Numbers 31:22

Summary

The verse lists six metals — gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin, and lead — introduced by a restrictive adverb that sets them apart from what precedes. Each metal is marked as a direct object, indicating they are the items acted upon by a verb stated elsewhere in the passage (verse 23 specifies purification through fire).

Key words

• 'akh ("only", H0389) — a restrictive adverb that isolates this list of metals from the preceding material (the human and animal spoils mentioned earlier in the chapter), signaling a shift to inanimate objects.
• zaHav ("gold", H2091) — masculine singular noun, first item in the list, marked with the definite article ha- and the object marker 'et.
• neChoshet ("bronze", H5178A) — feminine singular noun; note that this word and 'oFaret ("lead") are grammatically feminine, while the other four metals are masculine, though this makes no difference in translation.
• beDil ("tin", H0913) — masculine singular noun, positioned fifth in the Hebrew sequence.
• 'oFaret ("lead", H5777) — feminine singular noun, final item, joined to the list with the conjunction ve- ("and").

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built entirely from a chain of six nouns, each preceded by the definite article ha- ("the") and the direct object marker 'et, repeated before every item except where ve- ("and") replaces it. This repetition of 'et before nearly every noun is a stylistic feature of Biblical Hebrew lists: it treats each metal as an individually marked object rather than a single collective mass, even though English and other target languages render the list with simple commas. The opening adverb 'akh ("only") functions to restrict the referent, indicating that what follows is a distinct or exclusive category — here, the metallic objects singled out from the broader spoils described in the surrounding verses. The verse itself contains no verb; it is a nominal list that depends syntactically on material before or after it (the following verse describes what is to be done with these items, namely passing them through fire).

Differences between versions

The Hebrew lists the metals in this order: gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin (bedil), lead ('oferet). The LXX (Swete) reverses the last two, giving gold, silver, bronze, iron, lead (molibou), tin (kassiterou). The Vulgate follows the same order as the LXX: aurum, argentum, aes, ferrum, plumbum (lead), stannum (tin). Modern translations such as the BSB and RV1909 restore the Hebrew sequence with tin before lead, while the SBLIBRE reorders further, listing bronze before iron and adding "objeto de" ("object of") not present in the Hebrew wording.