Numbers 1:43

Summary

The verse gives the total number of men enrolled from the tribe of Naphtali: fifty-three thousand four hundred. It follows the standard formula used throughout this census list to close out each tribe's count.

Key words

• pekudei ("enrolled [men]", H6485A) — qal passive participle, masculine plural construct; denotes those who have been counted/mustered, here governing the following pronominal suffix and prepositional phrase.
• Hem ("their", H9028) — pronominal suffix attached to pekudei, specifying "their enrolled ones," i.e., the men counted belonging to this tribe.
• matteh ("[the] tribe of", H4294H) — masculine singular construct, "staff/tribe of," linking to the proper name that follows.
• Naftali ("Naphtali", H5321G) — proper name identifying the tribe in question.
• 'Elef ("thousand", H0505G) — common gender singular cardinal number, the base unit multiplied by "fifty and three" to produce the total.

What the text says

The verse opens with the construct chain pekudei-Hem le-matteh Naftali ("the enrolled-of-them, of the tribe of Naphtali"), a fixed formula repeated for each tribe in this chapter. The participle pekudei ("enrolled [men]", H6485A) is in construct state, meaning it is grammatically bound to what follows — first the pronominal suffix Hem ("their", H9028), then the prepositional phrase le-matteh Naftali ("of the tribe of Naphtali"). This construction identifies precisely whose count is being reported.

The numerical portion follows a pattern typical of Biblical Hebrew number syntax: shelishah va-chamishim 'Elef ("three and fifty thousand") places the smaller number before the larger, joined by the conjunction va ("and", H9002), yielding "three and fifty" (i.e., fifty-three) multiplied implicitly by the following 'Elef ("thousand", H0505G). The final phrase ve-'arba' me'ot ("and four hundred") adds the remainder, with 'arba' ("four", H0702) in construct state before me'ot ("hundreds", H3967), a feminine plural noun. The total, fifty-three thousand four hundred, is thus built from three separate numerical units strung together with conjunctions, a structure common to the tribal totals throughout Numbers 1.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (VULCLEM) omits any reference to the tribe name or the enrolled-men formula, giving only the bare number "quinquaginta tria millia quadringenti" ("fifty-three thousand four hundred"), whereas the Hebrew and the LXX both explicitly name "Naphtali"/Nephthaleí and include the participial phrase identifying these as counted men.