Numbers 26:60

Summary

Numbers 26:60 states that four sons — Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar — were born to Aaron. The verse is a genealogical notice using a passive birth verb followed by the father's name and the list of sons marked as direct objects.

Key words

• va-yyivvaled ("and he was born", H3205) — niphal (passive) form of the verb "to bear/beget", carrying the narrative vav; the passive voice shifts focus from an implied begetter to the one begotten, and the singular verb agrees grammatically with the first-named son (Nadav), even though four sons are ultimately listed.
• le-Aharon ("to Aaron", H0175) — the preposition le ("to") marks Aaron as the person to whom the birth occurs, i.e., the father, without using a verb of "fathering" directly.
• 'et (H0853) — the direct object marker, repeated before each son's name (Nadav, Avihu, El'azar, Itamar); untranslated in English, it signals that each name functions as a grammatical object of the passive verb yivvaled.
• Nadav ("Nadab", H5070G) — first son named, functioning as the grammatical subject-object triggering the singular verb form despite the plural sense of the sentence.
• Itamar ("Ithamar", H0385) — last name in the list, joined by the conjunction ve ("and", H9002), closing the enumeration.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built around a single niphal verb, yivvaled, meaning "he was born" or "it was born," used here in a construction where the grammatical subject is technically singular (agreeing with the first son, Nadab) but the sense covers all four sons listed afterward. This is a common Biblical Hebrew pattern: a singular passive verb followed by a compound object list, where Hebrew does not require the verb to agree in number with a trailing series of names joined by 'et and ve. The preposition le before "Aaron" identifies him as the one "to whom" the sons were born, avoiding an active verb like "he fathered" and instead framing the sons as the recipients of the passive action of birth.

The four names are each introduced by the object marker 'et, which has no independent meaning but marks each name as grammatically dependent on the verb yivvaled. The repeated conjunction ve ("and") links the names into a single list rather than separate clauses.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the verb as ἐγενήθησαν ("they were born"), using a plural verb that agrees with all four sons, whereas the Hebrew yivvaled is grammatically singular. The LXX also spells the second son’s name as Ἀβιούδ ("Abioud") rather than matching the Hebrew Avihu ("Abihu", H0030) exactly in form. The Vulgate uses "orti sunt" ("they arose/were born"), also plural, aligning with the LXX’s number agreement rather than the Hebrew singular verb form.