Numbers 3:24

Summary

The verse identifies the head of the paternal house of the Gershonite clan: Eliasaph, son of Lael. It functions as a genealogical-administrative notice within the census/organization of the Levitical families.

Key words

• nasi ("leader of", H5387A) — masculine singular construct noun, meaning it must be followed by another noun to complete its sense ("leader of X"); here it introduces "house of a father."
• beit ("house of", H1004M) — masculine singular construct, forming a chain with nasi: "leader of [the] house of a father," a standard idiom for an ancestral or clan family unit.
• av ("a father", H0001G) — absolute singular noun completing the construct chain beit-av, "house of a father," the technical term for a patrilineal family group.
• la-Gereshunni ("of the Gershonite", H1649) — gentilic noun with prefixed preposition la- ("of the"/"belonging to the"), specifying which clan this "house of a father" belongs to.
• ben ("son of", H1121A) — masculine singular construct linking the personal name Elyasaf to his father Lael, the standard patronymic formula.

What the text says

The verse opens with the conjunction u- ("and", H9002) attached to nasi ("leader of", H5387A), continuing a list from the preceding context. The Hebrew builds a double construct chain: nesi beit-av — literally "leader of [the] house of a father" — a fixed expression designating the head of an ancestral family unit, not simply "leader" in isolation. This chain is then specified by la-Gereshunni ("of the Gershonite", H1649), a gentilic form indicating clan affiliation, so the full phrase reads "the leader of the ancestral house belonging to the Gershonite [clan]."

The second half of the verse identifies this leader by name: Elyasaf ben-Lael ("Eliasaph son of Lael"), using the standard ben ("son of", H1121A) construct pattern to state paternity. Notably, the Hebrew clause has no explicit verb; the identity of the leader is presented as a nominal sentence, a common structure in Hebrew genealogical and administrative lists where "to be" is implied rather than stated.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (VULCLEM) renders the verse elliptically, beginning with "sub principe" ("under the leader/prince"), which supplies a preposition not present in the Hebrew construct chain and connects it syntactically to the previous verse rather than presenting it as a standalone nominal clause. The LXX transliterates the clan name as "Gedsōn" and the personal names as "Elisaph" and "Daēl," showing Greek phonetic adaptations of the Hebrew Gereshunni (H1649) and Lael (H3815). Modern translations (BSB, RV1909, SBLIBRE) supply an explicit "was"/"será" to render the Hebrew's verbless nominal clause into a complete sentence, a grammatical necessity in English and Spanish absent from the Hebrew original.