Numbers 32:17

Summary

The speakers (the Gadites and Reubenites) declare that they will arm themselves and go ahead of the other Israelites in the conquest, until those Israelites are settled in their own territory. Meanwhile, their dependents will stay behind in fortified cities as protection against the inhabitants of the land.

Key words

• ne.cha.Letz ("we will equip ourselves", H2502B) — niphal imperfect, first person plural; the niphal stem gives a reflexive/passive nuance ("we will arm/equip ourselves"), and the imperfect marks this as an intended future action rather than a completed one.
• chu.Shim ("hurried", H2363A) — qal passive participle, masculine plural, modifying the subject "we"; describes the manner of the action (moving in haste/readiness) rather than naming a separate action.
• ha.vi.'o.Nu ("we have brought", H0935P) — hiphil perfect with 1st person plural subject and 3rd masculine plural suffix ("them"); the hiphil is causative ("cause to come/bring"), and the perfect after 'ad 'asher 'im ("until") marks the condition as completed before the next action occurs.
• ya.Shav ("it will remain", H3427) — qal, introduced by narrative ve. (H9001) as a sequential form; this vav-consecutive construction links this clause as the next event in the sequence following the completed action of bringing the Israelites to their place.
• me.ko.Ma ("place", H4725) with suffix -m ("their") — construct noun with pronominal suffix, specifying a possessed location ("their place"), the destination toward which the bringing (ha.vi.'o.Nu) is directed.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence structure hinges on the sequence marked by 'ad 'asher 'im ("until… if/that") followed by the hiphil perfect ha.vi.'o.Nu ("we have brought them"). This construction sets up a temporal boundary: the arming and going ahead (ne.cha.Letz chu.Shim) continues up to the point when the bringing-in is complete. The niphal form of ne.cha.Letz is reflexive, suggesting self-equipping, while the participle chu.Shim functions adverbially, describing the state or manner of the group as they proceed — "hurried" or "in readiness" — rather than a separate verb.

The clause beginning with ve. + ya.Shav ("and it will remain") is a vav-consecutive construction continuing the narrative sequence: once the first group has been brought to their place, the next stated outcome is that the dependents (tapenu, "our little ones," via the construct noun ta.Pe. with suffix) will remain in the fortified cities ('a.Rei ha.miv.Tzar, "cities of the fortification"). The final phrase, introduced by mi. ("from") + pe.Nei ("because of," construct plural of "face"), gives the reason for this arrangement — the presence of yo.she.Vei ha.'A.retz ("the inhabitants of the land").

Differences between versions

The LXX renders tapenu ("our little ones") as ἡ ἀποσκευὴ ἡμῶν ("our baggage/dependents," a broader term for households and possessions), where the Hebrew specifically names "our little ones" (tapenu). The Vulgate similarly expands this to "parvuli nostri, et quidquid habere possumus" ("our little ones, and whatever we are able to have"), adding a reference to possessions not present in the Hebrew noun tapenu alone. The Vulgate's final phrase, "propter habitatorum insidias" ("because of the ambushes of the inhabitants"), introduces the concept of ambush/plotting, which is not explicit in the Hebrew mi.pe.Nei yo.she.Vei ha.'A.retz ("because of the inhabitants of the land").