Numbers 1:51

Summary

The verse assigns to the Levites the exclusive task of dismantling the tabernacle when it moves and re-erecting it when it is set up. It closes with a warning that any outsider who approaches will be put to death.

Key words

• n.So.a' ("sets out", H5265) — qal infinitive construct, forming a temporal clause with the preceding preposition vi ("when", H9003): "when the tabernacle sets out."
• yo.Ri.du ("they will take down", H3381) — hiphil (causative) imperfect, third person masculine plural; the causative stem indicates the Levites cause the tabernacle to come down, not merely that it descends on its own.
• l.vi.Yim ("Levites", H3881) — masculine plural gentilic noun, the grammatical subject of both yo.Ri.du and ya.Ki.mu, appearing twice to anchor each clause to the same actors.
• ya.Ki.mu ("they will raise up", H6965I) — hiphil imperfect, third person masculine plural, parallel in form to yo.Ri.du, causative: the Levites cause the tabernacle to stand.
• yu.Mat ("he will be put to death", H4191) — hophal (causative passive) imperfect, third person masculine singular; the passive causative stem expresses that the outsider is made to die, without naming an agent.

What the text says

The verse is built as two parallel temporal clauses followed by a prohibition clause. Each temporal clause uses the pattern preposition + infinitive (vi... n.So.a', "when... sets out"; va... cha.Not, "when... encamps") followed by a hiphil imperfect verb with ha.Lvi.Yim ("the Levites") as subject and 'oto ("it", object marker + suffix) as object. This grammatical symmetry — infinitive clause, then causative verb, then subject, then object — repeats almost word for word for both "taking down" and "raising up," reinforcing that the same group performs both opposite actions at the corresponding moments.

The third clause shifts construction: ha.Zar ("the stranger", H2114A) is qualified by the adjective ha.Ka.rev ("the approaching one", H7131), together forming the subject "the stranger who approaches." The verb yu.Mat is hophal, a passive causative form: the text does not say who executes the outsider, only that death is caused to happen to him. This grammatical passivity contrasts with the active hiphil forms used for the Levites' actions, marking a shift from prescribed procedure to consequence.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders ha.Zar ("the stranger", H2114A) as ἀλλογενὴς ("one of another race/foreign-born"), a term with an ethnic-genealogical nuance not explicit in the Hebrew adjective, which more broadly denotes "stranger" or "unauthorized one." The Vulgate's externorum ("of outsiders") similarly generalizes the Hebrew term. The LXX also uses an imperative (ἀποθανέτω, "let him die") where the Hebrew and Vulgate use future/passive constructions (yu.Mat; occidetur, "he will be killed").