Numbers 31:36

וַתְּהִי הַֽמֶּחֱצָה חֵלֶק הַיֹּצְאִים בַּצָּבָא מִסְפַּר הַצֹּאן שְׁלֹשׁ־מֵאוֹת אֶלֶף וּשְׁלֹשִׁים אֶלֶף וְשִׁבְעַת אֲלָפִים וַחֲמֵשׁ מֵאֽוֹת׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וַתְּהִי֙ הַֽמֶּחֱצָ֔ה חֵ֕לֶק הַיֹּצְאִ֖ים בַּצָּבָ֑א מִסְפַּ֣ר הַצֹּ֗אן שְׁלֹשׁ־מֵא֥וֹת אֶ֙לֶף֙ וּשְׁלֹשִׁ֣ים אֶ֔לֶף וְשִׁבְעַ֥ת אֲלָפִ֖ים וַחֲמֵ֥שׁ מֵאֽוֹת׃

Greek (Septuagint)

καὶ ἐγενήθη τὸ ἡμίσευμα, ἡ μερὶς τῶν ἐκπεπορευμένων εἰς τὸν πόλεμον, ἐκ τοῦ ἀριθμοῦ τῶν προβάτων τριακόσια κα τριάκοντα χιλιάδες καὶ πεντακισχίλιοι καὶ πεντακόσιοι.

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

Latin (Vulgate)

Dataque est media pars his qui in prælio fuerant, ovium trecenta triginta septem millia quingentæ:

Spanish

La mitad correspondiente a los soldados que fueron a la guerra fue de trescientas treinta y siete mil quinientas ovejas;

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Y la mitad, la parte de los que habían salido á la guerra, fué el número de trescientas treinta y siete mil y quinientas ovejas.

English

This was the half portion for those who had gone to war: 337,500 sheep,

✦ What the text says

Summary

Numbers 31:36 records the exact size of one half of the captured flock of sheep — the portion assigned to the soldiers who had gone out to war. The verse gives the total by breaking the number into large numerical units: hundreds of thousands, tens of thousands, thousands, and hundreds.

Key words

tehi ("it was", H1961) — a qal verb in narrative form, opening the clause as a report of what "came to be" as the outcome of the division.
mechetzah ("the half", H4275) — definite feminine noun, the subject of the sentence: this half is what is being quantified.
chelek ("portion of", H2506A) — construct noun linking "the half" to those who receive it, forming "the half, portion of…".
hayotze'im ("the ones who had gone out", H3318G) — qal participle, masculine plural, functioning as a substantive: "those going out", i.e., the soldiers, referring to prior participation in the campaign.
tzava ("army/military service", H6635A) — noun specifying the context in which those men "went out", namely armed campaign.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence structure sets up a chain of construct relationships: mechetzah ("the half") stands as subject, followed by chelek hayotze'im ba-tzava ("the portion of those who had gone out in the army"), which identifies to whom that half belongs. Only after this identification does the text supply mispar ha-tzon ("the number of the sheep") followed by the numeral sequence itself. This ordering means the grammar first establishes ownership of the half-portion, then quantifies it — the number functions almost as an appositional clarification rather than the main predicate.

The number itself is built cumulatively through construct chains of cardinal numbers: shelosh-me'ot 'elef ("three hundred thousand"), u-shloshim 'elef ("and thirty thousand"), ve-shiv'at 'alafim ("and seven thousand"), va-chamesh me'ot ("and five hundred"). Each unit is joined by the conjunction ve- ("and", H9002), producing an additive total of 337,500, consistent with the totals given in the surrounding chapter for the flock's grand total before division.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (trecenta triginta septem millia quingentæ, "337,500") matches the Hebrew total. The LXX text as provided reads "τριακόσια καὶ τριάκοντα χιλιάδες καὶ πεντακισχίλιοι καὶ πεντακόσιοι," which sums to 335,500 — differing from the Hebrew's seven thousand (shiv'at 'alafim, H7651) by rendering a smaller thousands-unit (five thousand) instead.

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