Numbers 31:9
וַיִּשְׁבּוּ בְנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶת־נְשֵׁי מִדְיָן וְאֶת־טַפָּם וְאֵת כָּל־בְּהֶמְתָּם וְאֶת־כָּל־מִקְנֵהֶם וְאֶת־כָּל־חֵילָם בָּזָֽזוּ׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וַיִּשְׁבּ֧וּ בְנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֛ל אֶת־נְשֵׁ֥י מִדְיָ֖ן וְאֶת־טַפָּ֑ם וְאֵ֨ת כָּל־בְּהֶמְתָּ֧ם וְאֶת־כָּל־מִקְנֵהֶ֛ם וְאֶת־כָּל־חֵילָ֖ם בָּזָֽזוּ׃
καὶ ἐπρονόμευσαν τὰς γυναῖκας Μαδιάν, καὶ τὴν ἀποσκευὴν αὐτῶν καὶ τὰ κτήνη αὐτῶν καὶ πάντα τὰ ἔνκτητα αὐτῶν καὶ τὴν δύναμιν αὐτῶν ἐπρονόμευσαν·
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Ceperuntque mulieres eorum, et parvulos, omniaque pecora, et cunctam supellectilem: quidquid habere potuerant depopulati sunt:
Los israelitas tomaron como prisioneras a las mujeres y a los niños madianitas, y se llevaron como botín todo su ganado, sus rebaños y sus riquezas.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y llevaron cautivas los hijos de Israel las mujeres de los Madianitas, y sus chiquitos y todas sus bestias, y todos sus ganados; y arrebataron toda su hacienda.
The Israelites captured the Midianite women and their children, and they plundered all their herds, flocks, and goods.
✦ What the text says
Summary
Numbers 31:9 reports that the Israelites captured the women and children of Midian, and plundered all their cattle, livestock, and wealth. The verse is built as a two-part action: taking captive persons, then seizing property.
Key words
- yishbu ("they took captive", H7617) — qal narrative verb opening the sentence; its subject is bene Yisra'el ("sons of Israel").
- nashei ("women of", H0802G) — construct plural, linking Midian's women to the direct object marker 'et.
- tap ("little one[s]", H2945) — construct singular with pronominal suffix -am ("their"), naming the children as a collective object.
- behemtam / miqnehem ("their cattle" / "their livestock", H0929 / H4735) — two distinct nouns for animals, each construct with the suffix "their," listed separately.
- bazazu ("they plundered", H0962) — qal perfect verb closing the sentence, marking completed action on the property items.
What the text says
The Hebrew sentence has a framed structure: it opens with the verb yishbu ("they took captive") and closes with the verb bazazu ("they plundered"), with five objects distributed between them, each introduced by the object marker 'et. The first two objects — nashei Midyan ("the women of Midian") and tapam ("their little ones") — belong grammatically to the opening verb yishbu, describing the capture of persons. The last three objects — kol-behemtam ("all their cattle"), kol-miqnehem ("all their livestock"), and kol-cheilam ("all their wealth") — are governed by the closing verb bazazu, describing the seizure of property. This placement of the second verb after all its objects, rather than before them as is typical in Hebrew narrative syntax, creates a bracketing effect: people-verbs at the edges, objects piling up in the middle, with a clear semantic split between shavah (to take captive, applied to persons) and bazaz (to plunder, applied to property). The two nouns for animals, behemah ("cattle") and miqneh ("livestock"), are kept distinct in the Hebrew list rather than merged.
Differences between versions
The Septuagint uses the same verb, ἐπρονόμευσαν ("they plundered/despoiled"), both at the start and end of the verse, collapsing the Hebrew's two distinct verbs (yishbu, "took captive," and bazazu, "plundered") into one repeated term. The Vulgate preserves a two-verb structure (ceperunt ... depopulati sunt), closer to the Hebrew's division between capturing persons and plundering goods. Modern translations (BSB, RV1909, SBLIBRE) generally merge the two Hebrew animal terms (behemtam, miqnehem) into paired English/Spanish terms like "herds and flocks," where the Hebrew lists them as two separate construct nouns.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.