Numbers 3:9

Summary

Numbers 3:9 records a divine instruction to give the Levites over to Aaron and his sons. The verse emphasizes this transfer through a doubled verbal form, stating that the Levites are "given, given" to Aaron from among the Israelites.

Key words

• na.ta.Tah ("you will give", H5414G) — qal sequential perfect, second person masculine singular, continuing the narrative sequence of commands to Moses.
• l.vi.Yim ("Levites", H3881) — masculine plural gentilic noun with definite article, marking the group as the object of the giving.
• ne.tu.Nim ("assigned/given", H5414G) — qal passive participle, masculine plural, appearing twice in succession in the Hebrew text.
• he.mah ("they", H1992) — third person masculine plural independent pronoun, reinforcing the subject after the doubled participle.
• be.Nei ("sons/people of", H1121G) — masculine plural construct noun, linking to Yis.ra.'El ("Israel", H3478) to indicate the source group from whom the Levites are taken.

What the text says

The verse opens with a narrative vav (H9001) attached to na.ta.Tah, a qal sequential perfect verb in the second person, continuing a chain of instructions given to Moses. The direct object is marked by 'et (H0853, untranslated) followed by ha.l.vi.Yim, "the Levites," with the definite article specifying the group already introduced in the preceding verses. The recipients are marked by the preposition le (H9005) attached to 'a.ha.Ron ("Aaron") and, via the conjunction u (H9002) plus le again, to va.Na ("sons") with the third-person pronominal suffix v ("his"), yielding "to Aaron and to his sons."

The second half of the verse contains a distinctive grammatical feature: the qal passive participle ne.tu.Nim ("assigned" or "given") appears twice in immediate succession, both times masculine plural. This doubling is not a scribal repetition of separate words but a Hebrew intensifying construction, where repeating the same participle underscores the totality or certainty of the action — the Levites are fully and completely given over. Following the doubled participle, the independent pronoun he.mah ("they") restates the subject explicitly, adding further emphasis. The phrase closes with me (H9006, "from") plus 'Et (H0854, "with"), forming a compound expression before be.Nei Yis.ra.'El, "the sons of Israel," identifying the group from among whom the Levites are drawn.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew's doubled participle ne.tu.Nim ne.tu.Nim ("given, given") is rendered in the LXX as a single participle plus noun, δεδομένοι δόμα ("given as a gift"), which conveys intensity through a cognate noun-verb pairing rather than repetition. The Vulgate text provided is truncated ("Dabisque dono Levitas..."), showing only the opening command with dono ("as a gift"), corresponding to a similar strategy of using a noun to render the emphatic sense rather than repeating the participle.