Numbers 31:10

Summary

Numbers 31:10 describes the destruction by fire of all the cities and encampments belonging to the Midianites, specified as being located "in their dwelling places." The verse uses two parallel direct objects joined by "and," both governed by the single verb "they burned."

Key words

• kol ("all", H3605) — construct-state noun appearing twice, linking to "cities" and "encampments" respectively, marking totality of what is destroyed.
• 'arei ("cities", H5892B) — masculine plural construct, meaning "cities of," bound to the suffix "their" (Hem, H9028).
• moshevota ("dwelling places", H4186) — feminine plural construct, "dwelling places of," specifying the location where the cities stood, followed by "their" (m, H9028).
• tirota ("encampments", H2918) — feminine plural construct, "encampments of," parallel term to "cities," also followed by "their."
• sarefu ("they burned", H8313) — qal perfect, third person plural, the single main verb governing both direct objects, indicating completed action.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built on two coordinated direct-object phrases, each introduced by the object marker 'Et (H0853, untranslated): first "all their cities in their dwelling places" (kol-'arei-Hem be-moshevota-m), then "all their encampments" (kol-tirota-m). Both phrases depend on the single finite verb sarefu ("they burned", H8313), which appears only once at the end, governing both objects together. The construct chains (kol + 'arei, kol + tirota) express "all of the cities" and "all of the encampments" as complete sets, not selective portions.

The phrase be-moshevota-m ("in their dwelling places") modifies "their cities," clarifying that these were the cities where the Midianites actually resided, as opposed to fortified or seasonal sites. The final phrase ba-'Esh ("with the fire", H0784 + article) uses the definite article, literally "in the fire," a construction that in Hebrew idiom indicates burning by fire generally, without necessarily pointing to a specific, previously mentioned fire.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders moshevota ("dwelling places") with the phrase "ἐν ταῖς οἰκίαις αὐτῶν" ("in their houses"), narrowing "dwelling places" to "houses" specifically. The Vulgate compresses the two Hebrew object-phrases into three Latin nouns — "urbes... viculos et castella" ("cities... hamlets and forts") — without preserving the Hebrew's explicit clause about "dwelling places," and renders tirota ("encampments") as "castella" ("forts/strongholds"). The Spanish RV1909 and SBLIBRE also diverge slightly in vocabulary, using "aldeas y castillos" or "campamentos" for tirota, showing variation in how the term for non-urban settlements is understood across translations.