Numbers 26:31

וְאַשְׂרִיאֵל מִשְׁפַּחַת הָֽאַשְׂרִֽאֵלִי וְשֶׁכֶם מִשְׁפַּחַת הַשִּׁכְמִֽי׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וְאַ֨שְׂרִיאֵ֔ל מִשְׁפַּ֖חַת הָֽאַשְׂרִֽאֵלִ֑י וְשֶׁ֕כֶם מִשְׁפַּ֖חַת הַשִּׁכְמִֽי׃

Greek (Septuagint)

οὗτοι δῆμοι ᾿Ασὴρ ἐξ ἐπισκέψεως αὐτῶν, εσσεράκοντα χιλιάδες καὶ χ΄.

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

Latin (Vulgate)

et Asriel, a quo familia Asrielitarum: et Sechem, a quo familia Sechemitarum:

Spanish

de Asriel, el clan de los asrielitas; de Siquem, el clan de los siquemitas;

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

De Asriel, la familia de los Asrielitas: de Sechêm, la familia de los Sechêmitas;

English

the Asrielite clan from Asriel, the Shechemite clan from Shechem,

✦ What the text says

Summary

Numbers 26:31 lists two clan-names within the tribal registration: Asriel and Shechem, each identified as the eponymous ancestor of a named clan group (the "Asrielites" and the "Shechemites"). The verse follows a fixed genealogical formula pairing a personal name with its corresponding gentilic clan designation.

Key words

'As.ri.'El ("Asriel", H0844G) — proper name of a male ancestor, used without article, functioning as clan-founder.
mish.Pa.chat ("[the] clan of", H4940) — feminine singular noun in construct state, meaning it must be followed by another noun to complete its meaning ("clan of X").
'as.ri.'e.Li ("Asrielite[s]", H0845) — gentilic adjective, masculine singular, derived from the name Asriel; combined with the definite article ha (H9009) it denotes "the Asrielite [clan]" as a defined group.
She.khem ("Shechem", H7928G) — second proper name, structurally parallel to Asriel.
shikh.Mi ("Shechemite[s]", H7930) — gentilic form parallel to 'as.ri.'e.Li, again preceded by the definite article.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence has no verb; it is a bare list joined by the conjunction ve ("and", H9002) repeated twice, producing a chain: "and Asriel, clan of the Asrielite; and Shechem, clan of the Shechemite." Each unit follows the same pattern: personal name + construct noun mishpachat + article + gentilic. The construct form of mishpachat forces a tight grammatical link between "clan" and the following gentilic noun, so that "clan of the Asrielite" functions as a technical administrative label rather than a full sentence describing ancestry directly. The definite article on the gentilic (ha-'asri'eli, ha-shikhmi) marks these as fixed, recognized group names within the larger genealogical census, not merely descriptive adjectives.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate expands the terse Hebrew construct chain into fuller relative clauses: "et Asriel, a quo familia Asrielitarum" ("and Asriel, from whom [comes] the family of the Asrielites"), making explicit the ancestor-to-clan relationship that the Hebrew construct state leaves implicit. The Spanish versions (RV1909, SBLIBRE) and the BSB follow the Hebrew structure closely, rendering "clan" and the gentilic in apposition without added relative clauses.

The Greek text supplied under LXXSWETE for this reference does not correspond to Asriel and Shechem; it instead gives a population summary for the clans of Aser ("Asher") with a total figure of 40,600. This reflects a divergence in the verse alignment between the Greek numbering tradition and the Hebrew text at this point, rather than a translational variant of the same content.

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