Numbers 2:32
אֵלֶּה פְּקוּדֵי בְנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵל לְבֵית אֲבֹתָם כָּל־פְּקוּדֵי הַֽמַּחֲנֹת לְצִבְאֹתָם שֵׁשׁ־מֵאוֹת אֶלֶף וּשְׁלֹשֶׁת אֲלָפִים וַחֲמֵשׁ מֵאוֹת וַחֲמִשִּֽׁים׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
אֵ֛לֶּה פְּקוּדֵ֥י בְנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל לְבֵ֣ית אֲבֹתָ֑ם כָּל־פְּקוּדֵ֤י הַֽמַּחֲנֹת֙ לְצִבְאֹתָ֔ם שֵׁשׁ־מֵא֥וֹת אֶ֙לֶף֙ וּשְׁלֹ֣שֶׁת אֲלָפִ֔ים וַחֲמֵ֥שׁ מֵא֖וֹת וַחֲמִשִּֽׁים׃
Αὕτη ἡ ἐπίκατ’ σκέψις τὼν υἱῶν Ἰσραήλ κατ’ οἴκους πατριῶν αὐτῶν· πᾶσα ἡ ἐπίὺν σκέψις τῶν παρεμβολῶν σὺν ταῖς δυνάμεσιν αὐτῶν ἑξακόσιαι χιλιάδες καὶ τρισχίλιοι πεντακόσιοι πεντήκοντα. νοὶ δὲ
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Hic numerus filiorum Israël, per domos cognationum suarum et turmas divisi exercitus, sexcenta tria millia quingenti quinquaginta.
Estos son los que fueron contados de los hijos de Israel por sus casas paternas. Todos los que fueron contados de los campamentos, según sus ejércitos, fueron seiscientos tres mil quinientos cincuenta.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Estos son los contados de los hijos de Israel, por las casas de sus padres: todos los contados por ejércitos, por sus escuadrones, seiscientos tres mil quinientos y cincuenta.
These are the Israelites, numbered according to their families. The total of those counted in the camps, by their divisions, was 603,550.
✦ What the text says
Summary
This verse gives the final total count of the Israelites enrolled by ancestral house and organized by military camps. The sum reached is 603,550 men, closing the census recorded in Numbers 2.
Key words
- pekudei ("enrolled of", H6485A) — qal passive participle, masculine plural construct; appears twice (positions 2 and 10), marking both the general census of the "sons of Israel" and the specific census "of the camps."
- beit 'avotam ("house of their ancestors", H1004M + H0001G + H9028) — construct chain meaning "house of their fathers," indicating the organizing unit of the census (paternal lineage).
- ha-machanot ("the camps", H4264) — feminine plural noun with definite article, referring to the tribal camp groupings already described earlier in the chapter.
- tziv'otam ("their military groups", H6635A) — feminine plural construct noun with possessive suffix, denoting the organized troops or divisions within each camp.
- shesh-me'ot 'elef... chamishim ("six hundred thousand... fifty") — a chain of cardinal numbers (H8337, H3967, H0505G, H7969, H2568, H2572) constructing the total 600,000 + 3,000 + 500 + 50 = 603,550.
What the text says
The verse opens with the demonstrative 'Elleh ("these", H0428), pointing back to the census data listed earlier in the chapter, and then restates the subject through two parallel construct chains using the same participle pekudei ("enrolled of"). The first occurrence links to bnei Yisra'el ("sons of Israel", H1121G + H3478) organized le-veit 'avotam ("to the house of their ancestors"), establishing the lineage-based structure of the count. The second occurrence, introduced by kol ("all", H3605), refers specifically to ha-machanot ("the camps") according to tziv'otam ("their military divisions"), showing that the same population is being described from two angles: genealogical (ancestral house) and organizational (camp/military division).
The numerical total is built through a Hebrew construct chain typical of large numbers: hundreds, thousands, and remaining hundreds and tens are strung together with the conjunction va- ("and", H9002) linking each unit. The syntax lists shesh-me'ot 'elef ("six hundred thousand"), then u-shloshet 'alafim ("and three thousand"), then va-chamesh me'ot ("and five hundred"), then va-chamishim ("and fifty") — yielding 603,550 as a cumulative sum rather than a single compound numeral.
Differences between versions
The Vulgate renders the two Hebrew occurrences of pekudei with a single phrase, "numerus filiorum Israël... per domos cognationum suarum et turmas divisi exercitus," compressing the parallel structure (ancestral house / camp organization) into one continuous descriptive clause rather than preserving the double reference to counting seen in the Hebrew. The LXX (Swete) similarly uses two forms of "ἐπίσκεψις" (census/review) corresponding to the two Hebrew instances of pekudei, keeping closer to the Hebrew's repeated participle structure, though its phrasing "κατ' οἴκους πατριῶν αὐτῶν" ("according to houses of their fathers") condenses the construct chain le-veit 'avotam.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.