Numbers 5:10

Summary

The verse states a two-part principle: a man's own sacred donations remain his ("belong to him"), but whatever he specifically hands over to the priest belongs to the priest. The Hebrew repeats the construction "to him it/they will belong" (lo yihyu / lo yihyeh) to mark this contrast between retained possessions and transferred gifts.

Key words

• 'ish ("everyone", H0376I) — appears twice, opening each half of the verse, establishing "each individual man" as the subject of both clauses.
• qodashav ("his holy things", H6944G) — masculine plural construct with 3rd-person suffix ("his"); the plural form governs the plural verb that follows.
• yihyu ("they will belong", H1961) — qal imperfect, 3rd person plural, agreeing with the plural qodashav; expresses future/ongoing state of possession.
• yitten ("he will give", H5414G) — qal imperfect, 3rd person singular, introduced by the relative particle 'asher ("that/who", H0834A); marks the conditional action of giving to the priest.
• yihyeh ("it will belong", H1961) — qal imperfect, 3rd person singular, contrasting with the earlier plural yihyu; matches the singular object given.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as two parallel nominal-verbal clauses, each ending in a form of yihyu/yihyeh ("to him it/they will belong"). The first clause names 'ish ("everyone") as the topic, followed by the direct object marker 'et (H0853, untranslated) attached to qodashav ("his holy things"). Because qodashav is plural, the verb yihyu is also plural, producing the sense: "as for a man's holy things, they belong to him." The second clause again opens with 'ish, this time modified by the relative clause 'asher yitten ("who gives") to the kohen ("priest", H3548). Here the implied object of giving is singular, so the closing verb shifts to the singular yihyeh: "it will belong to him [the priest]." The grammatical shift from plural to singular verb form is the main structural device distinguishing "things kept" from "the specific thing given."

Differences between versions

The Septuagint (Swete) as cited begins directly with "καὶ τὰ ἡγιασμένα αὐτοῦ ἔσται" ("and his sanctified things will be"), omitting an explicit rendering of the second 'ish ("everyone") before the relative clause, compressing the Hebrew's two 'ish-headed clauses into a single continuous statement. The Vulgate similarly merges both Hebrew clauses into one continuous sentence ("quidquid... offertur... et traditur... ipsius erit"), using "whatever" (quidquid) to cover both the retained and the transferred sacred items, where the Hebrew keeps them as two separate grammatical statements with parallel but distinct verb forms.