Numbers 3:33

Summary

The verse identifies the two clans descended from Merari: the Mahlites and the Mushites. It closes the listing formula by restating that these two groups together constitute "the clans of Merari."

Key words

• mishpachat ("clan of", H4940) — feminine singular construct noun; used twice in construct form ("clan of the Mahlite," "clan of the Mushite"), linking each group directly to its eponymous ancestor.
• ha-Machli ("the Mahlite", H4250) — gentilic noun with definite article, marking Mahli's descendants as a defined group, not merely naming an individual.
• ha-Mushi ("the Mushite", H4188) — gentilic noun with definite article, parallel in form to ha-Machli, indicating the second branch of Merari's line.
• elleh hem ("these, they", H0428 + H1992) — demonstrative plus pronoun, together forming an emphatic closing phrase that summarizes and confirms the preceding list.
• mishpechot ("clans of", H4940) — same root as mishpachat but plural construct, shifting from naming individual clans to naming the collective category ("the clans of Merari") in the summary line.

What the text says

The verse opens with li-Merari ("to Merari", H4848 with preposition H9005), establishing possession: the following clans belong to Merari's lineage. The Hebrew then lists two clan names using the construct pattern mishpachat ha-X ("clan of the X"), where each gentilic noun (ha-Machli, ha-Mushi) carries the definite article, a grammatical feature that treats these not as personal names alone but as designations of extended family groups. The conjunction u- ("and", H9002) joins the two clan phrases as parallel items in the list.

The closing formula elleh hem mishpechot Merari ("these, they, [are the] clans of Merari") uses the plural form mishpechot rather than the singular mishpachat used earlier, marking a shift from itemizing individual clans to summarizing them as a collective category. The demonstrative elleh ("these") plus the resumptive pronoun hem ("they") creates a structure that restates and closes the unit, a pattern also seen for the other Levitical divisions in this chapter.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders ha-Machli as Μοολεί (Mooleí) and ha-Mushi as Μουσεί (Mouseí), transliterating the gentilic forms as proper names rather than preserving the Hebrew's definite-article construction with mishpachat. The LXX also uses δῆμος ("people/deme") where the Hebrew has mishpachat ("clan"), a Greek civic term substituting for the Hebrew's kinship term. The Vulgate similarly renders the names as Moholitae and Musitae, treating them as ethnic/tribal designations, and adds the phrase "recensiti per nomina sua" ("counted by their names"), an interpretive addition not present in the Hebrew text of this verse.