Numbers 26:3

Summary

The verse opens the introduction to the census instructions: Moses and Eleazar the priest speak to the people ("them") while stationed in the plains of Moab, near the Jordan across from Jericho. The verb lemor ("saying") signals that direct speech follows in the next verse.

Key words

• yedaBer ("he spoke", H1696G) — Piel narrative form; the intensive stem often marks formal or official speech, chained to the story by the narrative vav prefix.
• otam ("with them" / "them", H0854+H9038) — preposition + 3rd person masculine plural suffix; marks the addressees of the speaking act, i.e., the recipients of what Moses and Eleazar say.
• ha-koHen ("the priest", H9009+H3548) — definite noun phrase identifying Eleazar's office, distinguishing him functionally from Moses.
• 'arVot Moav ("plains of Moab", H6160I+H4124I) — construct geographic phrase specifying the location of the speech event.
• leMor ("saying", H0559) — Qal infinitive with prefixed preposition, a standard formula introducing reported or quoted speech that follows.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built around a single main verb, yedaBer ("he spoke"), with a compound subject: Moshe ("Moses", H4872) and ve-Eleazar ha-koHen ("and Eleazar the priest", H0499G+H3548). The verb is singular in form though the subject is compound — a common Biblical Hebrew pattern where the verb agrees with the nearer or primary subject before an additional subject is added with ve-. The object of the speech, otam ("them"), is placed immediately after the subject and verb, indicating who is addressed, before the sentence moves to specify location: be-'arVot Moav ("in the plains of Moab"), 'al-yarDen yereCho ("at the Jordan of Jericho"). The clause ends with leMor ("saying"), a grammatical hinge that opens the reported speech continued in the following verse.

The word order — subject and verb first, then addressee, then location, then the speech-marker — follows a common narrative-introduction pattern in the Hebrew text, setting scene and speakers before content.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew includes otam ("them", H0854+H9038) as the explicit object of the speaking verb, naming the addressees before the location is given. The LXX (ἐλάλησεν Μωυσῆς καὶ Ἐλεαζὰρ ὁ ἱερεὺς ἐν ἀραβὼθ Μωὰβ...) omits an explicit object corresponding to "them," moving directly from the verb to the location. The Vulgate renders this differently as well, using "ad eos qui erant" ("to those who were"), which extends the sentence structure toward further specification of the addressees, continuing syntactically into the following verse rather than closing with a "saying" formula at this point.