Numbers 3:43

וַיְהִי כָל־בְּכוֹר זָכָר בְּמִסְפַּר שֵׁמוֹת מִבֶּן־חֹדֶשׁ וָמַעְלָה לִפְקֻדֵיהֶם שְׁנַיִם וְעֶשְׂרִים אֶלֶף שְׁלֹשָׁה וְשִׁבְעִים וּמָאתָֽיִם׃ פ

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וַיְהִי֩ כָל־בְּכ֨וֹר זָכָ֜ר בְּמִסְפַּ֥ר שֵׁמ֛וֹת מִבֶּן־חֹ֥דֶשׁ וָמַ֖עְלָה לִפְקֻדֵיהֶ֑ם שְׁנַ֤יִם וְעֶשְׂרִים֙ אֶ֔לֶף שְׁלֹשָׁ֥ה וְשִׁבְעִ֖ים וּמָאתָֽיִם׃ פ

Greek (Septuagint)

καὶ ἐγένοντο πάντα τὰ πρωτότοκα τὰ ἀρσενικὰ κατὰ ἀριθμὸν ἐξ ὀνόματος ἀπὸ μηνιαίου καὶ ἐπάνω ἐκ τῆς· ἐπισκέψεως αὐτῶν δύο καὶ εἴκοσι χιλιάδες, τρεῖς καὶ κοντα καὶ διακόσιοι.

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

Latin (Vulgate)

et fuerunt masculi per nomina sua, a mense uno et supra, viginti duo millia ducenti septuaginta tres.

Spanish

Todos los primogénitos varones, según el número de nombres, de un mes para arriba, de los que fueron contados, fueron veintidós mil doscientos setenta y tres.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Y todos los primogénitos varones, conforme á la cuenta de los nombres, de un mes arriba, los contados de ellos fueron veinte y dos mil doscientos setenta y tres.

English

The total number of the firstborn males a month old or more, listed by name, was 22,273.

✦ What the text says

Summary

Numbers 3:43 gives the final tally of the census of firstborn Israelite males counted "by name," from one month old and up. The verse states the total sum reached by adding the enrolled individuals: twenty-two thousand two hundred seventy-three.

Key words

bekhor ("firstborn", H1060) — masculine singular noun in construct with zakhar, forming "firstborn male," the category being counted.
ben-chodesh ("a son of a month", H1121L + H2320G) — construct phrase functioning idiomatically as an age marker, "a month old," used to set the minimum age threshold for the census.
mispar shemot ("number of names", H4557 + H8034) — construct chain meaning the count was taken "by name," i.e., individually registered rather than estimated.
pequdei ("enrolled [men]", H6485A) — qal passive participle, masculine plural construct, indicating those who were formally counted/mustered; the suffix hem ("their", H9028) ties the count to the group just named.
vayehi ("and it was", H1961) — qal narrative verb form that opens the clause, marking this as a reported result within the census narrative.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built around the verb vayehi ("and it was") followed by a long construct chain: "every firstborn male, by number of names, from a son of a month and upward, of their enrolled ones." This chain first defines the category counted (kol bekhor zakhar, "every firstborn male"), then specifies the method (bemispar shemot, "by number of names," i.e., individual registration), then the age threshold (miben-chodesh vama'lah, "from one month old and up"), and finally attaches the result to the group already enumerated (liphqudeihem, "of their enrolled ones").

The numerical total is expressed in Hebrew as a sequence of separate numeral phrases rather than a single compound number: "two and twenty thousand" (22,000), then "three and seventy" (73), then "and two hundred" (200). The Hebrew states these components in the order thousands, then units-and-tens, then hundreds, rather than the descending order (thousands, hundreds, tens, units) familiar from modern numeral systems.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew presents the number in the sequence 22,000 / 3-and-70 / 200, while the Vulgate ("viginti duo millia ducenti septuaginta tres") and the modern translations (BSB, RV1909, SBLIBRE) restate the same total in the order thousands-hundreds-tens-units (22,273). This is a difference in the order of presenting the numeral components, not a difference in the total value, which all versions agree is 22,273.

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