Numbers 13:10

Summary

This verse identifies one of the tribal representatives sent to scout the land: from the tribe of Zevulun ("Zebulun", H2074), the man Gaddi'el ("Gaddiel", H1427), son of Sodi ("Sodi", H5476). The verse is a single genealogical entry within a longer list of the twelve spies.

Key words

• le ("for", H9005) — the preposition attached to matteh, marking the phrase as introducing "for/from the tribe of...", setting up the construct chain that follows.
• matteh ("[the] tribe of", H4294H) — masculine singular construct noun; being in construct state, it must be followed by a genitive (here Zevulun), producing "tribe of Zebulun."
• Zevulun ("Zebulun", H2074) — proper name functioning as the genitive completing the construct phrase begun by matteh.
• ben ("[the] son of", H1121A) — masculine singular construct noun, linking Gaddi'el to his father's name in the standard Hebrew patronymic formula "PN1 ben PN2."
• Sodi ("Sodi", H5476) — proper name, the genitive completing the construct chain ben-Sodi, "son of Sodi."

What the text says

The Hebrew verse consists of two linked construct chains rather than a full independent clause with a verb; it continues the syntax of the surrounding list, where each entry supplies a tribe name and a personal name with patronymic. The first chain, le-matteh Zevulun, uses the preposition le plus the construct noun matteh to mean "for/belonging to the tribe of Zebulun." The second chain, Gaddi'el ben-Sodi, follows the common Biblical Hebrew naming pattern of personal name plus ben ("son of") plus father's name, with no verb needed since the entry is appositional to the person being designated as the tribal representative in the larger list of Numbers 13.

Grammatically, both matteh and ben are nouns in the construct state, a form that in Hebrew does not take its own article or independent stress but instead binds tightly to the following noun to express a genitive relationship ("tribe of," "son of"). This construction allows the verse to pack tribal affiliation and personal genealogy into a compact formula without additional syntactic markers.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew text (TAHOT) reads "tribe of Zevulun, Gaddi'el son of Sodi." The LXX (Swete) and the Vulgate (Clementine), however, render this entry as "tribe of Benjamin, Phaltei/Phalti son of Raphu" — a different tribe name and different personal names altogether. The modern translations consulted (RV1909, BSB, SBLIBRE) follow the Hebrew reading with "Zebulun... Gaddiel/Gadiel... Sodi," matching the TAHOT text rather than the LXX/Vulgate wording at this verse position.