Numbers 1:17

Summary

Numbers 1:17 reports that Moses and Aaron took the men who had been specifically named for a task — described in the surrounding census context. The verse marks the transition from the naming of the tribal leaders (previous verses) to their being formally taken up by Moses and Aaron.

Key words

• yiqqach ("he took", H3947G) — qal narrative verb, continuing the story sequence ("and then he took").
• 'et ("", H0853) — direct object marker, signaling that ha'anashim is the grammatical object of yiqqach.
• ha'anashim ("the men", H0582) — masculine plural noun with definite article, referring back to specific individuals already introduced.
• niqqevu ("they had been designated", H5344A) — niphal (passive) perfect of a root meaning "to specify/pierce/mark," here in its extended sense of being singled out; the perfect aspect marks this as a completed action prior to the taking.
• bishemot ("by names", H8034) — feminine plural noun with prefixed preposition be, indicating the means by which the designation occurred.

What the text says

The sentence opens with the narrative va ("and", H9001) attached to yiqqach, continuing the chain of narrated events typical of Biblical Hebrew storytelling. The subject is compound: Mosheh ("Moses", H4872) ve'Aharon ("and Aaron", H0175), joined by the simple conjunction ve. The object is introduced by the marker 'et (H0853), which has no independent meaning but flags ha'anashim ha'elleh ("the men, these", H0582 + H0428) as the thing taken.

This noun phrase is further specified by a relative clause: 'asher niqqevu beshemot ("who had been designated by names"). The verb niqqevu is niphal perfect — passive voice, completed aspect — so the men are presented as the recipients of a prior action rather than agents. The preposition be on shemot ("names", H8034) indicates the instrument or means: the designation happened "by" or "through" names, i.e., they were specified individually rather than as an anonymous group. The perfect tense of niqqevu places this naming as prior to and separate from the taking performed by Moses and Aaron in the main clause.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate adds a phrase not present in the Hebrew or the LXX: cum omni vulgi multitudine ("with all the multitude of the people"). Neither the Hebrew TAHOT text nor the LXXSWETE Greek text contains any equivalent to "multitude of the people" — the Hebrew and Greek both restrict the object to "these men" who were named. The LXX renders niqqevu beshemot as τοὺς ἄνα ἐξ ὀνόματος ("one by one by name"), using a distributive construction, where the Hebrew uses a niphal passive verb form focused on the state of having been designated.