Numbers 32:39

Summary

The verse narrates that the descendants of Makir, son of Manasseh, went to Gilead, captured it, and dispossessed the Amorites who lived there. It is a short narrative sequence with three consecutive verbs describing movement, conquest, and displacement.

Key words

• va-yelekhu ("and they went", H1980G) — qal narrative form with the vav-consecutive, marking the first event in the sequence.
• benei ("descendants of", H1121G) — masculine plural noun in construct state, linking to Makir and establishing the subject as a group of descendants, not an individual.
• Gil'adah ("Gilead", H1568G) plus directional he (H9011) — the place name with a suffixed directional marker indicating "toward Gilead" as the goal of the movement.
• va-yilkedu-ha ("and they captured it", H3920 + H9034) — qal narrative verb with a feminine pronominal suffix "her/it," referring back to Gilead (grammatically feminine), continuing the narrative chain.
• va-yoresh ("and he dispossessed", H3423H) — hiphil (causative) narrative verb, switching to singular "he," which causes the Amorite population to be removed.

What the text says

The verse is built as a chain of three narrative verbs joined by the narrative vav (H9001), each advancing the story: va-yelekhu ("and they went"), va-yilkedu-ha ("and they captured it"), and va-yoresh ("and he dispossessed"). The first two verbs are plural, agreeing with the plural subject benei Makhir ("descendants of Makir," H1121G), while the third verb, va-yoresh, shifts to a singular form. This grammatical shift from plural to singular within the same sentence is a notable feature of the Hebrew that is not visible in translations that render all three verbs with the same plural subject ("they went... captured... drove out").

The object of the second verb, va-yilkedu-ha, carries a feminine pronominal suffix -ha ("her/it," H9034), referring back to Gil'adah ("Gilead," H1568G), a feminine place name. The third verb, va-yoresh, is in the hiphil stem, which is causative, describing an action that produces displacement rather than a simple act of leaving. The direct object marker 'et (H0853) introduces ha-Emori ("the Amorite," H0567), a gentilic singular noun used collectively for the Amorite population, further specified by the relative clause asher-bah ("who was in it," H0834A + H9003 + H9034).

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the subject as singular — "καὶ ἐπορεύθη υἱὸς Μαχείρ" ("and the son of Makir went") — matching the singular verb va-yoresh found later in the Hebrew, whereas the Hebrew text opens with the plural va-yelekhu ("and they went"). The Vulgate follows the Hebrew's plural pattern with "perrexerunt... vastaverunt" ("they went... they laid waste"), using "interfecto" ("having been killed") for the Amorite's fate, differing from the Hebrew's va-yoresh ("he dispossessed"), which does not specify killing.