Numbers 31:46

Summary

The verse states a numerical total: sixteen thousand human persons. It belongs to a list enumerating spoils taken after a military campaign, isolating the count of human captives from other categories of plunder mentioned in surrounding verses.

Key words

• nefesh ("person[s] of", H5315J) — feminine singular noun in construct state, meaning it grammatically binds to the following word adam; construct nouns in Hebrew form a linked phrase ("X of Y") rather than standing alone.
• adam ("humankind", H0120G) — masculine singular noun, here functioning as the genitive-like complement of the construct chain, specifying that the "persons" counted are human beings.
• shishah ("six-", H8337) — cardinal number, common gender, singular; combines with the next word to form the compound numeral "sixteen."
• asar ("teen", H6240) — cardinal number, common gender, singular; the "-teen" suffix element that pairs with shishah to produce "sixteen."
• elef ("thousand", H0505G) — cardinal number, common gender, singular; the multiplier that converts "sixteen" into "sixteen thousand."

What the text says

The Hebrew clause is built entirely from a construct-numeral chain: nefesh adam ("person[s] of humankind") functions as the subject or referent, followed immediately by the compound numeral shishah asar elef ("six-teen thousand"). The construct relationship between nefesh and adam is a standard Hebrew way of specifying category — "soul/person" narrowed to "of humankind" — distinguishing this count from other tallies (animals, objects) that appear in the surrounding verses of the chapter. Hebrew numerals above ten are typically expressed as compounds, and here shishah ("six") and asar ("-teen") combine, then elef ("thousand") multiplies the whole unit, yielding the value 16,000. The verse contains no verb; it is a nominal clause, a bare enumeration continuing a list format typical of census or spoil-accounting sections in the Hebrew Bible.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew nefesh adam ("person[s] of humankind") is rendered in the LXX as psychai anthrōpōn ("souls of humans"), a close structural parallel using a plural noun plus genitive. The Vulgate shifts to a prepositional phrase, de hominibus ("from/among the humans"), rather than preserving the construct-noun structure. The SBLIBRE Spanish translation adds the qualifier "vírgenes" ("virgins"), a specification not present in the Hebrew word-by-word data given here, reflecting information likely drawn from earlier verses in the chapter rather than from this verse's own wording.