Numbers 4:42
וּפְקוּדֵי מִשְׁפְּחֹת בְּנֵי מְרָרִי לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָם לְבֵית אֲבֹתָֽם׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וּפְקוּדֵ֕י מִשְׁפְּחֹ֖ת בְּנֵ֣י מְרָרִ֑י לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָ֖ם לְבֵ֥ית אֲבֹתָֽם׃
Ἐπεσκέπησαν δὲ καὶ δῆμος υἱῶν Μεραρεὶ κατὰ δήμους αὐτῶν, κατ’ οἴκους πατριῶν αὐτῶν,
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Numerati sunt et filii Merari per cognationes et domos patrum suorum,
Los que fueron contados de las familias de los hijos de Merari, por sus familias y por las casas de sus padres,
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y los contados de las familias de los hijos de Merari, por sus familias, por las casas de sus padres,
And the Merarites were numbered by their clans and families,
✦ What the text says
Summary
Numbers 4:42 introduces the census tally of the clans belonging to the descendants of Merari, organized according to two structuring principles: their clans and their ancestral houses. The verse functions as a heading formula preceding the numerical count given in the following verses.
Key words
- fekudei ("enrolled men of", H6485A) — qal passive participle, masculine plural construct; it designates "those who were counted/mustered," linking grammatically to what follows as "the counted-ones of."
- mishpechot ("clans of", H4940) — feminine plural construct noun, the first of two construct chains naming the organizational unit being counted.
- benei ("descendants of", H1121G) — masculine plural construct noun, connecting "clans" to the personal name Merari.
- Merari ("Merari", H4847) — proper name, identifying the lineage group under review.
- beit ("house of", H1004M) — masculine singular construct noun, opening the second structuring phrase "house of ancestors," a distinct administrative/genealogical category from "clans."
What the text says
The verse opens with the conjunction u ("and", H9002) attached to fekudei, marking continuity with the preceding census material. The core phrase is a chain of construct relationships: fekudei mishpechot benei Merari — literally "the enrolled-of clans-of descendants-of Merari." Each noun in construct state depends on the next, producing a nested genitive structure typical of Hebrew census formulas: the enrolled men belong to the clans, the clans belong to the descendants, and the descendants are identified as those of Merari.
Following this main chain, two prepositional phrases with le ("to", H9005) specify the criteria of organization: le-mishpechotam ("according to their clans") and le-veit avotam ("according to the house of their ancestors"). Both phrases carry third-person masculine plural suffixes (-am, H9028), referring back to the Merarites. This doubling of mishpachah ("clan") and beit avot ("ancestral house") reflects a common structural pattern in Numbers' census sections, where the same population is described first by broader clan affiliation and then by the more specific ancestral household unit, though the Hebrew does not explain whether these are fully identical or overlapping categories.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders the participial construction fekudei ("the enrolled men of") with a finite verb, epeskepēsan ("were numbered/reviewed"), shifting the syntax from a construct-chain heading to a complete verbal clause: "the clan of the sons of Merari were reviewed." The Vulgate similarly uses a finite verb, numerati sunt ("they were counted"), producing the same shift from the Hebrew's nominal, construct-based phrasing to an explicit passive verb governing the subject "sons of Merari." Both LXX and Vulgate thus present as a complete sentence what the Hebrew presents as a construct-noun heading continuing from the prior verse.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.