Numbers 31:28

וַהֲרֵמֹתָ מֶכֶס לַֽיהוָה מֵאֵת אַנְשֵׁי הַמִּלְחָמָה הַיֹּצְאִים לַצָּבָא אֶחָד נֶפֶשׁ מֵחֲמֵשׁ הַמֵּאוֹת מִן־הָאָדָם וּמִן־הַבָּקָר וּמִן־הַחֲמֹרִים וּמִן־הַצֹּֽאן׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וַהֲרֵמֹתָ֨ מֶ֜כֶס לַֽיהוָ֗ה מֵאֵ֞ת אַנְשֵׁ֤י הַמִּלְחָמָה֙ הַיֹּצְאִ֣ים לַצָּבָ֔א אֶחָ֣ד נֶ֔פֶשׁ מֵחֲמֵ֖שׁ הַמֵּא֑וֹת מִן־הָאָדָם֙ וּמִן־הַבָּקָ֔ר וּמִן־הַחֲמֹרִ֖ים וּמִן־הַצֹּֽאן׃

Greek (Septuagint)

καὶ ἀφελεῖτε τέλος κυρίῳ παρὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων τῶν πολεμιστῶν τῶν ἐκπεπορευμένων εἰς τὴν παράταξιν, μίαν ψυχὴν ἀπὸ πεντακοσίων, ἀπὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν κτηνῶν κοὶ ἀπὸ τῶν βοῶν καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν προβάτων καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν αἰγῶν.

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

Et separabis partem Domino ab his qui pugnaverunt et fuerunt in bello, unam animam de quingentis, tam ex hominibus quam ex bobus et asinis et ovibus,

Spanish

De la mitad que le toca a los soldados, separarás un impuesto para Yehová: uno de cada quinientos, ya sean personas, vacas, burros u ovejas.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Y apartarás para Jehová el tributo de los hombres de guerra, que salieron á la guerra: de quinientos uno, así de las personas como de los bueyes, de los asnos, y de las ovejas:

English

Set aside a tribute for the LORD from what belongs to the soldiers who went into battle: one out of every five hundred, whether persons, cattle, donkeys, or sheep.

✦ What the text says

Summary

Moses instructs that a levy be set apart for Yehovah from the share belonging to the soldiers who went out to battle: one unit out of every five hundred, taken from the human captives, cattle, donkeys, and sheep.

Key words

ha.re.mo.Ta ("you will raise/set apart", H7311A) — hiphil (causative) sequential perfect: the causative stem marks a deliberate act of separating or lifting out a portion, continuing the narrative sequence of instructions.
Me.khes ("a tax/levy", H4371) — masculine singular noun, a specific term for a portion set aside as tribute, distinct from generic words for "gift" or "offering."
'an.Shei ha.mil.cha.Mah ("men of the war", H0582 + H4421) — construct chain ("men of war"): identifies precisely whose share is being taxed, namely those who physically fought.
'e.Chad ... me.cha.Mesh ha.me.'ot ("one ... from the five hundred", H0259 + H2568 + H3967) — cardinal numbers in construct form express a ratio: one unit is drawn out of every group of five hundred.
Tzon ("sheep/flock", H6629G) — common gender singular noun used collectively; in Biblical Hebrew this term can denote small livestock generally, including both sheep and goats.

What the text says

The verse opens with a narrative vav attached to a hiphil sequential perfect, va.ha.re.mo.Ta, which continues a chain of prior instructions and signals a causative action — the addressee is told to actively "raise" or "lift out" something, here specified as mekhes, a tax or levy assigned "to Yehovah" (la.Yehovah). The source of this levy is marked by a double preposition, me'et, "from with," followed by a construct chain "men of the war, the ones going out to the campaign" — this construct phrasing narrows the group precisely to combatants, not the whole community of Israel.

The ratio for the levy is expressed through a construct numeral pattern: "one, a person" ('echad nefesh) "from the five hundred" (mechamesh hame'ot). The four categories subject to this levy — ha'adam ("humankind"), habaqar ("cattle"), hachamorim ("donkeys"), and hatzon ("sheep/flock") — are joined by repeated min ("from") plus conjunction vav, creating a parallel list structure where each category is treated as an equally weighted source for the one-in-five-hundred levy.

Differences between versions

The LXX (Swete) list of categories differs from the Hebrew: it renders τῶν ἀνθρώπων ("humans"), τῶν κτηνῶν ("livestock," a generic term not present as a separate item in the Hebrew list), τῶν βοῶν ("oxen"), τῶν προβάτων ("sheep"), καὶ τῶν αἰγῶν ("and goats") — five categories where the Hebrew has four ('adam, baqar, chamorim, tzon). The Hebrew tzon (H6629G), a collective term that can include both sheep and goats, appears to be split by the LXX into πρόβατα and αἶγες; the LXX also lacks any equivalent for chamorim ("donkeys," H2543). The Vulgate's list — hominibus, bobus, asinis, ovibus — corresponds more closely to the Hebrew's four categories (humans, cattle, donkeys, sheep/flock).

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.