Numbers 26:54
לָרַב תַּרְבֶּה נַחֲלָתוֹ וְלַמְעַט תַּמְעִיט נַחֲלָתוֹ אִישׁ לְפִי פְקֻדָיו יֻתַּן נַחֲלָתֽוֹ׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
לָרַ֗ב תַּרְבֶּה֙ נַחֲלָת֔וֹ וְלַמְעַ֕ט תַּמְעִ֖יט נַחֲלָת֑וֹ אִ֚ישׁ לְפִ֣י פְקֻדָ֔יו יֻתַּ֖ן נַחֲלָתֽוֹ׃
τοῖς πλείοσιν πλεονάσεις τὴν κληρονομίαν, νομίαν, καὶ τοῖς ἐλάττοσιν ἐλαττώσεις τὴν κληρονομίαν αὐτῶν· ἑκάστῳ καθὼς ἐπεσκέπησαν δοθήσεται ἡ κληρονομία αὐτῶν.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Pluribus majorem partem dabis, et paucioribus minorem: singulis, sicut nunc recensiti sunt, tradetur possessio:
A las tribus más grandes les darás una herencia mayor, y a las más pequeñas les darás una herencia menor. Cada tribu recibirá su porción de tierra según el número de personas registradas en el censo.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
A los más darás mayor heredad, y á los menos menor; y á cada uno se le dará su heredad conforme á sus contados.
Increase the inheritance for a large tribe and decrease it for a small one; each tribe is to receive its inheritance according to the number of those registered.
✦ What the text says
Summary
Numbers 26:54 establishes the principle for allocating tribal land inheritances: larger groups receive proportionally more, smaller groups receive proportionally less, and each allocation is tied directly to the number of registered men in the census.
Key words
- tarBeh ("you will make great", H7235A) — hiphil imperfect, causative form indicating an action of enlarging the inheritance for the larger group.
- tam'It ("you will make small", H4591) — hiphil imperfect, the causative counterpart to tarBeh, indicating a deliberate reduction of the inheritance for the smaller group.
- nachalaTo ("its inheritance", H5159) — feminine singular construct noun with pronominal suffix, repeated three times in the verse, each time bound to a different referent (the many, the few, each man).
- fekuDav ("his enrolled [men]", H6485A) — qal passive participle, masculine plural construct, referring to those counted in the census; the inheritance is explicitly tied to this count.
- yuTan ("it will be given", H5414G) — hophal imperfect, a passive causative form: the inheritance "will be caused to be given," with no explicit human agent named in this clause.
What the text says
The verse is built on two parallel clauses with inverted word order (object-verb rather than verb-object), placing emphasis on the recipients: laRav ("for the many", H7227A) and lam'At ("for the few", H4592) both appear before their respective verbs tarBeh and tam'It. This fronting highlights the contrast between the two groups before naming the action taken toward each. Both verbs are hiphil imperfects, a causative verbal stem indicating that the inheritance is actively enlarged or reduced — the text does not simply say the inheritance "is large" or "is small," but that it "is made large" or "is made small," implying a deliberate act of allocation.
The final clause shifts to a hophal (passive causative) verb, yuTan, "it will be given." Unlike the first two clauses, no explicit subject performs the action; the inheritance is presented as being given without naming who does the giving. This clause also introduces the standard for the whole distribution: le-fi feku-Dav, literally "according to the mouth of his enrolled men," meaning according to the number of men counted in the census referenced earlier in the chapter.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders the passive hophal yuTan with a passive verb dothēsetai ("will be given"), matching the Hebrew's lack of explicit agent. The Vulgate uses tradetur ("will be handed over"), also passive, consistent with the Hebrew hophal form. No major structural divergences appear among the Hebrew, LXX, and Vulgate in this verse.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.