Numbers 4:47

Summary

The verse defines the age range — from thirty to fifty years — for those eligible to perform the work assigned in the ohel mo'ed ("tent of meeting", H0168G/H4150I). It specifies two categories of labor: general service and the carrying/transport duties associated with the sanctuary.

Key words

• ben ("a son of", H1121L) — construct noun used idiomatically to express age; "a son of thirty years" means "thirty years old," repeated for both the lower (30) and upper (50) age limits.
• ba ("[one who] comes", H0935G) — qal participle, masculine singular, functioning substantively as "the one who enters/comes," describing the class of person subject to this age rule.
• avodat ("a service of", H5656H) — feminine singular construct, appearing twice in the verse, forming two different construct chains: avodat avodah ("service of service") and avodat masa ("service of carrying").
• masa ("carrying", H4853A) — masculine singular noun denoting the act or burden of transport, distinguishing this specific labor from general avodah ("service").
• 'avod ("serve", H5647H) — qal infinitive, expressing purpose ("to serve"), governing the two construct phrases that follow it.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with a prepositional phrase marking the age boundaries: mi-ben sheloshim shanah va-ma'lah ("from a son of thirty years and upward") and ve-'ad ben-chamishim shanah ("and until a son of fifty years"). This ben + number-of-years construction is the standard Hebrew idiom for stating age, literally "a son of [n] years."

The subject of the sentence is kol ha-ba ("every one who comes"), using the definite participle ba (H0935G) as a substantive — grammatically "the coming one," i.e., the person entering into this role. This subject is followed by the infinitive la-'avod ("to serve," H5647H), which governs two parallel construct phrases: avodat avodah ("a service of service") and va-'avodat masa ("and a service of carrying"). The doubling of the root 'avodah in the first phrase (construct noun governing a noun from the same root) produces an emphatic or intensified sense of "actual/laborious service," distinguished from the second phrase, which specifies masa ("carrying," H4853A) as a distinct category of labor — transport duties — both located be-ohel mo'ed ("in the tent of meeting").

Differences between versions

The LXX gives the lower age boundary as πέντε καὶ εἰκοσσαετοῦς ("twenty-five years") where the Hebrew states ben sheloshim shanah ("thirty years," H7970). The Vulgate follows the Hebrew figure, rendering "a triginta annis" ("from thirty years"). The Vulgate also compresses the double construct phrase avodat avodah va-'avodat masa into a single phrase, "ad ministerium tabernaculi, et onera portanda" ("for the ministry of the tabernacle and for carrying burdens"), without reproducing the repeated root structure visible in the Hebrew.