Numbers 4:43

Summary

Numbers 4:43 defines the age range — thirty to fifty years — for those who enter into service at the Tent of Meeting. The verse uses formulaic census language marking eligibility by age and by the type of labor performed.

Key words

• Ben ("a son of", H1121L) — construct noun used idiomatically to express age; "son of thirty years" means "thirty years old."
• sha.Nah ("year[s]", H8141) — feminine singular noun, appearing twice to mark both boundaries of the age range (thirty and fifty).
• Ba' ("[one who] comes", H0935G) — Qal participle, masculine singular; participles in Hebrew often function as ongoing or characteristic descriptions, here designating "the one who comes/enters" as a class of person defined by repeated or expected action.
• tza.Va' ("service", H6635I) — masculine singular noun preceded by preposition la ("for the"), denoting the corporate body of workers or the organized service itself.
• 'a.vo.Dah ("service", H5656H) — feminine singular noun, paired with tza.Va' to specify the labor performed within that service.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built on two prepositional phrases marking a numerical range: mi-Ben she.lo.Shim shanah va-ma'lah ("from a son of thirty years and upward") and ve-'ad Ben chamishim shanah ("and unto a son of fifty years"). The idiom Ben + number + shanah is the standard Biblical Hebrew way of stating age, literally "son of [number] years," rather than using an adjective for "old."

The subject of the sentence is introduced by kol ha-Ba' ("all/every the one who comes"), where the definite article on the participle Ba' turns it into a substantive: "the one who comes" or "everyone who enters." This participial construction describes a class of person rather than a single completed action — it denotes those who habitually or by assignment enter into this role.

The phrase la-tza.Va' la-'avodah be-'Ohel mo'ed stacks two nouns for "service" — tza.Va' and 'avodah — each governed by its own preposition la ("for"). This double phrasing distinguishes entering "into the service" (the organized body or muster) from performing "the labor" (the tasks themselves), both located be-'Ohel mo'ed ("in the tent of meeting").

Differences between versions

The LXX gives the lower age boundary as πέντε καὶ εἰκοσαετοῦς ("twenty-five years") where the Hebrew she.lo.Shim reads "thirty" (H7970). The Vulgate's a triginta annis ("from thirty years") agrees with the Hebrew number. The LXX also renders the two Hebrew service-terms (tza.Va', 'avodah) with a single phrase, λειτουργεῖν πρὸς τὰ ἔργα ("to minister for the works"), collapsing the double Hebrew construction into one Greek expression.