Numbers 26:15

בְּנֵי גָד לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָם לִצְפוֹן מִשְׁפַּחַת הַצְּפוֹנִי לְחַגִּי מִשְׁפַּחַת הַֽחַגִּי לְשׁוּנִי מִשְׁפַּחַת הַשּׁוּנִֽי׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

בְּנֵ֣י גָד֮ לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָם֒ לִצְפ֗וֹן מִשְׁפַּ֙חַת֙ הַצְּפוֹנִ֔י לְחַגִּ֕י מִשְׁפַּ֖חַת הַֽחַגִּ֑י לְשׁוּנִ֕י מִשְׁפַּ֖חַת הַשּׁוּנִֽי׃

Greek (Septuagint)

Υἱοὶ δὲ Ἰούδα· Ἤρ καὶ Αὐνάν· κοὶ ἁ Ἤρ καὶ Αὐνὰν ἐν γῇ Χανάαν.

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

Latin (Vulgate)

Filii Gad per cognationes suas: Sephon, ab hoc familia Sephonitarum: Aggi, ab hoc familia Aggitarum: Suni, ab hoc familia Sunitarum:

Spanish

Los descendientes de Gad, por clanes, fueron: de Zefón, el clan de los zefonitas; de Hagi, el clan de los haguitas; de Suni, el clan de los sunitas;

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Los hijos de Gad por sus familias: de Zephón, la familia de los Zephonitas; de Aggi, la familia de los Aggitas; de Suni, la familia de los Sunitas;

English

These were the descendants of Gad by their clans: The Zephonite clan from Zephon, the Haggite clan from Haggi, the Shunite clan from Shuni,

✦ What the text says

Summary

Numbers 26:15 opens the census list for the tribe of Gad, naming three clans by their eponymous ancestors: Zephon, Haggi, and Shuni. Each name is followed by the formulaic designation of the clan descended from him, using the gentilic (people-group) form of the name.

Key words

be.Nei ("descendants of", H1121G) — masculine plural construct, opening the verse by placing "sons/descendants" in a genitive relationship with Gad.
mishpecho.Tam ("clans", H4940 + H9028) — feminine plural construct with a 3rd person masculine plural suffix ("their"), meaning "their clans," anchoring the list to the sons of Gad collectively.
tzeFon ("Zephon", H6827) — proper name of a person, the first ancestor named.
hatz.tzefoNi ("the Zephonite[s]", H6831) — gentilic noun with definite article, derived from Zephon, denoting the clan-group descended from him rather than the individual.
mishPachat ("clan of", H4940) — feminine singular construct, repeated before each gentilic to mark "the clan of the [name]ites."

What the text says

The verse follows a repeating grammatical template applied three times: a preposition le ("of"/"belonging to") attached to a personal name, followed by the construct phrase mishpachat ha-X-i ("the clan of the X-ite"). This structure links an individual ancestor to a named clan through the gentilic suffix pattern (-i ending), which turns a personal name into a group designation — e.g., tzeFon ("Zephon") becomes hatzefoNi ("the Zephonite"). The construct chain mishpachat ha-X-i literally reads "the clan of the [X]-ite," a slightly redundant-sounding formula in English that in Hebrew simply reasserts the clan's identity by tying it back to its eponym.

The initial phrase beNei gad le-mishpechoTam ("the descendants of Gad, according to their clans") functions as a heading, using the construct plural mishpechoTam with the pronominal suffix "their" to signal that all following clan-names branch from Gad as a single tribal unit. Each subsequent clause is asyndetic (no conjunction "and" linking the three entries in the Hebrew as given), producing a terse, list-like cadence typical of census records.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (Filii Gad per cognationes suas: Sephon... Aggi... Suni...) and the modern translations (BSB, RV1909, SBLIBRE) follow the Hebrew structure closely, rendering the gentilic clan-names consistently (Zephonites, Haggites/Aggites, Shunites/Sunites). The Greek text supplied here (LXXSWETE) does not correspond to this verse's content about Gad; instead it presents material concerning "the sons of Judah... Er and Aunan," indicating the LXX excerpt provided is a mismatched or differently-versified passage rather than a parallel rendering of Numbers 26:15.

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