Numbers 18:3
וְשָֽׁמְרוּ מִֽשְׁמַרְתְּךָ וּמִשְׁמֶרֶת כָּל־הָאֹהֶל אַךְ אֶל־כְּלֵי הַקֹּדֶשׁ וְאֶל־הַמִּזְבֵּחַ לֹא יִקְרָבוּ וְלֹֽא־יָמֻתוּ גַם־הֵם גַּם־אַתֶּֽם׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וְשָֽׁמְרוּ֙ מִֽשְׁמַרְתְּךָ֔ וּמִשְׁמֶ֖רֶת כָּל־הָאֹ֑הֶל אַךְ֩ אֶל־כְּלֵ֨י הַקֹּ֤דֶשׁ וְאֶל־הַמִּזְבֵּ֙חַ֙ לֹ֣א יִקְרָ֔בוּ וְלֹֽא־יָמֻ֥תוּ גַם־הֵ֖ם גַּם־אַתֶּֽם׃
καὶ φυλάξονται τὰς φυλακάς σου καὶ τὰς φυλακὰς τῆς σκηνῆς· πλὴν πρὸς τὰ σκεύη τὰ ἅγια καὶ πρὸς τὸ θυσιαστήριον οὐ προσελεύσονεαν τᾶι, καὶ οὐκ ἀποθανοῦνται καὶ οὗτοι καὶ ὑμεῖς.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Excubabuntque Levitæ ad præcepta tua, et ad cuncta opera tabernaculi: ita dumtaxat ut ad vasa sanctuarii et ad altare non accedant, ne et illi moriantur, et vos pereatis simul.
Ellos se encargarán de ayudarte y de cuidar toda la Tienda; pero no deberán acercarse a los objetos sagrados ni al altar, para que no mueran ni ellos ni ustedes.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y guardarán lo que tú ordenares, y el cargo de todo el tabernáculo: mas no llegarán á los vasos santos ni al altar, porque no mueran ellos y vosotros.
And they shall attend to your duties and to all the duties of the Tent; but they must not come near to the furnishings of the sanctuary or the altar, or both they and you will die.
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse instructs that the addressee's assistants will keep guard duty over both the addressee's personal service and the service of the entire tent, but they are restricted from approaching the sacred vessels and the altar. The stated consequence of violating this restriction is death for both the assistants and the addressee.
Key words
- sha.me.Ru ("they will keep", H8104H) — qal sequential perfect, third person plural; continues a narrative sequence, indicating an action that follows logically from prior instructions.
- mish.mar.te.Kha ("your service", H4931 + H9021) — feminine singular noun in construct form with a second-person masculine singular suffix ("your"), naming a duty tied directly to the addressee.
- mish.Me.ret... ha.'O.hel ("the service of... the tent", H4931/H0168G) — same noun in construct with kol ("all", H3605) and "the tent," expanding the scope of duty beyond the addressee's own service to the whole tent structure.
- ke.Lei ha.Ko.desh ("the equipment of the holy place", H3627/H6944G) — masculine plural construct noun + definite noun, marking the specific restricted category of sacred objects.
- yik.Ra.vu ("they will draw near", H7126G) — qal imperfect, third person plural; expresses a prohibited future/ongoing action, negated by lo' ("not", H3808).
What the text says
The verse opens with a sequential perfect verb, sha.me.Ru ("they will keep", H8104H), which continues a chain of instruction from the preceding context. Its object is doubled: first mish.mar.te.Kha ("your service", H4931 with suffix H9021), a duty specifically tied to the addressee, and then mish.Me.ret kol-ha.'O.hel ("the service of all the tent", H4931/H3605/H0168G), broadening the scope to the entire tent structure. This construction using the same noun mishmeret ("service/watch", H4931) twice in construct form links personal duty to institutional duty grammatically.
The adverb 'akh ("only", H0389) introduces a restrictive clause: access to ke.Lei ha.Ko.desh ("the equipment of the holy place", H3627/H6944G) and ha.miz.Be.ach ("the altar", H4196) is explicitly forbidden through the negated imperfect verb yik.Ra.vu ("they will draw near", H7126G). The imperfect aspect here conveys an ongoing prohibition rather than a single past event.
The final clause uses gam...gam ("both...as well as", H1571) to pair hem ("they", H1992) and 'atem ("you all", H0859D), grammatically linking the consequence — ya.Mu.tu ("they will die", H4191) — to both parties equally, without distinguishing who bears greater responsibility.
Differences between versions
The Vulgate identifies the subject explicitly as "Levitæ" ("the Levites"), a specification not present in the Hebrew text, which uses only the implicit plural verb sha.me.Ru ("they will keep", H8104H) without naming the subject in this verse. The LXX renders mishmartekha ("your service") as tas phylakas sou ("your watches", plural), differing from the Hebrew singular construct noun form.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.