Numbers 3:36

וּפְקֻדַּת מִשְׁמֶרֶת בְּנֵי מְרָרִי קַרְשֵׁי הַמִּשְׁכָּן וּבְרִיחָיו וְעַמֻּדָיו וַאֲדָנָיו וְכָל־כֵּלָיו וְכֹל עֲבֹדָתֽוֹ׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וּפְקֻדַּ֣ת מִשְׁמֶרֶת֮ בְּנֵ֣י מְרָרִי֒ קַרְשֵׁי֙ הַמִּשְׁכָּ֔ן וּבְרִיחָ֖יו וְעַמֻּדָ֣יו וַאֲדָנָ֑יו וְכָל־כֵּלָ֔יו וְכֹ֖ל עֲבֹדָתֽוֹ׃

Greek (Septuagint)

ἡ ἐπίσκεψις ἲς ἡ φυλακὴ υἱῶν Μεραρεί· τὰς κεφαλίδας τῆς σκηνῆς καὶ τοὺς μοχλοὺς αὐτῆς καὶ τοὺς στύλους αὐτῆς καὶ τὰς βάσεις αὐτῆς, καὶ πάντα τὰ σκεύη αὐτῶν καὶ τὰ ἔργα αὐτῶν,

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

Latin (Vulgate)

Erunt sub custodia eorum tabulæ tabernaculi et vectes, et columnæ ac bases earum, et omnia quæ ad cultum hujuscemodi pertinent:

Spanish

La tarea asignada a los hijos de Merari será cuidar las tablas del tabernáculo, sus travesaños, sus postes, sus bases, todos sus accesorios, todo su servicio,

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Y á cargo de los hijos de Merari estará la custodia de las tablas del tabernáculo, y sus barras, y sus columnas, y sus basas, y todos sus enseres, con todo su servicio:

English

The duties assigned to the sons of Merari were the tabernacle ’s frames, crossbars, posts, bases, and all its equipment — all the service for these items,

✦ What the text says

Summary

Numbers 3:36 lists the objects placed under the responsibility of the descendants of Merari: the frames, bars, pillars, bases, and all equipment and service related to the tabernacle structure. The verse consists almost entirely of a chain of construct nouns specifying what falls under this "duty" or "office."

Key words

fekuddat ("office of", H6486) — feminine singular construct noun, opening the verse; it introduces the object of oversight, linked to the next word in a construct chain.
mishmeret ("duty of", H4931) — feminine singular construct noun, stacked onto fekuddat, forming a double-construct expression ("the office of the duty of") before naming who holds it.
benei ("sons of", H1121A) — masculine plural construct, links the abstract duty to the concrete group responsible: the descendants of Merari.
qarshei ("frames of", H7175) — masculine plural construct, begins the actual list of physical tabernacle components under Merari's charge.
kol ("all of", H3605), appearing twice — construct singular noun functioning as a totalizing quantifier, closing the list with "all its articles" and "all its service."

What the text says

The verse opens with a stacked construct chain: fekuddat ("office of") + mishmeret ("duty of") + benei Merari ("sons of Merari"). This double-construct structure — an abstract noun governing another abstract noun before reaching the actual group — expresses something like "the assigned charge of the duty belonging to the sons of Merari." Hebrew here builds the phrase through successive genitive-like links rather than a single noun plus modifier, a stacking pattern not easily replicated in translation.

After naming the responsible group, the text shifts to a list of construct nouns, each governing an implied or overt "of it" (via the pronominal suffix -o/"its," H9023) referring back to ha-mishkan ("the tabernacle", H4908): qarshei ("frames of"), berichav ("its bars"), ammudav ("its pillars"), adanav ("its bases"). Every item in this list is grammatically bound to the tabernacle through construct or suffix, meaning the Hebrew syntax itself encodes ownership — each part belongs to, or is a component of, the tabernacle structure. The list closes with two totalizing terms, kol kelav ("all its articles") and kol avodato ("all its service"), each again marked with the third-person masculine singular suffix pointing back to the tabernacle.

The construct chain format means the verse contains no finite verb; it is a nominal sentence, a list rather than a narrated action, consistent with the administrative, cataloguing style of this section of Numbers.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the double-construct opening (fekuddat mishmeret) with two nouns, episkepsis ("oversight") and phylake ("guard duty"), joined by a connective (ἲς) rather than a construct chain, achieving a similar layered sense through coordination. The Vulgate simplifies the opening entirely, dropping the abstract "office/duty" phrasing and beginning instead with "Erunt sub custodia eorum" ("they will be under their guard"), turning the nominal Hebrew list into a verbal clause with a future tense not present in the Hebrew text.

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