Numbers 36:2
וַיֹּאמְרוּ אֶת־אֲדֹנִי צִוָּה יְהוָה לָתֵת אֶת־הָאָרֶץ בְּנַחֲלָה בְּגוֹרָל לִבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וַֽאדֹנִי צֻוָּה בַֽיהוָה לָתֵת אֶֽת־נַחֲלַת צְלָפְחָד אָחִינוּ לִבְנֹתָֽיו׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וַיֹּאמְר֗וּ אֶת־אֲדֹנִי֙ צִוָּ֣ה יְהוָ֔ה לָתֵ֨ת אֶת־הָאָ֧רֶץ בְּנַחֲלָ֛ה בְּגוֹרָ֖ל לִבְנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל וַֽאדֹנִי֙ צֻוָּ֣ה בַֽיהוָ֔ה לָתֵ֗ת אֶֽת־נַחֲלַ֛ת צְלָפְחָ֥ד אָחִ֖ינוּ לִבְנֹתָֽיו׃
καὶ εἶπαν τῷ κυρίῳ ἡμῶν ἐνετείλατο Κύριος ἀποδοῦναι τὴν γῆν τῆς κληρονομίας ἐν κλήρῳ τοῖς υἱοῖς Ἰσραήλ, καὶ τῷ κυρίῳ συνέταξεν Κύριος δοῦναι τὴν κληρονομίαν Σαλπαὰδ τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ ἡμῶν ταῖς θυγατράσιν αὐτοῦ·
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Tibi domino nostro præcepit Dominus ut terram sorte divideres filiis Israël, et ut filiabus Salphaad fratris nostri dares possessionem debitam patri:
y les dijeron: “Yehová le ordenó a mi señor repartir la tierra como herencia entre los israelitas mediante un sorteo. Y mi señor también recibió la orden de Yehová de entregar la porción de nuestro hermano Zelofehad a sus hijas.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y dijeron: Jehová mandó á mi señor que por suerte diese la tierra á los hijos de Israel en posesión: también ha mandado Jehová á mi señor, que dé la posesión de Salphaad nuestro hermano á sus hijas;
saying, “ When the LORD commanded my lord to give the land as an inheritance to the Israelites by lot, He also commanded him to give the inheritance of our brother Zelophehad to his daughters.
✦ What the text says
Summary
The daughters of Zelophehad's kinsmen recall two divine instructions given to Moses ("my lord"): Yehovah commanded him to distribute the land to the Israelites by lot, and Yehovah also commanded him to give Zelophehad's inheritance to his daughters. The verse states this through two structurally parallel clauses, one active and one passive, both built on the same verb root.
Key words
- tzivvah ("he commanded", H6680) — piel perfect, active voice: Yehovah is the subject performing the command directly.
- tzuvvah ("he was commanded", H6680) — pual perfect, passive voice of the same root as tzivvah; here "my lord" is the one who receives the command, and Yehovah is marked as agent through the prefix ba- ("by").
- 'adoni ("my lord", H0113) — construct noun with 1st-person suffix, referring to Moses; appears twice, once as object of the active verb, once as subject of the passive verb.
- 'et (untranslated object marker, H0853) — precedes 'adoni in the first clause, marking "my lord" as the object of tzivvah even though it stands before the verb in the sentence.
- latet ("to give", H5414) — qal infinitive construct, used identically in both clauses to state the purpose or content of each command.
What the text says
The verse is built as a grammatical mirror. In the first half, 'et-'adoni tzivvah Yehovah latet places "my lord" as the fronted object of an active verb: "my lord — Yehovah commanded [him] to give." In the second half, the same idea is restated with the verb converted to its passive (pual) counterpart, tzuvvah, so that "my lord" becomes the grammatical subject who "was commanded by Yehovah" (ba-Yehovah). This active/passive pairing on the identical root H6680 creates a doubling effect not visible in translations that render both clauses the same way (e.g., "the LORD commanded... He also commanded"), since the Hebrew shifts voice between the two statements while keeping the vocabulary parallel.
The two clauses differ in content: the first specifies the general distribution of land bi-nachalah be-goral ("as an inheritance by lot") to "the sons of Israel," while the second specifies the particular inheritance of Tzelofchad 'achinu ("Zelophehad our brother") to be given li-vnotav ("to his daughters").
Differences between versions
The Hebrew presents both clauses as third-person narration about "my lord" (Moses) receiving Yehovah's commands. The LXX and the Vulgate instead render 'adoni as an address directed to the lord — LXX: εἶπαν τῷ κυρίῳ ἡμῶν ("they said to our lord"), Vulgate: Tibi domino nostro præcepit Dominus ("To you, our lord, the Lord commanded"). This shifts the report from third-person description into direct second-person speech to Moses, a construal not required by the Hebrew object-marker construction.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.