Numbers 10:26

Summary

The verse names Pagiel son of Ocran as the man positioned over the military division of the tribe of the descendants of Asher. This continues the list from Numbers 10 identifying the tribal leaders for the wilderness march order.

Key words

• tze.Va ("military group of", H6635A) — masculine singular construct; begins a chain of construct nouns meaning "the army/host belonging to..."
• ma.Teh ("tribe of", H4294H) — masculine singular construct; the second link in the genitive chain, specifying whose army is meant.
• be.Nei ("descendants of", H1121G) — masculine plural construct; the third link, connecting "tribe" to the proper name Asher.
• ben ("son of", H1121A) — masculine singular construct; identifies Pagiel through patronymic formula, distinct from the earlier be.Nei construct chain.
• 'Asher (H0836) — proper name in the absolute state, closing the four-part construct chain that precedes it.

What the text says

The Hebrew clause is built as a single extended construct chain: tzeva ("army of") + matteh ("tribe of") + benei ("sons of") + Asher (absolute). Each word in construct state depends grammatically on the next, producing a nested genitive structure best rendered as "the army of the tribe of the sons of Asher." This chain functions as the subject complement of an implicit verbless clause — Hebrew here has no explicit verb "to be"; the sentence simply juxtaposes the preposition 'al ("over") with this noun chain, then states the name Pagiel ben 'Okhran. The reader supplies the copula ("was") based on context, a common feature of Hebrew nominal sentences.

The personal identification "Pagiel ben 'Okhran" uses a separate, shorter construct pair (ben, "son of") to link Pagiel to his father Ocran, distinguishing this patronymic construct from the four-word tribal chain that precedes it. The verse's structure mirrors the pattern used throughout Numbers 10 for other tribal officers, marking Pagiel's role without additional descriptive or narrative material.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (VULCLEM) restructures the clause and adds "erat princeps" ("there was a prince/leader"), an explicit verb and title not present in the Hebrew construct chain, where the leadership role is only implied by the preposition 'al ("over"). The LXX renders tzeva ("military group of", H6635A) with δυνάμεως ("of power/force"), a broader term than the Hebrew's more specifically military connotation. The Hebrew's compact verbless construct chain is expanded in Spanish and English translations (RV1909, BSB, SBLIBRE) through supplied verbs such as "estaba" or "was," none of which appear as distinct lexical items in the Hebrew text itself.