Numbers 31:2

Summary

Numbers 31:2 records a command given to take vengeance for the Israelites against the Midianites. The verse also states that after this act, the addressee will be gathered to his people, an expression associated with death.

Key words

• ne.Kom ("avenge", H5358) — qal imperative masculine singular; a direct command to perform the action of avenging.
• nik.Mat ("vengeance of", H5360) — feminine singular construct noun, linking "vengeance" to "the people of Israel" that follows.
• be.Nei Yis.ra.'El ("people of Israel", H1121G + H3478) — construct chain meaning "sons/people of Israel," the party on whose behalf vengeance is taken.
• te.'a.Sef ("you will be gathered", H0622) — niphal (passive) imperfect, meaning the subject undergoes the action of being gathered rather than performing it himself.
• 'a.Mei.kha ("your people", H5971B + H9021) — masculine plural construct noun with 2nd person masculine singular suffix, "your peoples" or "your people," the destination of the gathering.

What the text says

The verse opens with a doubled construction using the root nkm twice: the imperative ne.Kom ("avenge") followed immediately by its cognate noun nik.Mat ("vengeance of"). This is a common Hebrew intensifying pattern where a verb is paired with a noun from the same root, emphasizing the thoroughness or certainty of the action commanded. The vengeance is specified as belonging to be.Nei Yis.ra.'El ("the people of Israel"), using a construct chain, and its object is marked by the combined preposition me.'Et ("from with," H9006 + H0854), followed by ha.mid.ya.Nim ("the Midianites," H4084 with the definite article H9009).

The second half of the verse shifts grammatical voice. 'a.Char ("after," H0310A) introduces a temporal clause, and te.'a.Sef is a niphal (passive) imperfect form — the subject does not act but is acted upon, "you will be gathered." This passive construction is paired with 'el ("to," H0413) and 'a.Mei.kha ("your people[s]," H5971B plus the 2nd person suffix H9021), a masculine plural noun despite referring to a collective. The plural form of "people" here may reflect a way of referring to ancestors or kin-groups collectively rather than a single unified nation.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (VULCLEM) inserts prius ("first"), not present in the Hebrew or LXX, framing the vengeance as something to occur before the gathering, making the sequence explicit. The LXXSWETE renders the niphal te.'a.Sef with προστεθήσῃ ("you will be added"), a passive form conceptually close to "gathered" but using a different verb of addition rather than assembly. Some modern renderings (SBLIBRE) expand te.'a.Sef interpretively as "you will die and be reunited with your ancestors," adding the concept of death explicitly, which is not a separate lexical item in the Hebrew text itself.