Numbers 32:40

Summary

The verse reports that Moses gave the region of Gilead to Makir son of Manasseh, and that Makir (or the group represented by his name) settled in it. It closes the account of the territorial allotments east of the Jordan described in this chapter.

Key words

• va-yiTen ("and he gave", H5414G) — qal narrative verb with vav, marking the next event in the sequence: Moses' act of giving.
• et-ha-Gil'ad (" Gilead", H1568G with H0853/H9009) — the direct object marked explicitly, with the definite article, showing Gilead is treated as a specific, known territory.
• le-Makhir ("to Makir", H4353G) — preposition + proper name, identifying the recipient of the grant.
• ben-Menashsheh ("son of Manasseh", H1121A + H4519G) — construct chain giving Makir's lineage, tying the grant to the tribe of Manasseh.
• va-yeshev ("and he dwelt", H3427) — second narrative verb with vav, continuing the sequence: after receiving the land, the subject settles in it.

What the text says

The verse is built on two chained narrative verbs, va-yiTen ("and he gave", H5414G) and va-yeshev ("and he dwelt", H3427), both qal forms with the narrative vav that link this sentence to the preceding action in the chapter. The subject of the first verb is explicit — Mosheh ("Moses", H4872) — while the object, et-ha-Gil'ad (" Gilead", H1568G), is marked with the direct object particle 'et (H0853) and the definite article, presenting Gilead as a specific place already known from the narrative context.

The recipient is given through the preposition le ("to", H9005) attached to Makhir ("Makir", H4353G), followed by the construct phrase ben-Menashsheh ("son of Manasseh", H1121A + H4519G), which specifies Makir's genealogical relation to Manasseh rather than naming a separate tribal entity in the Hebrew grammar itself.

The second clause, va-yeshev bah ("and he dwelt in it", H3427 + H9003/H9034), has an unspecified grammatical subject continuing from the verb form — the third-person masculine singular suffix conjugation matches "Makir," so the Hebrew verb form points to Makir as the one who dwelt in the land, with bah ("in it/her", H9003+H9034) referring back to Gilead using a feminine singular suffix, consistent with the grammatical gender of ha-Gil'ad.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew verb va-yeshev (H3427) is third-person singular, matching "Makir" as its grammatical subject. The BSB translation renders this as "they settled," shifting the subject to a plural group ("the clan of Machir"), and the Septuagint's κατῴκησεν is also singular but paired with ἐκεῖ ("there") rather than a pronoun matching Gilead's gender. The Vulgate's habitavit in ea keeps a singular subject and a feminine pronoun ea, aligning with the Hebrew's singular verb and feminine suffix bah.