Numbers 31:40

Summary

The verse records that the human persons taken were sixteen thousand, and that the tax portion set aside for Yehovah from this group was thirty-two persons.

Key words

• Nefesh ("[the] person[s] of", H5315J) — feminine singular construct noun, linking to adam to form the phrase "person(s) of humankind"; the construct state shows this is not a free-standing noun but modifies what follows.
• 'Adam ("humankind", H0120G) — masculine singular noun, here used generically for human beings rather than as a proper name.
• Miksam ("tax", H4371) — masculine singular construct noun bearing the third-person plural suffix -m ("their"), producing "their tax," i.e., the portion drawn from the total count.
• Shenayim ("[was] two", H8147) — cardinal number in dual form, combined with sheloshim ("thirty", H7970, masculine plural) to express "thirty-two."
• Nefesh ("person[s]", H5315J) — the same feminine singular noun reappears at the end, this time not in construct, closing the sentence with the unit being counted.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence has two balanced clauses joined by ve ("and", H9002). The first clause, ve-nefesh adam shishah asar 'alef, states the total: "and the persons of humankind: sixteen thousand." Here nefesh is in construct with adam, a common Biblical Hebrew way of expressing "human persons" without a possessive sense — the construct simply binds the two nouns into one compound expression, "person(s)-of-mankind."

The second clause, u-miksam la-YHWH shenayim u-sheloshim nefesh, introduces the noun miksam ("tax") with a third-person plural suffix, so the phrase reads "and their tax, for Yehovah, [was] thirty-two persons." The preposition la ("for", H9005) prefixed to the divine name marks the recipient of this portion. Notably, nefesh at the end of the verse is not repeated in construct form, so it functions as the counted unit itself ("thirty-two persons"), rather than continuing the construct chain from the first clause. The two numbers, sixteen thousand and thirty-two, are grammatically independent statements sharing the noun nefesh as their subject matter, producing a ratio structure typical of the surrounding census material in this chapter.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew miksam ("their tax") is rendered by the LXX as τὸ τέλος αὐτῶν ("their end/due"), and by the Vulgate as cesserunt in partem ("fell to the portion"), both conveying the idea of an allotted share without using a term specifically meaning "tax." The SBLIBRE Spanish translation adds "mujeres vírgenes" ("virgin women"), a specification not present in the Hebrew wording of this verse, which uses only the general terms nefesh and adam.