Numbers 10:36

Summary

Numbers 10:36 records the words spoken (apparently by Moses) each time the ark came to rest during Israel's wilderness journeys. The phrase calls on Yehovah to "return" to the vast assembly of Israel, described through a construct chain of large numbers.

Key words

• nuChoh ("rested", H5117) — qal infinitive with pronominal suffix "it/its," meaning literally "in its resting," marking the temporal circumstance for the statement that follows.
• yoMar ("he said", H0559) — qal imperfect, denoting a repeated or customary action ("he would say," or "he used to say") rather than a single event.
• shuVah ("return", H7725) — qal imperative with paragogic he (H9012), an emphatic form of the command, addressed directly to Yehovah.
• riVot ("ten thousands of", H7233) — feminine plural construct noun, opening a construct chain that quantifies the following noun.
• alFei ("thousands/families of", H0505) — plural construct noun continuing the chain, itself governing Yisrael ("Israel", H3478) as its final term.

What the text says

The verse opens with a temporal clause built on the infinitive nuChoh ("in its resting") governed by the preposition ve ("when", H9003), establishing the moment: whenever the ark came to rest. The main clause uses yoMar, an imperfect verb form here functioning iteratively — describing a repeated custom rather than a single utterance. The quoted words themselves begin with shuVah, an imperative strengthened by the paragogic he ending, which in Biblical Hebrew often intensifies or softens a command depending on context; here it lends solemnity to the appeal directed at Yehovah (H3068).

The object of the plea is expressed through a double construct chain: riVot ("ten-thousands of") followed by alFei ("thousands of"), both governing Yisrael. This construction stacks two plural nouns in construct relationship, producing a compounded expression of great multitude — "the ten-thousands of the thousands of Israel" — rather than a single simple plural. The grammar itself emphasizes scale through this layered numerical construct rather than through an adjective.

Differences between versions

The Septuagint reverses the order of the numerical terms, rendering χιλιάδας μυριάδας ("thousands, myriads") where the Hebrew sequence is riVot ("ten-thousands") followed by alFei ("thousands"). The LXX also renders the final term as ἐν τῷ Ἰσραήλ ("in Israel"), a locative phrase, rather than preserving the construct relationship "of Israel" found in the Hebrew chain. The Vulgate departs further, translating the numerical construct as "ad multitudinem exercitus Israël" ("to the multitude of the army of Israel"), replacing the specific numerical terms with a more general expression of quantity and introducing the word "army," which has no direct lexical counterpart in the Hebrew of this verse.