Numbers 3:46
וְאֵת פְּדוּיֵי הַשְּׁלֹשָׁה וְהַשִּׁבְעִים וְהַמָּאתָיִם הָעֹֽדְפִים עַל־הַלְוִיִּם מִבְּכוֹר בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וְאֵת֙ פְּדוּיֵ֣י הַשְּׁלֹשָׁ֔ה וְהַשִּׁבְעִ֖ים וְהַמָּאתָ֑יִם הָעֹֽדְפִים֙ עַל־הַלְוִיִּ֔ם מִבְּכ֖וֹר בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃
καὶ τὰ λύτρα, τρεῖς καὶ ἑβδομήκοντα κοὶ διακόσιοι, οἱ πλεονάζοντες παρὰ τοὺς Λευείτας ἀπὸ τῶν πρωτοτόκων τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραήλ·
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
In pretio autem ducentorum septuaginta trium, qui excedunt numerum Levitarum de primogenitis filiorum Israël,
Y para rescatar a los doscientos setenta y tres primogénitos de los hijos de Israel que sobrepasan el número de los levitas,
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y por los rescates de los doscientos y setenta y tres, que sobrepujan á los Levitas los primogénitos de los hijos de Israel,
To redeem the 273 firstborn Israelites who outnumber the Levites,
✦ What the text says
Summary
Numbers 3:46 specifies the group for whom redemption money must be paid: the 273 firstborn Israelites who exceed the total count of the Levites. The verse names this population using an additive numeral construction (three + seventy + two hundred) and describes them with a participle meaning "the ones exceeding."
Key words
- pedu.Yei ("[the] ransom of", H6302) — masculine plural construct; grammatically ties the redemption-status to the numbers that follow, marking this group as those requiring redemption money.
- ha.she.lo.Shah ("three", H7969) — cardinal number with definite article; first unit in the additive sequence.
- ha.shiv.'Im ("seventy", H7657) — cardinal number with definite article; second unit, joined by ve ("and", H9002).
- ha.ma.Ta.yim ("two hundred", H3967) — feminine dual form used for "hundred(s)"; third and largest unit of the sum.
- 'o.de.Fim ("are in excess", H5736) — qal participle, masculine plural; describes the ongoing state of the group as surplus relative to another group, here the Levites.
What the text says
The Hebrew builds the number 273 not as a single numeral but as three separate quantities joined by ve ("and"): ha.she.lo.Shah ("the three"), ve.ha.shiv.'Im ("and the seventy"), ve.ha.ma.Ta.yim ("and the two hundred"). Each numeral carries the definite article ha (H9009), which in Hebrew numeral syntax marks them as referring back to the already-established count of firstborn from the previous verses, rather than functioning as fresh cardinal counts.
The construct noun pedu.Yei ("ransom of", H6302) governs this whole numeral chain, so the phrase reads literally "the ransom-ones of the three and the seventy and the two hundred." The participle ha.'o.de.Fim ("the ones exceeding", H5736) then qualifies this same group, stating that they exceed 'al ha.Levi.Yim ("beyond the Levites", H5921A + H3881) — a prepositional phrase indicating the standard against which the surplus is measured. The final phrase, mi.be.Khor be.Nei Yisra'El ("from the firstborn of the sons of Israel", H1060 + H1121G + H3478), identifies the source population: these excess individuals are drawn from the firstborn males of the Israelites.
Differences between versions
The LXX (τρεῖς καὶ ἑβδομήκοντα καὶ διακόσιοι) preserves the same three-part additive numeral structure as the Hebrew. The Vulgate, however, collapses the three components into a single compound numeral, "ducentorum septuaginta trium" ("of two hundred seventy-three"), losing the separate ha-marked units. Modern renderings (BSB, SBLIBRE) likewise present the number as a unified "273," and BSB further compresses pedu.Yei... ha.'o.de.Fim into the descriptive phrase "firstborn Israelites who outnumber," omitting the explicit construct link to "ransom" that the Hebrew noun pedu.Yei carries.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.