Numbers 2:5

וְהַחֹנִים עָלָיו מַטֵּה יִשָּׂשכָר וְנָשִׂיא לִבְנֵי יִשָּׂשכָר נְתַנְאֵל בֶּן־צוּעָֽר׃

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The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וְהַחֹנִ֥ים עָלָ֖יו מַטֵּ֣ה יִשָּׂשכָ֑ר וְנָשִׂיא֙ לִבְנֵ֣י יִשָּׂשכָ֔ר נְתַנְאֵ֖ל בֶּן־צוּעָֽר׃

Greek (Septuagint)

καὶ οἱ παρεμβάλλοντες ἐχόμενοι φυλῆς Ἰσσαχάρ, καὶ ὁ ἄρχων τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσσαχὰρ Ναθαναὴλ υἱὸς Σωγάρ·

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

Juxta eum castrametati sunt de tribu Issachar, quorum princeps fuit Nathanaël filius Suar.

Spanish

“Los que acampen junto a él serán los de la tribu de Isacar. El líder de los hijos de Isacar será Netanel, hijo de Zuar.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Junto á él acamparán los de la tribu de Issachâr: y el jefe de los hijos de Issachâr, Nathanael hijo de Suar;

English

The tribe of Issachar will camp next to it. The leader of the Issacharites is Nethanel son of Zuar,

What the text says

Summary

The verse specifies that the tribe of Issachar will camp adjacent to the previously named unit (Judah), and identifies its leader as Nethanel, son of Zuar.

Key words

  • cho.Nim ("[who] encamp", H2583) — qal participle, masculine plural, describing an ongoing/characteristic action ("those who encamp") rather than a finite past or future verb; it functions almost as a substantive, "the encampers."
  • 'a.La ("on", H5921A) — preposition with pronominal suffix ("upon him/it"), pointing back to the tribe or standard mentioned before this verse, marking spatial adjacency.
  • ma.Teh ("[will be] [the] tribe of", H4294H) — masculine singular noun in construct state, linking directly to yi.so.sh.Khar ("Issachar", H3485G); the construct form ties "tribe" grammatically to the proper name that follows.
  • na.Si' ("[the] leader", H5387A) — masculine singular noun, here functioning as a title placed before the identification of the person who holds it.
  • ben ("[the] son of", H1121A) — masculine singular construct noun, standard patronymic formula linking ne.tan.'El ("Nethanel", H5417G) to his father tzu.'Ar ("Zuar", H6686).

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence has two main clauses joined by ve. ("and", H9002). The first clause, ve.ha.cho.Nim 'a.La ma.Teh yi.so.sh.Khar, uses the participle cho.Nim with the definite article ha. ("the", H9009), producing a substantized phrase "the ones encamping upon him/it" — a construction typical of camp-list formulas in this chapter. The suffix on 'a.La ("on him/it") refers back to the entity named in the preceding verse, establishing spatial sequence rather than repeating the noun. ma.Teh yi.so.sh.Khar ("tribe of Issachar") stands in apposition to this participial phrase, naming which tribe performs the encamping.

The second clause introduces the tribal leader through a construct chain: na.Si' li.v.Nei yi.so.sh.Khar ("leader of the sons of Issachar"), followed by the personal name ne.tan.'El and the patronymic ben tzu.'Ar ("son of Zuar"). This mirrors the formula used for other tribal leaders in the chapter, with the construct chains (ma.Teh yi.so.sh.Khar, v.Nei yi.so.sh.Khar, ben tzu.'Ar) creating a layered genealogical and administrative identification.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders cho.Nim 'a.La ("those encamping upon him") as ἐχόμενοι ("adjoining/next to"), shifting the participial verbal sense toward a purely spatial adjective. The Vulgate similarly uses castrametati sunt de tribu ("they camped, of the tribe"), converting the Hebrew participle into a finite past verb. The name tzu.'Ar ("Zuar", H6686) appears as Σωγάρ (Sōgar) in the LXX and Suar in the Vulgate, reflecting transliteration variants of the same Hebrew name.

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.