sequence. The context requires that this be taken as a vav (ו) consecutive. It actually forms the protasis for the next verse, and would best be rendered “when…then they will say.”
2 tn The singular participle is to be taken here as a collective, representing all the inhabitants of the land.
3 tn “Face to face” is literally “eye to eye.” It only occurs elsewhere in Isa 52:8. This expresses the closest communication possible.
