Numbers 3:41

וְלָקַחְתָּ אֶת־הַלְוִיִּם לִי אֲנִי יְהוָה תַּחַת כָּל־בְּכֹר בִּבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאֵת בֶּהֱמַת הַלְוִיִּם תַּחַת כָּל־בְּכוֹר בְּבֶהֱמַת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וְלָקַחְתָּ֨ אֶת־הַלְוִיִּ֥ם לִי֙ אֲנִ֣י יְהוָ֔ה תַּ֥חַת כָּל־בְּכֹ֖ר בִּבְנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל וְאֵת֙ בֶּהֱמַ֣ת הַלְוִיִּ֔ם תַּ֣חַת כָּל־בְּכ֔וֹר בְּבֶהֱמַ֖ת בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃

Greek (Septuagint)

καὶ λήμψῃ τοὺς Λευείτας ἐμοί, ἐγὼ Κύριος, ἀντὶ πάντων τῶν πρωτοτόκων τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραήλ, καὶ τὰ κτήνη τῶν Λευειτῶν ἀντὶ πάντων τῶν πρωτοτόκων ἐν τοῖς κτήνεσιν τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραήλ.

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

Latin (Vulgate)

Tollesque Levitas mihi pro omni primogenito filiorum Israël: ego sum Dominus: et pecora eorum pro universis primogenitis pecorum filiorum Israël.

Spanish

Tomarás a los levitas para mí, yo soy Yehová, en lugar de todos los primogénitos entre los hijos de Israel; y el ganado de los levitas en lugar de todos los primogénitos del ganado de los hijos de Israel”.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Y tomarás los Levitas para mí, yo Jehová, en lugar de todos los primogénitos de los hijos de Israel: y los animales de los Levitas en lugar de todos los primogénitos de los animales de los hijos de Israel.

English

You are to take the Levites for Me — I am the LORD — in place of all the firstborn of Israel, and the livestock of the Levites in place of all the firstborn of the livestock of the Israelites.”

✦ What the text says

Summary

Yehovah instructs Moses to take the Levites for himself in place of every firstborn among the Israelites, and likewise to take the livestock of the Levites in place of every firstborn among the livestock of the Israelites. The verse establishes a substitution formula applied in parallel to both people and animals.

Key words

la.kach.Ta ("you will take", H3947) — qal sequential perfect, second person masculine singular; continues the narrative sequence as a command directed to Moses.
Ta.chat ("in place of", H8478) — construct noun functioning as a preposition, marking substitution; it appears twice, once for the Levites and once for their livestock, structuring the verse's parallelism.
be.Khor ("firstborn", H1060) — masculine singular noun, the entity being replaced; paired with kol ("every", H3605) in construct chains ("every firstborn of...").
l.vi.Yim ("Levites", H3881) — gentilic plural with definite article, the group taken as substitute.
be.he.Mat ("livestock of", H0929) — feminine singular construct noun, used twice to build the second half of the parallel structure concerning animals.

What the text says

The verse divides into two symmetrical clauses joined by ve. ("and", H9002). The first clause has Moses as the implied subject of la.kach.Ta ("you will take", H3947), with ha.l.vi.Yim ("the Levites", H3881) marked by the direct object marker 'et (H0853) as the thing taken. The phrase li ("for me", H9005+H9030) followed by the emphatic 'a.Ni Yah.weh ("I, Yehovah", H0589+H3068) inserts the divine speaker directly into the sentence, marking the transaction as one made specifically for Yehovah's benefit. The substitution is expressed by Ta.chat ("in place of", H8478) governing the construct chain kol be.Khor bi.v.Nei Yis.ra.'El ("every firstborn among the sons of Israel").

The second clause mirrors the first exactly in structure but shifts the referents from people to animals: 'et be.he.Mat ha.l.vi.Yim ("the livestock of the Levites") replaces kol be.Khor be.be.he.Mat be.Nei Yis.ra.'El ("every firstborn among the livestock of the sons of Israel"). The repetition of Ta.chat and kol be.Khor in both halves creates a deliberate grammatical parallelism, extending the substitution logic from the human firstborn to animal firstborn without introducing new verbs — the verb la.kach.Ta from the first clause governs both objects across the whole verse.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate places ego sum Dominus ("I am the Lord") as a parenthetical clause between the two halves of the first statement, structurally similar to the Hebrew's insertion of 'a.Ni Yah.weh mid-sentence. The LXX renders this identically in position (ἐγὼ Κύριος). All versions preserve the double substitution structure (Levites/firstborn people; Levite livestock/firstborn livestock) without semantic divergence in this verse.

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