Numbers 10:18

וְנָסַע דֶּגֶל מַחֲנֵה רְאוּבֵן לְצִבְאֹתָם וְעַל־צְבָאוֹ אֱלִיצוּר בֶּן־שְׁדֵיאֽוּר׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וְנָסַ֗ע דֶּ֛גֶל מַחֲנֵ֥ה רְאוּבֵ֖ן לְצִבְאֹתָ֑ם וְעַל־צְבָא֔וֹ אֱלִיצ֖וּר בֶּן־שְׁדֵיאֽוּר׃

Greek (Septuagint)

Καὶ ἐξῆραν τάγμα παρεμβολῆς Ῥουβὴν σὺν δυνάμει αὐτῶν, καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς δυνάμεως αὐτῶν Ελισοὺρ υἱὸς Σεδιούρ·

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

Profectique sunt et filii Ruben, per turmas et ordinem suum: quorum princeps erat Helisur filius Sedeur.

Spanish

La bandera del campamento de Rubén avanzó según sus divisiones. Elizur, hijo de Sedeur, estaba al frente de su división.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Luego comenzó á marchar la bandera del campo de Rubén por sus escuadrones: y Elisur, hijo de Sedeur, era sobre su ejército.

English

Then the divisions of the camp of Reuben set out under their standard, with Elizur son of Shedeur in command.

✦ What the text says

Summary

The verse describes the departure of the second military division in the Israelite march order: the standard of the camp of Reuben, organized by its military groups, with Elizur son of Shedeur positioned over its army.

Key words

na.Sa' ("it set out", H5265) — qal perfect verb, third masculine singular, continuing the sequential narrative of the camps' departure begun earlier in the chapter.
De.gel ("standard of", H1714) — masculine singular noun in construct state, meaning it is grammatically bound to the following word ("standard of the camp of Reuben"), not a standalone noun.
ma.cha.Neh ("camp of", H4264) — feminine singular noun in construct state, chaining a second construct relationship: "standard of [the camp of [Reuben]]."
tziv.'o.Ta + m ("their military groups", H6635A + H9028) — feminine plural construct noun with a third-person plural pronominal suffix ("their"), specifying the subdivisions belonging to Reuben's camp.
tze.va.' + o ("its military group", H6635A + H9023) — masculine singular construct noun with a third-person singular suffix ("his/its"), referring specifically to the army under Elizur's charge, distinct in number from the plural tziv.'o.Tam used earlier in the same verse.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with the narrative ve + na.Sa' ("and it set out"), a verb form that links this verse to the sequence of camp departures described in the surrounding text. The subject is De.gel ("standard of"), placed in construct with ma.cha.Neh ("camp of"), which itself is in construct with re.'u.Ven ("Reuben"). This creates a chain: "the standard of the camp of Reuben," a grammatical structure where each noun depends on the next rather than standing independently.

The phrase le.tziv.'o.Tam ("to their military groups") uses a plural construct noun with a plural suffix, indicating the internal subdivisions of Reuben's camp collectively. The second half of the verse shifts to 'al-tze.va.'o ("over its military group"), where the noun tze.va' is singular and carries a singular suffix, referring to the specific unit under the named commander, 'e.li.Tzur ben-she.dei.'Ur ("Elizur son of Shedeur"). The grammatical shift from plural (tziv.'o.Tam) to singular (tze.va'o) marks a narrowing of focus from the whole camp's divisions to the single unit commanded by Elizur.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders De.gel ("standard of") as tágma ("company/order"), a term for a military unit rather than a banner, and translates le.tziv.'o.Tam ("to their military groups") as sὺn dynámei autōn ("with their force"), using a singular collective noun where the Hebrew has a plural construct form. The Vulgate omits explicit rendering of De.gel and ma.cha.Neh as separate terms, instead stating filii Ruben ("the sons of Reuben") "set out... by their troops and their order," compressing the layered Hebrew construct chain into a simpler phrase.

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