Numbers 3:28

בְּמִסְפַּר כָּל־זָכָר מִבֶּן־חֹדֶשׁ וָמָעְלָה שְׁמֹנַת אֲלָפִים וְשֵׁשׁ מֵאוֹת שֹׁמְרֵי מִשְׁמֶרֶת הַקֹּֽדֶשׁ׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

בְּמִסְפַּר֙ כָּל־זָכָ֔ר מִבֶּן־חֹ֖דֶשׁ וָמָ֑עְלָה שְׁמֹנַ֤ת אֲלָפִים֙ וְשֵׁ֣שׁ מֵא֔וֹת שֹׁמְרֵ֖י מִשְׁמֶ֥רֶת הַקֹּֽדֶשׁ׃

Greek (Septuagint)

κατὰ ἀριθμόν, πᾶν ἀρσενικὸν ἀπὸ μηνιαίου καὶ ἐπάνω, ὀκτακισχίλιοι καὶ ἑξακόσιοι, φυλάσσοντες τὰς φυλακὰς τῶν ἁγίων.

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

Omnes generis masculini ab uno mense et supra, octo millia sexcenti habebunt excubias sanctuarii,

Spanish

Según el número de todos los varones de un mes en adelante, había ocho mil seiscientos encargados de cuidar el santuario.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Por la cuenta de todos los varones de un mes arriba, eran ocho mil y seiscientos, que tenían la guarda del santuario.

English

The number of all the males a month old or more was 8,600. They were responsible for the duties of the sanctuary.

✦ What the text says

Summary

The verse gives the total count of males one month old and older within the Kohathite clans: 8,600. It states that these individuals held responsibility for the guard duty of the holy place.

Key words

mispar ("the number of", H4557) — masculine singular construct noun, opening the verse with "by the number of," setting up a quantified census statement.
zakhar ("male", H2145) — masculine singular adjective functioning as a substantive, specifying the sex criterion for the count, paired with kol ("every", H3605).
shemonat ("eight", H8083) — cardinal number in construct form, meaning it must attach to the following noun 'alafim ("thousands", H0505G) to form "eight of thousands," i.e., eight thousand.
shomrei ("the keepers of", H8104H) — Qal participle masculine plural construct, literally "ones guarding of," linking the counted men to their function; the construct state ties it directly to mishmeret ("the duty of", H4931).
mishmeret ha-qodesh ("the duty of the holy place", H4931 + H6944G) — construct chain naming the specific responsibility, "the guard-duty of the holy place," with the definite article on qodesh marking it as a specific sanctuary space.

What the text says

The verse structure moves from a counting formula to a numerical total and finally to a functional designation. It opens with be-mispar ("by the number of") governing the phrase kol-zakhar mi-ben-chodesh va-ma'elah — literally "every male from a son of a month and upward," an idiomatic Hebrew way of expressing age brackets using ben ("son of", H1121L) plus a time unit, here chodesh ("month", H2320G). The directional suffix -ah on ma'elah ("up-wards") reinforces the sense of an open-ended upper limit ("and above").

The numeral phrase shemonat 'alafim ve-shesh me'ot ("eight of thousands and six hundreds") uses the construct form of shemonat to bind it to 'alafim, producing the compound number 8,600, with shesh ("six", H8337) and me'ot ("hundreds", H3967) added by simple conjunction rather than construct.

The final clause identifies the counted group by their duty: shomrei mishmeret ha-qodesh. The participle shomrei is in construct with mishmeret, creating a chain "keepers of the duty of the holiness/holy place." This construct chain expresses function rather than a separate verbal clause — the Hebrew presents the census total and the duty description as one continuous nominal statement, without a finite verb "were" or "had," which translations must supply.

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.