Numbers 4:29

בְּנֵי מְרָרִי לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָם לְבֵית־אֲבֹתָם תִּפְקֹד אֹתָֽם׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

בְּנֵ֖י מְרָרִ֑י לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָ֥ם לְבֵית־אֲבֹתָ֖ם תִּפְקֹ֥ד אֹתָֽם׃

Greek (Septuagint)

Υἱοὶ Μεραρεί, κατὰ δήμους αὐτῶν, κατ’ οἴκους πατριῶν αὐτῶν, ἐπισκέψασθε αὐτούς·

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

Filios quoque Merari per familias et domos patrum suorum recensebis,

Spanish

“En cuanto a los hijos de Merari, los contarás por sus familias y por las casas de sus padres;

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Contarás los hijos de Merari por sus familias, por las casas de sus padres.

English

As for the sons of Merari, you are to number them by their clans and families,

✦ What the text says

Summary

This verse instructs that the descendants of Merari be enrolled according to their clan and ancestral house divisions. It specifies the organizational categories (clan, then ancestral house) through which the census of this Levitical group is to be conducted.

Key words

be.Nei ("[the] descendants of", H1121G) — construct plural noun opening the phrase, linking directly to the following proper name Merari.
mish.pe.cho.Tam ("their clans", H4940 + H9028) — feminine plural construct with 3rd person masculine plural suffix, marking the first organizational unit (clan-based grouping).
'a.vo.Tam ("their ancestors", H0001G + H9028) — feminine plural construct (though referring to male ancestors) with the same suffix, used within the phrase le.veit-'a.vo.Tam ("to the house of their ancestors"), marking the second organizational unit.
tif.Kod ("you will enroll", H6485A) — qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular, indicating a single addressee is commanded to perform the enrollment.
'o.Tam ("them", H0853 + H9038) — direct object marker with 3rd person masculine plural suffix, marking bene Merari ("descendants of Merari") as the object of the verb tifqod.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence places the object phrase — bene Merari ("descendants of Merari"), followed by the two prepositional phrases le-mishpechotam ("to their clans") and le-veit avotam ("to the house of their ancestors") — before the verb tifqod ("you will enroll"), which appears near the end of the clause. This word order fronts the group being counted and the criteria for counting before naming the action itself, a common feature of Hebrew census instructions in this chapter. The verb tifqod is grammatically singular, addressing one person directly with the responsibility of the enrollment.

The two prepositional phrases le-mishpechotam and le-veit avotam both use the preposition le ("to"), establishing parallel structure: the descendants of Merari are to be organized first "according to their clans" and then "according to the house of their ancestors." Both nouns carry the same 3rd person masculine plural suffix -am ("their"), tying both categories back to the bene Merari.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the verb as ἐπισκέψασθε, a plural imperative ("you all inspect/muster"), where the Hebrew tifqod is singular ("you shall enroll"). The Vulgate's recensebis ("you will count") matches the Hebrew in using a singular verb form. This difference in verb number reflects how each version construes the addressee of the instruction — one person in the Hebrew and Vulgate, multiple persons in the LXX.

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.