Numbers 3:34
וּפְקֻדֵיהֶם בְּמִסְפַּר כָּל־זָכָר מִבֶּן־חֹדֶשׁ וָמָעְלָה שֵׁשֶׁת אֲלָפִים וּמָאתָֽיִם׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וּפְקֻדֵיהֶם֙ בְּמִסְפַּ֣ר כָּל־זָכָ֔ר מִבֶּן־חֹ֖דֶשׁ וָמָ֑עְלָה שֵׁ֥שֶׁת אֲלָפִ֖ים וּמָאתָֽיִם׃
ἡ ἐπίσκεψις αὐτῶν κατὰ ἀριθμόν, πᾶν ἀρσενικὸν ἀπὸ μηνιαίου καὶ ἐπάνω, ἑξακισχίλιοι καὶ πεντήκοντα·
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
omnes generis masculini ab uno mense et supra, sex millia ducenti.
Los contados de ellos, según el número de todos los varones de un mes para arriba, fueron seis mil doscientos.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y los contados de ellos conforme á la cuenta de todos los varones de un mes arriba, fueron seis mil y doscientos.
The number of all the males a month old or more was 6,200.
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse gives the total census count for a Levite group: all males counted "from a son of a month and up" (i.e., one month old or older) numbered six thousand two hundred, according to the Hebrew text.
Key words
- fekudei ("enrolled [men]", H6485A) — qal passive participle, masculine plural construct; denotes those who have been counted/mustered, here in construct with the following pronominal suffix "their."
- mispar ("number of", H4557) — masculine singular construct noun, introducing the basis of counting ("by the number of").
- zakhar ("male", H2145) — masculine singular adjective, specifying the counted group is restricted to males.
- ben-chodesh ("a son of a month", H1121L + H2320G) — construct phrase literally "son of a month," idiomatic for "one month old," setting the minimum age threshold.
- sheshet alaphim ("six of thousands", H8337 + H0505G) — construct numeral phrase meaning "six thousand," combined with matayim ("two hundred", H3967), a feminine dual form used for the number two hundred.
What the text says
The sentence opens with u-fekudeihem ("and their enrolled ones"), a passive participle in construct with a third-person plural suffix, meaning the group previously identified (contextually the Levite clan being counted) is the subject of the count. The phrase be-mispar kol-zakhar ("by the number of every male") specifies that the counting criterion is maleness, using zakhar as a qualifying adjective rather than a separate noun for "man."
The age threshold is expressed through the construct chain mi-ben-chodesh va-ma'lah — literally "from a son of a month and upward" — where ben ("son of") is used idiomatically to denote age, a common Biblical Hebrew construction. The directional he suffix on ma'lah reinforces the sense of upward extension ("and beyond/upward"), indicating no upper age limit is set, only a lower one.
The final numeral phrase, sheshet alaphim u-matayim ("six thousand and two hundred"), uses sheshet in construct form before alaphim ("thousands"), a standard Hebrew numeral construction, followed by the additive conjunction u- ("and") before matayim, the dual form used specifically for "two hundred" (since Hebrew treats "hundred" pairs as a dual noun).
Differences between versions
The Hebrew text (TAHOT), the Vulgate ("sex millia ducenti," six thousand two hundred), and the modern translations (RV1909, BSB, SBLIBRE) all agree on the total of 6,200. The Septuagint (LXXSWETE), however, gives a different number: ἑξακισχίλιοι καὶ πεντήκοντα, "six thousand and fifty" (6,050), diverging numerically from the Hebrew and Latin textual traditions represented here.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.