Numbers 27:17

Summary

Numbers 27:17 describes the qualifications of the leader Moses requests to succeed him, using four parallel relative clauses built on movement verbs (going out, coming in, leading out, bringing in). The verse concludes with a purpose clause stating that the congregation of Yehovah should not be like sheep without a shepherd.

Key words

• 'a.Sher ("who/that", H0834A) — the relative particle repeated four times (and a fifth time in v.28), creating a chain of parallel descriptive clauses, each defining an action of the future leader.
• ye.Tze' ("he will go out", H3318G) — qal imperfect, denoting a simple, non-causative action: the leader himself goes out.
• yo.tzi.'Em ("he will lead them out", H3318H) — hiphil imperfect of the same root as ye.Tze', but causative: the leader causes others (the suffix -em, "them", H9038) to go out, rather than going out alone.
• 'e.Dat ("congregation of", H5712) — feminine singular construct noun, grammatically linking directly to Yehovah (H3068G) to form "congregation of Yehovah."
• ro.'Eh ("a shepherd", H7462B) — qal participle, "the one doing [the shepherding]," describing an ongoing role rather than a completed or punctual act.

What the text says

The verse is built on two verbal roots — yatza' ("to go out," H3318) and bo' ("to come," H0935) — each appearing twice: first in the qal (simple) stem describing the leader's own movement (ye.Tze', "he will go out"; ya.Vo', "he will come"), and then in the hiphil (causative) stem describing the leader making others move (yo.tzi.'Em, "he will lead them out"; ye.vi.'Em, "he will bring them"). This grammatical shift from simple to causative stem, using the identical roots, expresses without extra vocabulary the difference between a leader accompanying the people and a leader actively directing them. Each clause is introduced by the relative particle 'a.Sher (H0834A), producing a stacked, list-like structure that emphasizes multiple aspects of leadership rather than a single trait.

The final clause shifts from these relative descriptions to a negative purpose statement: lo' tih.Yeh ("it will not be," H1961, qal imperfect feminine) governs 'a.Dat Yehovah ("congregation of Yehovah," H5712 + H3068G), compared ka.Tzon ("like the sheep," H6629G) that have no ro.'Eh ("shepherd," H7462B). The participle form of ro.'Eh presents shepherding as an ongoing activity, so the sheep's condition is defined by the absence of someone continuously performing that function, rather than a one-time occurrence.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the two causative hiphil verbs yo.tzi.'Em and ye.vi.'Em with a single phrase, "ὅστις ἐξάξει αὐτοὺς αὐτούς" ("who will lead them, them"), collapsing the Hebrew's two distinct verbs (yatza'/bo' causatives) into one Greek verb (ἐξάξει) with a doubled object, where the Hebrew clearly separates "leading out" from "bringing in" as two separate actions.