Numbers 32:26

Summary

The verse lists what the Gadites and Reubenites will leave behind in Gilead when they cross the Jordan to help conquer Canaan: their children, wives, livestock, and cattle. The Hebrew states that these will remain (yihyu, "they will be") in the cities of Gilead.

Key words

• ta.Pe.nu ("our little ones", H2945 + H9025) — construct noun with pronominal suffix, forming "children-of-us"; the construct state links it grammatically to the following possessive elements in the list.
• na.Shei.nu ("our wives", H0802H + H9025) — same construct + suffix pattern, masculine plural construct form of the noun for "wives."
• mik.Ne.nu ("our livestock", H4735 + H9025) — singular construct noun with suffix; refers to possessions/livestock as a collective singular.
• yih.yu ("they will be", H1961) — qal imperfect, third person masculine plural; the only finite verb in the clause, expressing future/ongoing state for all four subjects listed before it.
• sham ("there", H8033G) — adverb of place, anticipating the more specific location given afterward (the cities of Gilead).

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence stacks four noun phrases — ta.Pe.nu, na.Shei.nu, mik.Ne.nu, and khol be.hem.Te.nu ("all our cattle") — each formed with a construct noun plus the first-person plural suffix nu ("our"). This repetitive construct-suffix pattern creates a rhythmic list before any verb appears. Only after all four items are named does the single verb yih.yu ("they will be") arrive, governing all of them at once as a plural subject. The verb is followed by the adverb sham ("there") and then the prepositional phrase be-'arei ha-Gil'ad ("in the cities of Gilead"), which specifies what "there" means.

This delayed-verb structure is a feature of Biblical Hebrew syntax: the subjects are fronted, and the predicate closes the clause. Translations that render each item as a full sentence element with an early verb (as in English or Spanish) cannot preserve this suspended, list-then-verb arrangement.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew verb yih.yu ("they will be", H1961, qal imperfect, third-person) describes the subjects as remaining in a state of being in Gilead. The Vulgate uses relinquemus ("we will leave"), a first-person plural verb — this shifts the grammatical subject from the dependents themselves to the speakers who leave them behind, a difference not present in the Hebrew or the LXX.

The LXX renders the first item as ἀποσκευὴ ("baggage" or "dependents/possessions") where the Hebrew has ta.Pe.nu ("our little ones", H2945), a divergence in how the first list-item is categorized.