Numbers 26:14

Summary

The verse closes the census unit for the tribe of Simeon, stating the total number of registered men from the clans of the Simeonites: twenty-two thousand two hundred.

Key words

• 'Elleh ("these", H0428) — demonstrative particle opening the verse, pointing back to the list of clans enumerated in the preceding verses and marking the summary formula typical of these census sections.
• mishpeChot ("clans of", H4940) — feminine plural construct noun; the construct form links it directly to ha-Shim'oni, producing "clans of the Simeonite," i.e., the sub-groups belonging to that tribal identity.
• ha-Shim'oNi ("the Simeonite", H8099) — gentilic noun in the singular used collectively to denote the tribe as a whole descended from Simeon, governed by the definite article.
• she-Nayim ("two", H8147) — cardinal number in dual form, functioning here as part of the compound number "twenty-two," combined with 'esRim ("twenty", H6242).
• 'Elef ("thousand", H0505G) — singular cardinal number that serves as the base unit multiplied by the preceding numerals to form the total, followed by ma'Tayim ("two hundred", H3967) as the final additive figure.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is a nominal summary clause without a verb: 'Elleh mishpeChot ha-Shim'oNi ("these [are] the clans of the Simeonite") functions as the subject and predicate together, a common construction in these census tallies where "to be" is implied rather than stated. The numeral phrase that follows, she-Nayim ve-'esRim 'Elef u-ma'Tayim ("two and twenty thousand and two hundred"), is built by simple additive coordination: units before tens, then multiplied by "thousand," then plus "two hundred," yielding twenty-two thousand two hundred as the grand total for this tribal group.

The construct chain mishpeChot ha-Shim'oNi ties the plural "clans" tightly to the singular collective gentilic "the Simeonite," which grammatically treats the tribal name as a single entity even though it governs multiple sub-clans. This grammatical singularity contrasts with the plural head noun, a pattern seen elsewhere in the chapter to denote a tribe as a unified whole while acknowledging its internal clan divisions.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the closing summary with ἐκ τῆς ἐπισκέψεως αὐτῶν ("from their numbering/census"), a phrase not present in the Hebrew text, which simply states the numeral total without any reference to a census-taking action at this point. The Vulgate's quarum omnis numerus fuit ("of which the whole number was") similarly adds explanatory language absent from the terse Hebrew construction, which relies on juxtaposition alone to convey the summary total.