Numbers 1:49

Summary

Numbers 1:49 records an instruction restricting the census: the tribe of Levi is to be excluded from the general enrollment of the Israelites. The verse uses two parallel negated verbs to reinforce that neither their number nor their "head-count" should be taken alongside the rest of the nation.

Key words

• 'akh ("only", H0389) — a restrictive adverb that isolates Levi as an exception to the general census described in the preceding verses.
• tif.Kod ("you will enroll", H6485A) — qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular; paired with lo' ("not", H3808), it forms a direct negative command addressed to a singular "you" (traditionally understood as Moses).
• ro.Sha + m ("their head", H7218L + H9028) — construct noun with a 3rd person masculine plural suffix, forming an idiom equivalent to "their sum" or "their count," not a literal reference to a body part.
• ti.Sa' ("you will lift up", H5375V) — qal imperfect, 2ms, from the root meaning "to lift" or "to carry"; combined with ro'sh, the phrase nasa' ro'sh is an idiomatic expression for "taking a count" or "taking a census."
• be.Tokh ("among", H8432) — construct noun functioning prepositionally, situating the exclusion specifically "in the midst of" the other Israelites.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built on two syntactically parallel negative clauses, each following the pattern object + lo' + imperfect verb: "mateh Levi lo' tifqod" ("the tribe of Levi, you shall not enroll") and "ve'et ro'sham lo' tissa" ("and their head/count, you shall not lift up"). This repetition of negated 2ms imperfects creates an emphatic, twofold prohibition rather than a single statement, underscoring that the exclusion applies both to the act of enrolling and to the act of tallying a sum.

The phrase nasa' ro'sh ("to lift the head") is an idiom for taking a census, distinct from paqad ("to enroll," H6485A) used in the first clause. The verse thus employs two different Hebrew verbs for what is functionally the same administrative action, which may indicate two aspects of the census process (enrolling individuals vs. compiling their total number) rather than mere stylistic variation.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew 'akh ("only") functions as a restrictive marker, but the LXX renders the opening not with a restrictive term but with the imperative Ὅρα ("See/Watch"), producing a different grammatical framing of the sentence. The Vulgate's "Tribum Levi noli numerare" likewise omits any equivalent to 'akh, beginning directly with the prohibition. The Spanish RV1909 and SBLIBRE preserve the restrictive sense with "solamente" / "solo," aligning more closely with the Hebrew 'akh than the LXX does.