Numbers 26:32

וּשְׁמִידָע מִשְׁפַּחַת הַשְּׁמִידָעִי וְחֵפֶר מִשְׁפַּחַת הַֽחֶפְרִֽי׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

Tap a word to see its entry

✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וּשְׁמִידָ֕ע מִשְׁפַּ֖חַת הַשְּׁמִידָעִ֑י וְחֵ֕פֶר מִשְׁפַּ֖חַת הַֽחֶפְרִֽי׃

Greek (Septuagint)

Υἱοὶ ᾿Ιωσὴφ κατὰ δήμους αὐτῶν· Μανασσὴ καὶ ᾿Εφράιμ.

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

Latin (Vulgate)

et Semida, a quo familia Semidaitarum: et Hepher, a quo familia Hepheritarum.

Spanish

de Semida, el clan de los semidaítas; y de Hefer, el clan de los heferitas.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

De Semida, la familia de los Semidaitas; de Hepher, la familia de los Hepheritas.

English

the Shemidaite clan from Shemida, and the Hepherite clan from Hepher.

✦ What the text says

Summary

This verse lists two more clans descended from Manasseh: the clan of Shemida (H8061) and the clan of Hepher (H2660A), each identified by its eponymous ancestor and the corresponding gentilic (people-group) name. The structure follows the standard census formula used throughout Numbers 26 for enumerating tribal subdivisions.

Key words

she.mi.Da' ("Shemida", H8061) — proper name of a male ancestor, functioning as the head of a lineage.
mish.Pa.chat ("clan of", H4940) — feminine singular noun in the construct state, meaning it must be followed by another noun; it introduces the group named after the ancestor.
ha.she.mi.da.'i ("the Shemidaite", H8062) — gentilic form (denoting "belonging to a people"), masculine singular, marked with the definite article ha (H9009), functioning as the collective designation of the clan.
Che.fer ("Hepher", H2660A) — second proper name in the verse, ancestor of the second clan mentioned.
chef.Ri ("Hepherite", H2662) — gentilic form parallel to she.mi.da.'i, also with the definite article, naming the descendants of Hepher.

What the text says

The verse is built on a repeated syntactic pattern: [conjunction] + [personal name] + mishpachat ("clan of") + [definite article] + [gentilic]. This construct-chain structure (mishpachat X — "the clan of X") is the standard formula used in the Numbers 26 census to link an ancestor's name to the collective name of his descendants. The definite article on the gentilic forms (ha-shemida'i, ha-chefri) marks them as designating a known, bounded group — "the Shemidaite [people]" rather than an indefinite reference.

The two clauses are joined simply by the conjunction ve ("and", H9002), without any additional verb; the verse has no finite verb at all, since it continues a list begun earlier in the chapter where the verb "were" or "belonged to" is implied from context. This elliptical, list-like syntax is typical of genealogical enumerations in the Hebrew Bible and explains why translations must supply connecting words ("the clan of," "from") that are only implicit in the construct chain of the Hebrew.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew text names Shemida and Hepher with their respective clans, and the Vulgate and Spanish/English versions (RV1909, BSB, SBLIBRE) follow this closely, rendering the construct chain as "the clan of X, from Y." The Septuagint text provided (Swete) diverges sharply in content: instead of naming Shemida and Hepher, it reads "Sons of Joseph according to their families: Manasseh and Ephraim," which corresponds to different material (introducing the Joseph tribes) rather than to this specific Hebrew verse.

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