Exodus 18:21

וְאַתָּה תֶחֱזֶה מִכָּל־הָעָם אַנְשֵׁי־חַיִל יִרְאֵי אֱלֹהִים אַנְשֵׁי אֱמֶת שֹׂנְאֵי בָצַע וְשַׂמְתָּ עֲלֵהֶם שָׂרֵי אֲלָפִים שָׂרֵי מֵאוֹת שָׂרֵי חֲמִשִּׁים וְשָׂרֵי עֲשָׂרֹֽת׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וְאַתָּ֣ה תֶחֱזֶ֣ה מִכָּל־הָ֠עָם אַנְשֵׁי־חַ֜יִל יִרְאֵ֧י אֱלֹהִ֛ים אַנְשֵׁ֥י אֱמֶ֖ת שֹׂ֣נְאֵי בָ֑צַע וְשַׂמְתָּ֣ עֲלֵהֶ֗ם שָׂרֵ֤י אֲלָפִים֙ שָׂרֵ֣י מֵא֔וֹת שָׂרֵ֥י חֲמִשִּׁ֖ים וְשָׂרֵ֥י עֲשָׂרֹֽת׃

Greek (Septuagint)

καὶ σὺ σεαυτῷ σκέψαι ἀπὸ παντὸς τοῦ λαοῦ ἄνδρας δυνατούς, θεοσεβεῖς, ἄνδρας δικαίους, μισοῦντας ὑπερηφανίαν, καὶ καταστήσεις ἐπ’ αὐτῶν χιλιάρχους καὶ ἑκατοντάρχους καὶ πεντηκοντάρχους καὶ δεδαδάρχους,

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

Provide autem de omni plebe viros potentes, et timentes Deum, in quibus sit veritas, et qui oderint avaritiam, et constitue ex eis tribunos, et centuriones, et quinquagenarios, et decanos,

Spanish

Pero al mismo tiempo, escoge de entre todo el pueblo a hombres capaces y que respeten a Dios, hombres honestos que no se dejen sobornar. Nómbralos líderes de grupos de mil, de cien, de cincuenta y de diez personas.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Además inquiere tú de entre todo el pueblo varones de virtud, temerosos de Dios, varones de verdad, que aborrezcan la avaricia; y constituirás á éstos sobre ellos caporales sobre mil, sobre ciento, sobre cincuenta y sobre diez.

English

Furthermore, select capable men from among the people —God-fearing, trustworthy men who are averse to dishonest gain. Appoint them over the people as leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens.

✦ What the text says

Summary

Moses is instructed to select capable men from the people to serve as leaders under him, based on specific moral and characterological qualities. These men are then to be appointed over groups of a thousand, a hundred, fifty, and ten people, forming a hierarchical structure of authority.

Key words

techezeh ("you will provide/see", H2372) — qal imperfect, expressing an action Moses is to carry out, here in the sense of discerning or selecting.
anshei chayil ("men of ability", H0582 + H2428G) — construct chain, literally "men of strength/capacity", describing the first required trait.
yir'ei Elohim ("fearers of God", H3373 + H0430G) — construct participle plus noun, denoting a disposition toward God rather than a single event.
son'ei vatza ("haters of unjust gain", H8130 + H1215) — construct participle describing an ongoing attitude of rejection toward improper profit.
samta ("you will appoint", H7760H) — sequential perfect, continuing the narrative chain begun by techezeh, marking the next required action.

What the text says

The verse is built as two linked commands joined by the sequential structure ve-...techezeh ("and you will provide/see") followed by ve-samta ("and you will appoint"), a common Hebrew narrative pattern where an imperfect verb sets the initial instruction and a sequential perfect verb (vav + perfect) continues it as a resulting or subsequent action. Between these two verbs lies a chain of construct phrases stacking descriptions of the required men: anshei chayil ("men of ability"), yir'ei Elohim ("fearers of God"), anshei emet ("men of truth/faithfulness"), and son'ei vatza ("haters of unjust gain"). Each phrase uses construct or participial forms, which in Hebrew allow qualities to be piled up appositionally without additional conjunctions, producing a dense list of criteria rather than separate sentences.

The second half of the verse repeats the noun sarei ("officials of", H8269) four times, each time in construct with a numeral (alafim "thousands," me'ot "hundreds," chamishim "fifties," asarot "tens"). This repetition creates a structured, escalating hierarchy purely through construct chains, without needing additional verbs to indicate rank levels.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders techezeh ("you will provide/see") with σκέψαι ("observe, select"), a semantically related but distinct verb of scrutiny rather than provision. Where the Hebrew has son'ei vatza ("haters of unjust gain"), the LXX reads μισοῦντας ὑπερηφανίαν ("hating pride"), a divergence in the specific vice named. The Vulgate’s "in quibus sit veritas" ("in whom there is truth") paraphrases the construct phrase anshei emet ("men of truth") as a relative clause rather than a construct noun pairing.

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.