Numbers 26:42

אֵלֶּה בְנֵי־דָן לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָם לְשׁוּחָם מִשְׁפַּחַת הַשּׁוּחָמִי אֵלֶּה מִשְׁפְּחֹת דָּן לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָֽם׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

אֵ֤לֶּה בְנֵי־דָן֙ לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָ֔ם לְשׁוּחָ֕ם מִשְׁפַּ֖חַת הַשּׁוּחָמִ֑י אֵ֛לֶּה מִשְׁפְּחֹ֥ת דָּ֖ן לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָֽם׃

Greek (Septuagint)

Υἱοὶ Βενιαμεὶν κατὰ δήμους αὐτῶν· τῷ βάλε, δῆμος ὁ βαλέει· τῷ ᾿Ασυβήρ, δῆμος ὁ ᾿Ασυβηρεί· τῷ ᾿Ιαχειράν, δῆμος ὁ ᾿Ιαχειρανεί·

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

Latin (Vulgate)

Filii Dan per cognationes suas: Suham, a quo familia Suhamitarum. Hæ sunt cognationes Dan per familias suas.

Spanish

Los descendientes de Dan, por clanes, fueron: de Suham, el clan de los suhamitas. Este fue el único clan de Dan.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Estos son los hijos de Dan por sus familias: de Suham, la familia de los Suhamitas. Estas son las familias de Dan por sus familias.

English

These were the descendants of Dan by their clans: The Shuhamite clan from Shuham. These were the clans of Dan.

✦ What the text says

Summary

The verse closes the census list for the tribe of Dan by naming its one clan. It states that Dan had a single descendant, Shuham, from whom came the Shuhamite clan, and repeats the formula that this constitutes "the clans of Dan."

Key words

'Eleh ("these", H0428) — demonstrative particle opening and closing the unit, framing it as a discrete list (used twice, in v.42a and v.42b).
benei ("descendants of", H1121G) — construct plural of "sons," here meaning tribal descendants rather than literal children.
mishpechotam ("their clans", H4940 + H9028) — feminine plural construct with 3rd person masculine plural suffix, repeated twice, anchoring the list to "their" (Dan's) sub-groupings.
Shucham ("Shuham", H7748) — personal proper name, the eponymous ancestor of the clan.
ha-Shuchami ("the Shuhamite", H7749) — gentilic noun with definite article ha (H9009), marking the collective clan-name derived from the personal name Shuham.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built on a repeated frame: 'Eleh benei-X le-mishpechotam ("these are the descendants of X by their clans"), followed by the clan detail, and closed by 'Eleh mishpechot X le-mishpechotam ("these are the clans of X by their clans"). This inclusio structure — opening and closing with 'Eleh — is typical of the Numbers 26 census, marking each tribal unit as a self-contained sub-list. Unlike other tribes in this chapter, which list several sons and corresponding clans, Dan's entry names only one descendant, Shucham, and one clan, ha-Shuchami. The construct chain mishpachat ha-Shuchami ("the clan of the Shuhamite") uses the definite article on the gentilic form to designate the clan as a fixed, named social unit derived from the ancestor's name, rather than referring to an individual.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (Filii Dan per cognationes suas: Suham, a quo familia Suhamitarum) and the Spanish versions follow the Hebrew structure closely, naming Shuham and the Shuhamite clan for Dan. The Greek text supplied here, however, corresponds to Benjamin's clans (Βενιαμείν... Βαλέ... Ασυβήρ... Ιαχειράν) rather than to Dan, so no direct comparison of wording for Dan's clan can be made from this LXX excerpt. The SBLIBRE rendering adds an interpretive note, "the only clan of Dan," which reflects the singularity of the list rather than an explicit Hebrew word for "only."

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