Numbers 7:47

Summary

The verse lists the animals offered by Eliasaph son of Deuel as a zevach ("sacrifice of", H2077) shelamim ("peace offerings", H8002): two oxen, five rams, five goats, and five year-old lambs. It closes with a formulaic statement identifying this as his tribal offering.

Key words

• zevach ("sacrifice of", H2077) — masculine singular construct, linking directly to ha-shelamim; the construct form means it functions as "the sacrifice of the peace-offerings," not a standalone noun.
• shelamim ("peace offerings", H8002) — masculine plural, the category of sacrifice designated by the preceding construct noun; the plural form is standard for this offering type in this text.
• chamishah ("five", H2568) — cardinal number repeated three times (lines 9, 11, 15), each time governing a different plural noun (goats, lambs, and modifying "sons of a year"), showing the numeral's repeated syntactic role rather than a single count.
• benei ("sons of", H1121H) — masculine plural construct, forming the idiom "sons of a year" (benei shanah) to express "year-old" as an age description for the lambs.
• korban ("offering of", H7133A) — masculine singular construct, introducing the closing formula that attributes the entire list to Eliasaph, paralleling the construct chain used for genealogical identification (ben Deuel).

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence structure lists animals in construct or apposition to numerals without repeating a verb for "offered" — the verb is understood from the wider chapter context (not present in this verse). The sequence zevach ha-shelamim ("the sacrifice of the peace offerings") functions as a heading for the four following animal categories, each paired with its cardinal number: baqar shenayim ("oxen, two"), eilim chamishah ("rams, five"), atudim chamishah ("goats, five"), and kevasim benei shanah chamishah ("lambs, sons of a year, five"). Notably, Hebrew places the numeral after the noun in each case, differing from typical English or Spanish numeral-noun order.

The phrase benei shanah ("sons of a year", H1121H + H8141) is a construct idiom meaning "year-old," used here to specify the age of the lambs. This construction — using "sons of X" to denote age or category — appears grammatically identical to the closing genealogical phrase ben Deuel ("son of Deuel", H1121A), both relying on the construct relationship of H1121 forms to link two nouns.

The final clause uses zeh qorban ("this [is] the offering of", H2088 + H7133A) as a summary formula, structurally mirroring similar closing statements for each tribal leader's gift in this chapter.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders Deuel (H1845) as Ῥαγουήλ ("Ragouel"), differing from the Hebrew De'u'el and from the Vulgate's Duel, both of which are closer transliterations of the Hebrew consonants.