Numbers 1:28
לִבְנֵי יִשָּׂשכָר תּוֹלְדֹתָם לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָם לְבֵית אֲבֹתָם בְּמִסְפַּר שֵׁמֹת מִבֶּן עֶשְׂרִים שָׁנָה וָמַעְלָה כֹּל יֹצֵא צָבָֽא׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
לִבְנֵ֣י יִשָּׂשכָ֔ר תּוֹלְדֹתָ֥ם לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָ֖ם לְבֵ֣ית אֲבֹתָ֑ם בְּמִסְפַּ֣ר שֵׁמֹ֗ת מִבֶּ֨ן עֶשְׂרִ֤ים שָׁנָה֙ וָמַ֔עְלָה כֹּ֖ל יֹצֵ֥א צָבָֽא׃
Τοῖς υἱοῖς Ζαβουλὼν κατὰ συγγενίας κατὰ δήμους αὐτῶν, κατ’ οἴκους πατριῶν αὐτῶν, κατὰ ὀνομάτων αὐτῶν, κατὰ κεφαλὴν αὐτῶν, πάντα ἀρσενικὰ ἀπὸ εἰκοσαετοῦς καὶ ἐπάνω, πᾶς ὁ ἐκπορευόμενος ἐν τῇ δυνάμει·
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
De filiis Issachar, per generationes et familias ac domos cognationum suarum, per nomina singulorum a vigesimo anno et supra, omnes qui ad bella procederent,
De los hijos de Isacar, sus generaciones, por sus familias, por las casas de sus padres, según el número de los nombres, de veinte años para arriba, todos los que podían salir a la guerra:
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
De los hijos de Issachâr, por sus generaciones, por sus familias, por las casas de sus padres, conforme á la cuenta de los nombres, de veinte años arriba, todos los que podían salir á la guerra;
From the sons of Issachar, according to the records of their clans and families, counting the names of all those twenty years of age or older who could serve in the army,
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse introduces the census count for the tribe of Issachar, specifying that the reckoning proceeds according to genealogical lines, clans, and ancestral houses, counting by name every male aged twenty years and above who is fit to go out for military service.
Key words
- tol.do.Ta + m — "genealogies" (H8435) construct plural with 3mp suffix "their" — designates descent lines as the first organizing category of the census.
- mish.pe.cho.Ta + m — "clans" (H4940) construct plural with suffix "their" — a subdivision of the genealogical structure, narrower than the tribe as a whole.
- mis.Par — "[the] number of" (H4557) construct singular — governs she.Mot ("names", H8034), indicating the count is done by enumerating individual names, not merely tallying totals.
- Ben — "a son of" (H1121L) construct singular — used idiomatically with a number of years to express age, here opening the phrase "a son of twenty years."
- yo.Tze' — "[one who] goes forth" (H3318N) qal participle construct — describes an ongoing capability or role ("the one going out") rather than a completed action, qualifying who counts as fit for tza.Va' ("warfare", H6635H).
What the text says
The Hebrew sentence is built almost entirely of nested construct chains. li ("of", H9005) plus v.Nei ("[the] descendants of", H1121G) plus yi.so.sh.Khar ("Issachar") opens the unit as a heading: "Of the descendants of Issachar." What follows are four prepositional/construct phrases stacked in sequence — tol.do.Ta+m ("their genealogies"), le+mish.pe.cho.Ta+m ("to their clans"), le+Veit 'a.vo.Ta+m ("to the house of their ancestors") — each narrowing the classification from broad lineage to specific paternal household. This layering shows the census as organized hierarchically: tribe → genealogy → clan → ancestral house.
The phrase be+mis.Par she.Mot ("by the number of names") specifies the method: individuals are counted by name, not simply summed. The age qualifier mi.Ben 'es.Rim sha.Nah va.Ma'.lah ("from a son of twenty years and upward") uses the idiomatic "son of [number] years" construction common in Biblical Hebrew for stating age, followed by the directional he on Ma'.la+h ("upward"), marking open-ended extension beyond the threshold. The closing phrase kol yo.Tze' tza.Va' ("every one going out to warfare") uses a participle, framing eligibility as an active, ongoing capacity to go out rather than a fixed status.
Differences between versions
The LXX text supplied here reads "Τοῖς υἱοῖς Ζαβουλὼν" ("to the sons of Zebulun") where the Hebrew and the Vulgate ("De filiis Issachar") both name Issachar. This is a divergence in the tribal name at this verse in the provided LXX text compared to the Hebrew and Vulgate.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.