Numbers 8:16

Summary

The verse states that "they" (the Levites, referred to by the group noun in the preceding context) are given over to God from among the people of Israel, taken as a substitute for every firstborn that opens the womb among the Israelites. The sentence emphasizes both the totality of the gift and the totality of what is being replaced.

Key words

• netunim netunim ("assigned", "given", H5414G) — the qal passive participle appears twice in immediate repetition, a grammatical device that intensifies the meaning ("wholly given" / "given, given") rather than simply "given" once.
• hemah ("they", H1992) — an independent personal pronoun placed after the doubled participle, reinforcing the subject rather than relying only on the participle's implicit agreement.
• tachat ("in place of", H8478H) — a construct noun functioning prepositionally, marking substitution: what follows (pitrat kol-rechem) is the thing being replaced.
• pitrat kol rechem ("the opening of every womb", H6363B + H3605 + H7358) — a construct chain naming the physiological event (the first opening of the womb) that defines firstborn status.
• lakachti ("I have taken", H3947G) — qal perfect, first person, denoting a completed act from the speaker's (YHWH's) perspective, framing the whole transaction as already accomplished.

What the text says

The clause opens with ki ("for/that", H3588A), introducing the reason for what precedes in the chapter. The core assertion — netunim netunim hemah li — uses the doubled passive participle netunim netunim followed by the pronoun hemah and the prepositional phrase li ("to/for me"). This repetition of the participle is a Hebrew intensifying pattern, marking that the assignment is total or absolute, not partial. The phrase mi-tokh benei Yisra'el ("from among the people of Israel", H8432 + H1121G + H3478) specifies the source group from which this taking occurs.

The second half of the verse restates the transaction using a different verb, lakachti ("I have taken"), in the qal perfect first person, giving the statement a retrospective, completed sense. The substitution is marked by tachat ("in place of"), followed by two parallel construct expressions: pitrat kol-rechem ("the opening of every womb") and bekhor kol mi-benei Yisra'el ("the firstborn of all from the people of Israel"). These two phrases function in apposition, describing the same category — the firstborn — from two angles: the physiological event of birth-opening and the resulting status of firstborn. The final li ("for myself") mirrors the earlier li, framing both halves of the verse around the same first-person possessive.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (VULCLEM) omits the doubled-participle clause (netunim netunim hemah li mi-tokh benei Yisra'el) entirely, rendering only the second half: "Pro primogenitis quæ aperiunt omnem vulvam in Israël, accepi eos" — a condensed statement without the emphatic repetition found in the Hebrew. The LXX (LXXSWETE) preserves the double expression as apodoma apodedomenoi houtoi moi eisin, matching the Hebrew's intensifying structure more closely than the Vulgate does.