Numbers 3:42

Summary

The verse reports that Moses carried out a census of every firstborn among the people of Israel, doing so in exact accordance with the command Yehovah had given him.

Key words

• va-yifqod ("and he enrolled", H6485A) — qal narrative verb; the vav-consecutive marks this as the next event in the sequence, and the simple (qal) stem presents Moses' action as a straightforward act of counting/registering.
• ka'asher ("as", H0834D combined with H9004) — relative particle with prefixed preposition "just," introducing a clause of comparison that ties Moses' action directly to a prior command.
• tzivvah ("he had commanded", H6680) — piel perfect verb; the piel stem carries an intensive/directive nuance ("to charge, command"), and the perfect aspect marks this as a completed act prior to Moses' enrollment.
• oto ("him", H0853+H9033) — direct object marker with pronominal suffix, showing that the command was addressed specifically to Moses.
• bekhor ("firstborn", H1060) — masculine singular noun in construct with "every" (kol), forming the phrase "every firstborn," the object being counted.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with a vav-consecutive verb, va-yifqod ("and he enrolled," H6485A), which places this action as a direct continuation of the preceding narrative. The subject is Mosheh ("Moses," H4872), and the verb is qal, indicating a simple, direct act of enrolling or registering rather than an intensified or repeated action.

The comparative clause ka'asher tzivvah Yehovah oto ("as Yehovah had commanded him") uses the piel perfect tzivvah ("he had commanded," H6680) to mark an action completed before the main verb's time frame — the command preceded the enrollment. The direct object marker with suffix, oto ("him," H0853+H9033), clarifies that Moses himself was the recipient of the command, not a general instruction.

The object of Moses' enrollment is introduced by a second direct object marker, et, followed by kol-bekhor ("every firstborn," H3605+H1060), a construct phrase functioning as "every firstborn of." This is further specified by bi-vnei Yisra'el ("among the people of Israel," H1121G+H3478), using the preposition bi ("among," H9003) rather than a possessive construction — the firstborn are located "among" the Israelites rather than simply "belonging to" them, a nuance not distinguished in the English or Spanish translations, which render it as "of the sons of Israel."

Differences between versions

The LXX renders va-yifqod with epeskepsato ("he numbered/reviewed"), a term for inspection or census-taking, matching the sense of enrollment. The Vulgate's recensuit ("he reviewed/counted") similarly reflects a census action. All three traditions (Hebrew, LXX, Vulgate) agree on the basic structure: Moses acting in compliance with a prior divine command concerning the firstborn of Israel.