Numbers 9:7

Summary

Numbers 9:7 records the words of certain men who, having become ritually unclean through contact with a corpse, ask Moses why they should be prevented from bringing the offering of Yehovah at its appointed time among the Israelites. The verse is direct speech framed by a narrative introduction.

Key words

• va-yo'meru ("and they said", H9001+H0559) — narrative vav plus qal verb marking the sequential, past-tense action that opens the reported speech.
• temei'im ("unclean", H2931) — masculine plural adjective describing the men's ritual state as a group.
• nefesh ("corpse of", H5315M) — feminine singular noun in construct form, linked to adam ("a person", H0120G); together they form the construct phrase "corpse of a person," specifying the source of the impurity.
• niggara' ("are we restrained", H1639) — niphal (passive/reflexive) imperfect verb, indicating an action being done to the subject ("we") rather than by it, and left grammatically open in aspect (ongoing or future).
• haqriv ("to bring near", H7126H) — hiphil infinitive, a causative form meaning "to cause to approach," describing the act of presenting an offering.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative chain va-yo'meru ha-'anashim ha-hemah 'elav ("and those men said to him"), a standard Hebrew construction that introduces reported speech following prior narrative. The demonstrative ha-hemah ("those", H1992) doubled with the article reinforces that these are the specific men referred to earlier in the passage, distinguishing them as a defined group.

The men's statement begins with the pronoun 'anachnu ("we", H0587) placed before the predicate adjective temei'im ("unclean", H2931), a common Hebrew word order for emphatic self-identification. The cause of their impurity is given through the construct chain le-nefesh 'adam ("to/because of a corpse of a person"), where nefesh functions here not as "soul" in the abstract sense but as "corpse," a usage tied to contact with the dead.

The central question uses the interrogative lammah ("why?", H4100) followed by the niphal verb niggara' ("are we restrained", H1639). The niphal stem marks the men as passive recipients of an unspecified restraining action — the text does not name who or what restrains them, only that they are being kept back. This restraint is explained through the phrase le-vilti haqriv ("so as not to bring near"), combining the negative particle bilti ("not", H1115) with the hiphil infinitive haqriv ("to bring near", H7126H), a causative verb describing the formal act of presenting an offering. The object is qorban Yehovah ("offering of Yehovah", H7133A+H3068G), specified further by be-mo'ado ("at its appointed time", H4150G) and located be-tokh benei Yisra'el ("in the midst of the sons of Israel", H8432+H1121G), situating the offering within the fixed calendar and communal setting of Israel.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders nefesh 'adam as ψυχῇ ἀνθρώπου ("soul of a man"), a more literal rendering of nefesh as "soul" rather than specifying "corpse," though the sense of ritual defilement from death is preserved contextually. The Vulgate's anima hominis similarly reflects "soul of man" rather than "corpse."