Numbers 4:22

Summary

The verse instructs that a census be taken of the descendants of Gershon, organized according to their ancestral houses and clans. It uses the same census formula applied earlier to the Kohathites, marked by the phrase gam hem ("also they"), signaling that Gershon's descendants receive the same treatment.

Key words

• na.So' ("lift up", H5375) — infinitive absolute of the verb "to lift/carry"; this grammatical form has no subject or tense marking and functions to intensify or emphasize the following command, commonly rendered as "you shall surely lift up" or simply as an emphatic imperative in translation.
• rosh ("head of", H7218) — construct noun meaning "head"; combined with the verb "lift", it forms the idiom "lift the head," which in Biblical Hebrew census contexts means "take a count" or "number."
• gam ("also", H1571) + Hem ("they", H1992) — adverb and pronoun together meaning "also they," marking this Gershonite census as parallel to and following the pattern already given for another group (the Kohathites, per the wider chapter context).
• 'a.vo.Ta + m ("ancestors" + "their", H0001/H9028) — construct plural noun with pronominal suffix, "their fathers," forming part of the phrase "house of their fathers," identifying the ancestral household unit used for organizing the count.
• mish.pe.cho.Ta + m ("clans" + "their", H4940/H9028) — construct plural noun with pronominal suffix, "their clans," the second organizational unit alongside "house of the fathers."

What the text says

The clause opens with the infinitive absolute na.So' ("lift up", H5375), a grammatical form in Biblical Hebrew that intensifies the force of a command without itself carrying tense or person. It is paired with the idiom rosh ("head of", H7218) governing bnei Gershon ("sons of Gershon"), together forming the standard Hebrew expression for taking a census — literally "lifting the head" of a group, i.e., counting them.

The phrase gam Hem ("also they", H1571 + H1992) connects this instruction to a prior parallel action (the census of another Levitical group), indicating that the same procedure now applies to the Gershonites. The remainder of the verse specifies the organizing categories for the count: le-veit avotam ("to the house of their fathers") and le-mishpechotam ("to their clans"), both using the preposition le ("to", H9005) with construct nouns bearing third-person plural suffixes. These two parallel prepositional phrases indicate the administrative structure — ancestral house and clan — by which the census is to be organized, rather than adding new content beyond structural classification.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the Hebrew infinitive absolute na.So' + idiom rosh with the imperative Labe ("take") governing tēn archēn ("the beginning/sum"), shifting from the idiomatic "lift the head" to a more abstract "take the sum." The Vulgate similarly uses Tolle summam ("take the sum"), also abandoning the literal "head" idiom in favor of a numerical abstraction. Both LXX and Vulgate convey the census function but do not preserve the literal "head-lifting" imagery present in the Hebrew construction.