Numbers 1:32

לִבְנֵי יוֹסֵף לִבְנֵי אֶפְרַיִם 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

Hebrew

לִבְנֵ֤י יוֹסֵף֙ לִבְנֵ֣י אֶפְרַ֔יִם תּוֹלְדֹתָ֥ם לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָ֖ם לְבֵ֣ית אֲבֹתָ֑ם בְּמִסְפַּ֣ר שֵׁמֹ֗ת מִבֶּ֨ן עֶשְׂרִ֤ים שָׁנָה֙ וָמַ֔עְלָה כֹּ֖ל יֹצֵ֥א צָבָֽא׃

Greek (Septuagint)

Τοῖς υἱοῖς ἡ κατὰ συγγενίας αὐτῶν, κατὰ δήμους αὐτῶν, κατ’ οἴκους αὐτῶν, κατὰ ἀριθμὸν ὀνομάτων αὐτῶν, κατὰ κεφαλὴν , 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 Joseph, filiorum Ephraim per generationes et familias ac domos cognationum suarum recensiti sunt per nomina singulorum a vigesimo anno et supra, omnes qui poterant ad bella procedere,

Spanish

De los hijos de José: de los hijos de Efraín, 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 José: de los hijos de Ephraim, 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;

English

From the sons of Joseph: From the sons of Ephraim, 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 opens the census entry for the tribe of Ephraim, identified through Joseph's lineage. It specifies that all males were counted by name, organized by clan and ancestral house, restricted to those twenty years old and above who were fit to go to war.

Key words

v.Nei ("[the] descendants of", H1121G) — construct plural of "sons," used twice (for Joseph and for Ephraim) to establish the genealogical chain linking the tribe back through its ancestor.
tol.do.Ta + m ("genealogies" + "their", H8435/H9028) — construct feminine plural with pronominal suffix, indicating the recorded lineages belonging to Ephraim's descendants.
mis.Par ("[the] number of", H4557) — masculine singular construct governing she.Mot ("names", H8034), forming the phrase "by the number of names," meaning a counting by individual name rather than a general tally.
Ben ("a son of", H1121L) — construct singular used idiomatically with a number of years ('es.Rim sha.Nah, "twenty" "year") to express age, a standard Hebrew construction for stating how old someone is.
yo.Tze' ("[one who] goes forth", H3318N) — qal participle construct, describing an ongoing capacity or role ("one who goes out") rather than a completed action, applied to tza.Va' ("warfare", H6635H) to designate military service eligibility.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built entirely from construct chains without a finite verb, typical of administrative/list style. It begins with two parallel prepositional phrases using li ("of", H9005) plus v.Nei ("descendants of"), first tracing to yo.Sef ("Joseph", H3130G) and then narrowing to 'ef.Ra.yim ("Ephraim", H0669G). This creates a genealogical funnel: the census entry belongs to Ephraim's line, itself part of Joseph's broader lineage.

The following series of nouns — tol.do.Ta ("genealogies"), mish.pe.cho.Ta ("clans", H4940), and Veit 'a.vo.Ta ("house of ancestors", H1004M/H0001G) — each bear the third-person plural suffix m ("their"), stacking layers of social organization: lineage, clan, and paternal house. The phrase be.mis.Par she.Mot ("by the number of names") indicates that the counting method was individual and nominal, not a mere headcount.

The age qualifier uses the idiom mi.Ben 'es.Rim sha.Nah va.Ma'.lah ("from a son of twenty years and upward"), a fixed Hebrew formula for expressing minimum age. The final phrase, kol yo.Tze' tza.Va' ("every one who goes forth to warfare"), uses a participle to denote a class of persons defined by their capacity for military service, not a single event of departure.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders tza.Va' ("warfare", H6635H) with δυνάμει ("might/host"), a broader term than the Hebrew's more specific "warfare/military service." The LXX also adds πάντα ἀρσενικὰ ("all males") explicitly, and κατὰ κεφαλὴν ("by head"), phrases not present in the Hebrew construct chain, making explicit what the Hebrew leaves implicit through context. The Vulgate's qui poterant ad bella procedere ("who were able to go forth to wars") interprets the participle yo.Tze' as expressing capability, whereas the Hebrew participle more literally denotes those "going forth," without the modal sense of ability that Latin poterant introduces.

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