Numbers 27:18

Summary

Yehovah instructs Moses to take Joshua son of Nun, described as a man in whom there is a ruach ("spirit", H7307), and to lay his hand upon him. The verse consists of a divine command with two imperative-type actions: taking Joshua and performing a hand-laying gesture.

Key words

• kach ("take", H3947) — qal imperative, second person masculine singular; opens the command with direct address to Moses.
• ruach ("a spirit", H7307) — feminine singular noun, used without the article, describing what is "in him" (bo, H9033 + preposition).
• ish ("a man", H0376) — masculine singular noun in apposition to Joshua's name, introducing the relative clause that qualifies him.
• samakhta ("you will lay", H5564) — qal sequential perfect (vav + perfect), continuing the chain of commands begun by kach; grammatically it advances the narrative sequence of instructions rather than being a separate imperative.
• yad ("hand", H3027) — construct singular noun with second-person suffix (yadkha, "your hand"), singular in number.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative formula va-yomer Yehovah el-Mosheh ("and Yehovah said to Moses"), a standard introduction to direct speech. The command itself has two parts joined by the narrative structure: first the imperative kach-lekha ("take for yourself"), using the preposition le with pronominal suffix to add a reflexive or benefactive nuance ("take for yourself" rather than simply "take"). Joshua is identified by patronymic (ben-Nun, "son of Nun") and then described through an appositional noun phrase: ish asher-ruach bo ("a man in whom [is] a spirit"). This relative clause uses the particle asher ("whom", H0834) followed by the noun ruach and the prepositional phrase bo ("in him"), a construction that states the presence of the ruach without specifying its origin or nature beyond what the noun itself conveys.

The second command, ve-samakhta et-yadkha alav ("and you will lay your hand upon him"), uses the sequential perfect form samakhta, a common way in Biblical Hebrew to continue a command after an initial imperative. The noun yad ("hand") appears in the singular, with a second-person masculine suffix, specifying one hand rather than two.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew yadkha ("your hand") is singular, while the LXX renders it as τὰς χεῖράς σου ("your hands"), plural. The Vulgate's manum tuam ("your hand") matches the Hebrew singular. Regarding the description of Joshua, the LXX phrase ἄνθρωπον ὃς ἔχει πνεῦμα ἐν ἑαυτῷ ("a man who has spirit in himself") parallels the Hebrew relative construction closely, while the Spanish SBLIBRE translation adds interpretive material — "porque es un hombre lleno del Espíritu" ("because he is a man full of the Spirit") — introducing a causal porque ("because") and the qualifier "lleno" ("full") not present in the Hebrew ish asher-ruach bo. SBLIBRE also adds "sobre su cabeza" ("upon his head"), specifying a location not stated in the Hebrew alav ("upon him").