Numbers 8:14

Summary

This verse instructs the separation of the Levites from among the rest of the Israelites, establishing that once separated, they will belong to the speaker (YHWH, based on the surrounding context of the divine speech). The Hebrew uses a repeated syntactic pattern to mark this transfer of belonging.

Key words

• hiv.dal.Ta ("you will separate", H0914) — hiphil (causative) verb in sequential perfect form, second person masculine singular; the causative stem indicates that the subject causes a separation to happen, not merely observes one.
• ha.le.vi.Yim ("the Levites", H3881) — gentilic noun, masculine plural, definite; appears twice in the verse (as object of separation, and as subject of belonging), framing the verse's structure.
• mi.Tokh ("from among", H8432) — masculine singular noun in construct state, meaning literally "from the midst of"; construct state links it directly to the following noun.
• be.Nei Yis.ra.'El ("sons/people of Israel", H1121G + H3478) — construct chain, "sons of Israel"; construct state ties be.Nei grammatically to Yis.ra.'El.
• Ha.yu ("they will belong / they were", H1961) — qal (simple) verb, sequential perfect, third person plural; paired with the preposition li ("to me") to express possession or belonging.

What the text says

The verse is built on two sequential perfect verbs (hiv.dal.Ta and Ha.yu), a common Biblical Hebrew construction where a chain of perfect verbs following a vav continues a narrative or legal sequence begun in a prior verse. The first clause places ha.le.vi.Yim ("the Levites", H3881) as the direct object of the causative verb hiv.dal.Ta ("you will separate", H0914), marked by the object marker 'et (H0853). The phrase mi.Tokh be.Nei Yis.ra.'El ("from among the sons of Israel") uses a construct chain to specify the group from which the Levites are removed.

The second clause shifts to a qal verb, Ha.yu ("they will belong", H1961), whose subject is again ha.le.vi.Yim ("the Levites", H3881), now placed at the end of the clause rather than immediately after the verb — a positioning that in Hebrew often adds emphasis, restating the group's identity after the preceding action. The prepositional phrase li ("to me", H9005+H9030) directly follows the verb, indicating that the state of belonging is oriented toward the speaker. The repetition of ha.le.vi.Yim at both the start and the end of the verse creates a chiastic-like frame in which the noun that is acted upon (separated) becomes the noun that possesses a new status (belonging).

Differences between versions

The LXX renders mi.Tokh ("from among") with ἐκ μέσου ("from the midst"), a close structural match. The Vulgate's ac separabis de medio filiorum Israël, ut sint mei omits an explicit equivalent for ha.le.vi.Yim ("the Levites") as the object of the first verb, relying on context from the previous verse, and uses ut sint ("so that they may be") where the Hebrew and LXX use a simple sequential/future form (Ha.yu / ἔσονται) without a purpose clause.