Numbers 26:59
וְשֵׁם׀ אֵשֶׁת עַמְרָם יוֹכֶבֶד בַּת־לֵוִי אֲשֶׁר יָלְדָה אֹתָהּ לְלֵוִי בְּמִצְרָיִם וַתֵּלֶד לְעַמְרָם אֶֽת־אַהֲרֹן וְאֶת־מֹשֶׁה וְאֵת מִרְיָם אֲחֹתָֽם׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וְשֵׁ֣ם׀ אֵ֣שֶׁת עַמְרָ֗ם יוֹכֶ֙בֶד֙ בַּת־לֵוִ֔י אֲשֶׁ֨ר יָלְדָ֥ה אֹתָ֛הּ לְלֵוִ֖י בְּמִצְרָ֑יִם וַתֵּ֣לֶד לְעַמְרָ֗ם אֶֽת־אַהֲרֹן֙ וְאֶת־מֹשֶׁ֔ה וְאֵ֖ת מִרְיָ֥ם אֲחֹתָֽם׃
καὶ τὸ ὄνομα τῆς γυναικὸς αὐτοῦ ᾿Ιωχάβεδ, θυγάτηρ Λευεί, ἢ ἔτεκεν τούτους τῷ Λευεὶ ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ· καὶ ἔτεκεν τῷ ᾿Αμρὰμ τὸν ᾿Ααρὼν καὶ Μωυσῆν καὶ Μαριὰμ τὴν ἀδελφὴν αὐτῶν.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
qui habuit uxorem Jochabed filiam Levi, quæ nata est ei in Ægypto. Hæc genuit Amram viro suo filios, Aaron, et Moysen, et Mariam sororem eorum.
La esposa de Amram se llamaba Jocabed, y era de la tribu de Leví, nacida en Egipto. Ella fue la madre de Aarón, de Moisés y de su hermana Miriam.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y la mujer de Amram se llamó Jochâbed, hija de Leví, la cual nació á Leví en Egipto: ésta parió de Amram á Aarón y á Moisés, y á María su hermana.
and Amram ’s wife was named Jochebed. She was also a daughter of Levi, born to Levi in Egypt. To Amram she bore Aaron, Moses, and their sister Miriam.
✦ What the text says
Summary
Numbers 26:59 identifies Jochebed as the wife of Amram and daughter of Levi, born to Levi in Egypt, and states that she bore Aaron, Moses, and their sister Miriam to Amram. The verse gives a genealogical note within the broader census list of Numbers 26.
Key words
- Shem ("name of", H8034) — masculine singular construct, opening the naming formula "and the name of the wife of Amram."
- 'Eshet ("wife of", H0802H) — feminine singular construct, linking the name Jochebed directly to Amram as her husband.
- asher ("whom", H0834A) — relative particle introducing a subordinate clause describing Jochebed's own birth to Levi.
- yaldah ("she bore", H3205) — qal perfect, describing the completed past action of Levi's wife bearing Jochebed.
- Teled ("and she bore", H3205) — qal narrative form (vav-consecutive), continuing the story forward to describe Jochebed bearing her own children.
What the text says
The verse is built on two uses of the same root, yalad ("to bear", H3205), first as a perfect verb yaldah describing Jochebed's own birth to Levi be-Mitzrayim ("in Egypt", H4714G), and second as a narrative (vav-consecutive) verb Teled describing Jochebed's bearing of her own children. This grammatical pairing creates a two-generation structure within one verse: Levi's line producing Jochebed, and Jochebed's line producing Aaron, Moses, and Miriam.
The construct chains — Shem ("name of") + 'Eshet ("wife of") + 'Amram, and bat ("daughter of", H1323G) + Levi — stack genealogical identifications tightly, a common feature of Hebrew genealogical notices. The relative clause introduced by asher ("whom", H0834A) modifies Jochebed, clarifying that she herself was born to Levi in Egypt, before the narrative shifts to what she produced for Amram. Each child (Aaron, Moses, Miriam) is marked with the direct object marker 'et (H0853), a grammatical marker with no independent meaning, simply flagging each name as a direct object of Teled ("she bore"). Miriam is further specified with 'achotam ("their sister", H0269 + suffix H9028), a construct noun with a plural pronominal suffix "their," identifying her relationship to Aaron and Moses as siblings.
Differences between versions
The Hebrew states that Jochebed was born le-Levi ("to Levi", H3878), i.e., that Levi was her father. The LXX renders this as ἢ ἔτεκεν τούτους τῷ Λευεί ("who bore these to Levi"), which shifts the sense so that Jochebed appears as the one bearing children to Levi rather than being born to him — a divergence from the Hebrew subordinate clause structure. The Vulgate follows a reading closer to the Hebrew, stating "quæ nata est ei in Ægypto" ("who was born to him in Egypt"), aligning with the Hebrew's asher yaldah construction describing Jochebed's own birth to Levi.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.