Numbers 4:30

Summary

Numbers 4:30 sets the age range for a specific group of Levites — from thirty to fifty years old — to be enrolled for service in the Tent of Meeting. The verse specifies both the counting instruction and the nature of the work: physical service (tzava) in support of the sanctuary's operation.

Key words

• Ben ("a son of", H1121L) — construct noun used idiomatically with a number to mean "a person of [X] years"; appears twice (verses 30 and again for the upper limit) to frame the age bracket.
• tifkedem ("you will enroll them", H6485A) — Qal imperfect, second person masculine singular, with third person masculine plural suffix "them"; indicates a future/ongoing command directed at an implied "you" (Moses/Aaron) to register the group.
• ha-Ba' ("the one coming", H0935G) — Qal active participle with definite article, describing anyone who "comes" or "enters" into the service; the participle form marks an ongoing category of persons rather than a single event.
• tzava ("service/host", H6635I) — here paired with la- ("for the"), denoting the organized body of workers or the labor-force context, not military service.
• avodat ("service of", H5656H) — feminine singular construct, linking directly to Ohel Mo'ed ("Tent of Meeting", H0168G + H4150I), specifying the object of the labor.

What the text says

The verse is structured as a bounded age formula: mi-ben shloshim shanah va-ma'lah ve-ad ben-chamishim shanah — "from a son of thirty years and upward, and until a son of fifty years." The repeated construct use of ben ("son of") with a number is a standard Hebrew idiom for stating age, not a literal filial relationship. The directional he suffix on ma'lah ("-wards", H9011) reinforces the sense of movement beyond the lower threshold ("thirty and upward"), while ad ("until", H5704) closes the upper boundary at fifty.

The main verb, tifkedem, is a second-person imperfect verb with a plural object suffix, meaning the census-taker addressed in the passage is instructed to "enroll them" — the antecedent "them" refers to the men falling within this age bracket. The following clause, introduced by the participle ha-Ba' ("the one coming/entering"), functions almost like a relative clause: "everyone who comes to the tzava, to serve (la'avod, infinitive) the service of the Tent of Meeting." The infinitive la'avod and the construct chain avodat ohel mo'ed together specify the purpose of enrollment: physical labor tied to the sanctuary structure, not cultic officiating in the priestly sense.

Differences between versions

The LXX reads "from twenty-five years and up, until fifty" (ἀπὸ πέντε καὶ εἰκοσαετοῦς), differing from the Hebrew's shloshim ("thirty", H7970) as the lower boundary. The Vulgate matches the Hebrew with "a triginta annis" ("from thirty years"). The LXX also renders tzava ("service/host") more generally as εἰσπορευόμενος λειτουργεῖν ("entering to minister"), collapsing the Hebrew's two-step construction (la-tzava + la'avod) into a single verb of ministering.