Numbers 1:21

Summary

The verse gives the census total for the tribe of Reuben: 46,500 men. It records the outcome of the enrollment procedure described earlier in the chapter, stating the specific number attributed to this tribe.

Key words

• pequdei ("enrolled [men]", H6485A) — qal passive participle, masculine plural construct; refers to those who have been counted/mustered, in construct form linking to the following suffix ("their enrolled ones").
• Hem ("their", H9028) — pronominal suffix attached to the participle, indicating possession: "their enrolled [men]," i.e., the men enrolled belonging to the tribe group.
• matteh ("[the] tribe of", H4294H) — masculine singular construct noun, meaning "staff" or "tribe," here in construct relation to the following proper name, forming "tribe of Reuben."
• shishah ("[were] six", H8337) and 'arba'im ("forty", H0705) — cardinal numbers combined to form "forty-six," modifying the noun 'elef ("thousand", H0505G).
• chamesh ("five", H2568) — cardinal number in construct form, joined with me'ot ("hundreds", H3967), a feminine plural noun, together forming "five hundred."

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a nominal clause without an explicit verb "to be": pequdei-hem le-matteh Re'uven ("their enrolled [men], of the tribe of Reuben") functions as the subject, and the numerical sequence shishah ve-'arba'im 'elef va-chamesh me'ot ("six and forty thousand and five hundred") functions as the predicate, giving the total count. The construct chain pequdei-hem ("enrolled-ones-of-them") ties the participle directly to the tribal reference that follows, so the phrase reads as "the enrolled-of-them belonging to the tribe of Reuben."

The number itself is expressed through sequential addition: shishah ("six") plus 'arba'im ("forty") forming forty-six, then multiplied conceptually by 'elef ("thousand"), and finally chamesh me'ot ("five hundred") added as a separate unit joined by the conjunction va- ("and"). This step-by-step additive structure — six, and forty, thousand, and five, hundreds — is typical of Biblical Hebrew numerical syntax, where large numbers are built by stringing smaller units together with conjunctions rather than using a single compound numeral as in English.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (quadraginta sex millia quingenti, "forty-six thousand five hundred") and the Septuagint (ἓξ καὶ τεσσεράκοντα χιλιάδες καὶ φ΄, "six and forty thousand and five hundred") both preserve the same numerical total as the Hebrew, though the Vulgate omits any equivalent for pequdei-hem ("their enrolled [men]") and le-matteh Re'uven ("of the tribe of Reuben"), since these elements were already stated in the preceding verse's context within that version's phrasing. The LXX renders the opening phrase as ἡ ἐπισκοπὴ αὐτῶν ("their numbering/oversight"), using a noun distinct in root sense from the Hebrew participial construction pequdei-hem, though conveying a comparable idea of an official count.