Numbers 7:6

Summary

Numbers 7:6 narrates that Moses took the carts and the oxen that had been offered and gave them over to the Levites. The verse is a brief action report, consisting of two sequential verbs performed by Moses.

Key words

• va-yi.Kach ("and he took", H3947) — qal narrative verb, marking the first sequential action in the past narrative chain.
• mo.Sheh ("Moses", H4872) — proper name, subject of both verbs in the verse.
• ha-'a.ga.Lot ("the carts", H5699) — feminine plural noun with definite article, the first direct object.
• ha-ba.Kar ("the ox[en]", H1241) — singular collective noun with definite article, functioning as the second direct object (grammatically singular but referring to the group of oxen).
• va-yi.Ten ("and he gave", H5414) — qal narrative verb, the second sequential action, introducing the recipients.

What the text says

The verse is built on two narrative (vav-consecutive) verbs sharing the same subject, Mosheh ("Moses", H4872): va-yi.Kach ("and he took", H3947) and va-yi.Ten ("and he gave", H5414). This chaining structure presents the actions as a direct temporal sequence — first the taking, then the giving — without any intervening clause. Both objects of the first verb, ha-'a.ga.Lot ("the carts", H5699) and ha-ba.Kar ("the ox[en]", H1241), are marked with the direct object particle 'et (H0853, untranslated) and preceded by the definite article ha (H9009), indicating that these are specific, previously mentioned carts and oxen rather than generic ones.

The second clause repeats the object through the pronominal form 'o.Tam ("them", built on H0853 plus the suffix H9038), referring back to the carts and oxen just named, before specifying the recipients: ha-le.vi.Yim ("the Levites", H3881), marked with the preposition 'el ("to", H0413). The gentilic plural form le.vi.Yim identifies the recipients as a collective group by lineage/affiliation rather than as individuals. The verse contains no explicit statement of purpose or manner beyond the bare sequence of taking and giving.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew treats ha-ba.Kar ("the ox[en]", H1241) as a singular collective noun, while the LXX renders it with the plural τοὺς βόας ("the oxen") and the Vulgate similarly uses the plural boves ("oxen"), both making explicit in the target language what is expressed collectively in the Hebrew singular form.