Numbers 35:8
וְהֶֽעָרִים אֲשֶׁר תִּתְּנוּ מֵאֲחֻזַּת בְּנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל מֵאֵת הָרַב תַּרְבּוּ וּמֵאֵת הַמְעַט תַּמְעִיטוּ אִישׁ כְּפִי נַחֲלָתוֹ אֲשֶׁר יִנְחָלוּ יִתֵּן מֵעָרָיו לַלְוִיִּֽם׃ פ
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וְהֶֽעָרִ֗ים אֲשֶׁ֤ר תִּתְּנוּ֙ מֵאֲחֻזַּ֣ת בְּנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל מֵאֵ֤ת הָרַב֙ תַּרְבּ֔וּ וּמֵאֵ֥ת הַמְעַ֖ט תַּמְעִ֑יטוּ אִ֗ישׁ כְּפִ֤י נַחֲלָתוֹ֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר יִנְחָ֔לוּ יִתֵּ֥ן מֵעָרָ֖יו לַלְוִיִּֽם׃ פ
καὶ τὰς πόλεις ἃς δώσετε ἀπὸ τῆς κατασχέσεως υἱῶν Ἰσραήλ, ἀπὸ τῶν τὰ πολλὰ πολλά, καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν ἐλαττόνων ἐλάττω· ἕκαστος κατὰ τὴν κληρονομίαν αὐτοῦ ἣν κληρονομήσουσιν, δώσουσιν ἃ τῶν πόλεων τοῖς Λευείταις.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Ipsæque urbes, quæ dabuntur de possessionibus filiorum Israël, ab his qui plus habent, plures auferentur: et qui minus, pauciores: singuli juxta mensuram hæreditatis suæ dabunt oppida Levitis.
Las ciudades las tomarán de las tierras que reciban los israelitas; las tribus que tengan más territorio darán más ciudades, y las tribus con menos territorio darán menos. Cada tribu dará ciudades a los levitas en proporción al tamaño de su herencia”.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y las ciudades que diereis de la heredad de los hijos de Israel, del que mucho tomaréis mucho, y del que poco tomaréis poco: cada uno dará de sus ciudades á los Levitas según la posesión que heredará.
The cities that you apportion from the territory of the Israelites should be given to the Levites in proportion to the inheritance of each tribe: more from a larger tribe and less from a smaller one.” Six Cities of Refuge (Deuteronomy 4:41–43; Deuteronomy 19:1–14; Joshua 20:1–9)
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse specifies that the cities given to the Levites are to come from the territorial possession of the Israelites, and that the number of cities each tribe contributes must be proportional to the size of that tribe's own inheritance — more from tribes with larger territory, fewer from tribes with smaller territory.
Key words
- he'arim ("the cities", H5892B) — definite plural noun, resuming the topic of the "cities of refuge/Levitical cities" discussed in the preceding verses.
- 'achuzzat ("possession of", H0272) — feminine singular construct, linking directly to benei Yisra'el ("sons of Israel") to specify whose landholding the cities are drawn from.
- tarbu ("you will increase", H7235A) — hiphil (causative) imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural; paired with the adjective harav ("the many") from the same root, producing a figure of repetition (more from those who have more).
- 'ish ("each one", H0376I) — masculine singular noun functioning distributively, shifting the sentence from the collective "you (plural)" addressed earlier to an individual-by-individual application of the rule.
- yitten ("he will give", H5414G) — qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular, agreeing grammatically with the singular 'ish rather than with the plural verbs used earlier in the verse.
What the text says
The verse opens with a plural address: "the cities that you (plural) will give" (titnu, H5414G), drawn "from the possession of the sons of Israel" (me'achuzzat benei Yisra'el). The proportional principle is then expressed through a doubled construction built on the same verbal roots as their related adjectives: me'et harav tarbu ("from the many/much you will increase") and u-me'et ha-me'at tam'itu ("and from the few you will decrease"), using the direct object marker 'et (H0854, untranslated) to mark what is being measured against. This polyptoton (adjective + cognate hiphil verb) creates a proportional formula without needing a numeral.
The sentence then narrows from the collective "you" to the distributive 'ish ("each one", H0376I): "each one according to the mouth of his inheritance" (ke-fi nachalato), using fi ("mouth of", H6310K) idiomatically to mean "in proportion to" or "according to the extent of." The verb governing this clause, yitten ("he will give", H5414G), is singular, matching 'ish rather than continuing the plural verbs (titnu, tarbu, tam'itu) used earlier — a grammatical shift from communal address to individual application within the same verse.
Differences between versions
Where the Hebrew closes with the singular yitten ("he will give"), the LXX has the plural δώσουσιν ("they will give"), and the Vulgate similarly uses the plural dabunt ("they will give"), both maintaining plural agreement throughout rather than shifting to a singular verb as the Hebrew does. The Vulgate also renders the proportional clause passively ("plures auferentur... pauciores," "more/fewer will be taken away") rather than with active causative verbs as in the Hebrew's tarbu/tam'itu.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.