Numbers 1:2

שְׂאוּ אֶת־רֹאשׁ כָּל־עֲדַת בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵל לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָם לְבֵית אֲבֹתָם בְּמִסְפַּר שֵׁמוֹת כָּל־זָכָר לְגֻלְגְּלֹתָֽם׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

שְׂא֗וּ אֶת־רֹאשׁ֙ כָּל־עֲדַ֣ת בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָ֖ם לְבֵ֣ית אֲבֹתָ֑ם בְּמִסְפַּ֣ר שֵׁמ֔וֹת כָּל־זָכָ֖ר לְגֻלְגְּלֹתָֽם׃

Greek (Septuagint)

Λάβετε ἀρχὴν πάσης συναγωγῆς Ἰσραὴλ κατὰ συγγενίας, κατ’ οἴκους πατριῶν, κατὰ ἀριθμὸν ἐξ ὀνόματος, κατὰ κεφαλὴν αὐτῶν·

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

Latin (Vulgate)

Tollite summam universæ congregationis filiorum Israël per cognationes et domos suas, et nomina singulorum, quidquid sexus est masculini

Spanish

“Haz un censo de toda la congregación de los hijos de Israel, por sus familias, por las casas de sus padres, según el número de los nombres, cada varón, uno por uno,

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Tomad el encabezamiento de toda la congregación de los hijos de Israel por sus familias, por las casas de sus padres, con la cuenta de los nombres, todos los varones por sus cabezas:

English

“ Take a census of the whole congregation of Israel by their clans and families, listing every man by name, one by one.

✦ What the text says

Summary

Numbers 1:2 opens a divine command to conduct a census of the Israelite community. The instruction specifies that the count must be organized by clans and ancestral houses, and must register every male individually by name.

Key words

se.'U ("lift up", H5375) — qal imperative, masculine plural: a direct command addressed to more than one person, literally "lift up/take" (the head-count).
roSh ("head of", H7218) — masculine singular construct, beginning a chain of construct nouns that together express "the sum/total of."
mish.pe.cho.Ta-m ("their clans", H4940 + H9028) — feminine plural construct with 3rd person masculine plural suffix, indicating the subdivision by clan groups belonging to the people just named.
mis.Par ("the number of", H4557) — masculine singular construct, introducing the criterion "by number of names."
gul.ge.lo.Ta-m ("their heads/skulls", H1538 + H9028) — feminine plural construct with suffix, an idiomatic term for counting individuals "by head."

What the text says

The verse is built almost entirely on a chain of construct nouns (roSh, 'a.Dat, be.nei, mish.pe.cho.Ta, Veit, 'a.vo.Ta, mis.Par, she.Mot, gul.ge.lo.Ta), each one governing the next in a "X of Y" relationship. This construct chain produces a single complex phrase functioning as the object of the initial imperative se.'U ("lift up," H5375): "lift up the head of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, by their clans, by the house of their ancestors, by the number of names, every male, by their heads." The verb se.'U is a Qal imperative plural, addressed to more than one recipient, setting the tone of direct command rather than narrative description.

The repeated preposition le- (H9005, "to/by") before mish.pe.cho.Ta, Veit, and gul.ge.lo.Ta marks three successive organizing categories for the census: by clan, by paternal house, and by individual head-count. The noun za.Khar ("male", H2145) is not in construct form but stands as an absolute noun modified by kol ("every", H3605), specifying that the counting criterion applies to every male member, distinguished from other family members not being enumerated here.

Differences between versions

The LXX uses Λάβετε ἀρχὴν ("take the beginning/sum"), rendering the Hebrew se.'U roSh ("lift up the head") with a Greek expression centered on ἀρχή ("beginning, sum"), differing from the literal "head-lifting" image of the Hebrew. The Vulgate's Tollite summam ("take the sum") mirrors this same abstraction toward "total/sum" rather than "head." The Hebrew idiom roSh ("head") for a census count is thus rendered by both LXX and Vulgate with terms meaning "sum" rather than a literal anatomical reference, while the RV1909 and BSB use "encabezamiento" and "census" respectively, likewise moving away from a literal "head" translation.

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