Numbers 31:50

Summary

The military officers explain to Moses why they bring gold objects taken from the Midianite campaign as an offering to Yehovah. The items — armlets, bracelets, signet-rings, earrings, and ornaments — are presented specifically so that atonement can be made for their own lives before Yehovah.

Key words

• nakRev ("we have brought near", H7126H) — hiphil (causative) form: the subject causes the offering to approach/be presented, not merely "give."
• korBan ("offering of", H7133A) — construct noun, grammatically bound to Yehovah: "the offering-of-Yehovah," marking it as dedicated to him specifically.
• khaPer ("make atonement", H3722A) — piel infinitive, expressing intensified/purposive action: "in order to atone," stating the goal of the offering rather than a completed state.
• nafshoTeinu ("our selves/lives", H5315I + H9025) — construct plural noun with 1st person plural suffix; the atonement is stated as being "over" ('al) their own nefesh, their lives/persons, not over an abstract sin.
• lifNei Yehovah ("before Yehovah", H6440G + H3068G) — construct noun panim ("face") governed by preposition, expressing the spatial/relational frame: the offering is presented literally "to the face of" Yehovah.

What the text says

The sentence opens with the narrative va- prefix attached to nakRev, continuing the speech as a report of completed action: "and we have brought near." The direct object is marked by the untranslated particle 'et, governing korBan Yehovah, a construct chain meaning "the offering of Yehovah" — the noun korban is bound to the divine name, showing the offering's dedication. The subject performing the finding is generalized by 'ish 'asher matza', "each man who found," using the qal perfect matza' to describe a completed past action of discovery during the campaign.

The list of items — khli-zahav ("article of gold"), 'etz'adah ("armlet"), tzamid ("bracelet"), taba'at ("signet-ring"), 'agil ("earring"), khumaz ("ornament") — are all bare singular nouns joined by ve- ("and"), functioning as a catalog of object types rather than counted quantities. The purpose clause is introduced by le- plus the piel infinitive khaper, "to make atonement," governing the prepositional phrase 'al-nafshoteinu, "over our selves," and closing with lifnei Yehovah, "before Yehovah," which frames the entire action as occurring in the divine presence.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders korban Yehovah as τὸ δῶρον κυρίῳ ("the gift to the Lord"), using a dative rather than the Hebrew construct chain, and translates the list of items with different Greek object-terms (χλίδωνα, ψέλιον, δακτύλιον, περιδέξιον, ἐμπλόκιον) that do not map one-to-one onto the five Hebrew nouns. The Vulgate expands the introductory clause with "Ob hanc causam... singuli" ("for this reason... each one"), adding explanatory material not present as such in the Hebrew syntax, and renders le-khaper as a final subjunctive clause "ut depreceris pro nobis Dominum" ("that you may entreat the Lord for us"), shifting the agency of atonement toward Moses rather than keeping the infinitive construction impersonal as in the Hebrew.