Numbers 4:48

Paleo Hebrew Niqqud

RBT Hebrew Interlinear:

ויהיו וַיִּהְיוּ

and they are becoming

STRONGS

Strong's Lexicon

ו

wāw

Definition

sequential 'and'

Root

From H8505; a prefix

Exhaustive

Vav Conversive/Consecutive: The category “vav conversive / vav consecutive” is not an ancient grammatical datum; it is a modern explanatory construct, developed by early Hebraists to force Biblical Hebrew into a Latin/chronological tense model that it simply does not share.

The notion arose in early modern grammar (17th–19th c.) when scholars assumed:
- verbs must encode tense,
- narratives must advance by past → present → future,
- therefore Hebrew forms that “don’t behave” must be converted.

Source: The Aonic Nature of Biblical Hebrew Prepositions

היה

hâyâh

Definition

to exist, i.e. be or become, come to pass (always emphatic, and not a mere copula or auxiliary)

Root

a primitive root (compare H1933 (הוא));

Exhaustive

a primitive root (compare הוא); to exist, i.e. be or become, come to pass (always emphatic, and not a mere copula or auxiliary); beacon, [idiom] altogether, be(-come), accomplished, committed, like), break, cause, come (to pass), do, faint, fall, [phrase] follow, happen, [idiom] have, last, pertain, quit (one-) self, require, [idiom] use.

Source: Strong's Exhaustive Concordance — H1961

Fürst

Fürst Lexicon

הָיָה

verb • Root היה • Strongs / High • Page 397

To be, to exist, to live, to become. A substantive verb used to unite a subject and predicate. It can also mean to happen, to arise, or to belong to. Used in a wide variety of grammatical constructions.

הָיָה

verb • Root היה • Strongs / High • Page 591

To be, to become, to exist. The common Hebrew verb for 'to be', considered the root of the divine name.

Gesenius

Gesenius Lexicon

הַיָּה

noun feminine • Page 185

Keri הַוָּה suffering, calamity. Job 6: 2; 30: 13.

הָיָה

verb • Page 184

1. To be (Ex. 20:3, Num. 10:31, etc.); 2. to become (Ex. 4:4, Hos. 3:3, etc.); 3. to happen (Is. 19:15).

conjunctive, Verb Qal sequential imperfect third person masculine plural

LXX: ἔσται ἐγένετο ἦν ἐγενήθη ἔσονται

LXX Usage Statistics

H1961:

ἔσται 827× (22.9%)

ἐγένετο 634× (16.8%)

ἦν 280× (7.9%)

ἐγενήθη 215× (5.8%)

ἔσονται 160× (4.5%)

ἦσαν 134× (3.8%)

ἐγένοντο 83× (2.3%)

'' 74× (1.9%)

--- 73× (2.2%)

εἶναι 67× (1.7%)

פקדיהם פְּקֻדֵיהֶם

None

STRONGS

Strong's Lexicon

פקד

pâqad

Definition

to visit (with friendly or hostile intent); by analogy, to oversee, muster, charge, care for, miss, deposit, etc.

Root

a primitive root;

Exhaustive

a primitive root; to visit (with friendly or hostile intent); by analogy, to oversee, muster, charge, care for, miss, deposit, etc.; appoint, [idiom] at all, avenge, bestow, (appoint to have the, give a) charge, commit, count, deliver to keep, be empty, enjoin, go see, hurt, do judgment, lack, lay up, look, make, [idiom] by any means, miss, number, officer, (make) overseer, have (the) oversight, punish, reckon, (call to) remember(-brance), set (over), sum, [idiom] surely, visit, want.

Source: Strong's Exhaustive Concordance — H6485

הם

Definition

their, personal posessive - noun suffix: 3rd person masculine plural

Root

Exhaustive

Personal posessive pronoun - suffix for nouns, adjectives and passive participles: 3rd person masculine plural

Source: Strong's Exhaustive Concordance — H9028

Fürst

Fürst Lexicon

פָּקַד

verb • Root פקד • Strongs / High • Page 1187

To examine, number, muster (Hothpaal: to be mustered, numbered). Fundamentally: to break through or to open (derived from the analogous Arabic roots).

Gesenius

Gesenius Lexicon

פָּקַד

verb • Page 550

1. to look on or after a thing. 2. to visit (sometimes with a present). 3. to examine, prove. 4. to visit, punish. 5. to number, review, muster. 6. to miss in reviewing. 7. to give oversight, to place a person over anything. 8. to give commission, to command. 2 K. 9: 34; Jer. 23: 2; Ps. 17: 3; Job 31: 14; Num. 1: 44.

פָּקַד

verb • Root פקד • Page 551

To visit, look after, appoint. (Continuation of entry from previous page). Forms on this page include Niph. (pass. of Kal no. 4), Pi. (to muster), Pu. (to be numbered, to be missed), Hiph. (to appoint, to lay down/commit), Hoph. (to be punished, to be appointed over, to be deposited with), Hithpa. (to be numbered), and Hothpa.

Verb Qal participle passive masculine plural construct, Suffix pronominal third person masculine plural

LXX: ἐπίσκεψισ ἐπεσκέψατο ἐπεσκεμμένοι ἐπισκέψομαι ἐκδικήσω

LXX Usage Statistics

H6485a:

ἐπίσκεψισ 29× (8.3%)

ἐπεσκέψατο 21× (6.6%)

ἐπεσκεμμένοι 17× (4.9%)

ἐπισκέψομαι 14× (4.5%)

ἐκδικήσω 14× (4.2%)

κατέστησεν 13× (4.1%)

ἐπεσκέπησαν 12× (3.8%)

ἐπισκέψεωσ 10× (2.8%)

ἐπισκέψασθε 7× (2.4%)

ἐπίσκεψαι 6× (1.9%)

שמנת שְׁמֹנַת

None

STRONGS

Strong's Lexicon

שמנה

shᵉmôneh

Definition

a cardinal number, eight (as if a surplus above the 'perfect' seven); also (as ordinal) eighth

Root

or שמונה; feminine שמנה; or שמונה; apparently from H8082 (שמן) through the idea of plumpness;

Exhaustive

or שמונה; feminine שמנה; or שמונה; apparently from שמן through the idea of plumpness; a cardinal number, eight (as if a surplus above the 'perfect' seven); also (as ordinal) eighth; eight(-een, -eenth), eighth.

Source: Strong's Exhaustive Concordance — H8083

Fürst

Fürst Lexicon

שָׁמֵן

verb • Root שמנ • Inferred / Low • Page 1449

intransitive: to be thick, fat, corpulent; figuratively: to be rich, to shine with fatness, to pamper themselves.

Matched via inferred root to Fuerst root field

Gesenius

Gesenius Lexicon

שְׁמֹנֶה and שְׁמֹנָה

f. and m. numeral • Page 687

eight. Plur. שְׁמֹנִים eighty.

Adjective cardinal number feminine singular construct

LXX: ὀκτὼ δέκα ὀκτώ ὀκτωκαίδεκα ὀκτωκαιδεκάτῳ

LXX Usage Statistics

H8083:

ὀκτὼ 35× (24.1%)

δέκα 11× (7.4%)

ὀκτώ 10× (5.6%)

ὀκτωκαίδεκα 9× (7.0%)

ὀκτωκαιδεκάτῳ 7× (5.0%)

εἴκοσι 7× (4.8%)

ὀκτακόσιοι 6× (4.5%)

'' 6× (4.0%)

ἑπτακόσια 5× (4.0%)

τριάκοντα 4× (2.8%)

אלפים אֲלָפִים

thousands

STRONGS

Strong's Lexicon

אלף

ʼeleph

Definition

hence (the ox's head being the first letter of the alphabet, and this eventually used as a numeral) a thousand

Root

prop, the same as H504 (אלף);

Exhaustive

prop, the same as אלף; hence (the ox's head being the first letter of the alphabet, and this eventually used as a numeral) a thousand; thousand.

Source: Strong's Exhaustive Concordance — H505

Fürst

Fürst Lexicon

אֶלֶף

noun masculine • Strongs_Numbers • Page 143

Oxen, heifers, cattle for the yoke; tame house-animals; the name of the first letter of the alphabet.

אֶלֶף

numeral / noun masculine • Root אלף • Strongs_Numbers • Page 144

As a numeral, a thousand; properly the union of many individuals, a mass; then fixed to a definite number.

אֶלֶף

noun masculine • Root אלף • Strongs_Numbers • Page 144

Properly a union of family members, therefore association of the members of a family or tribe, larger communities into which every race was divided; a smaller division of a tribe or race.

אֶלֶף

noun proper • Root אלף • Strongs_Numbers • Page 144

A city in Benjamin's territory (Josh. 18, 28).

אֶלֶף

unknown • Strongs_Numbers • Page 145

see אַלּוּף

Gesenius

Gesenius Lexicon

אֶלֶף

masc. epicene / dec. vi. b. • Root אלף • Page 54

I. ox, animal of the ox kind. Deut. 7: 13. 28: 4. Ps. 8: 8. Perhaps denoting literally tame cattle.

אֶלֶף

m. prim. dec. vi. b. • Page 54

II. 1. thousand. Dual אַלְפַּיִם. Plur. אֲלָפִים. 2. family, subdivision of a tribe, originally of a thousand, i. q. מִשְׁפָּחָה. Judg. 6: 15. 1 Sam. 10: 19. 23: 23.

Adjective cardinal number masculine plural absolute

LXX:

LXX Usage Statistics

H0505:

No stats available

וחמש וַחֲמֵשׁ

None

STRONGS

Strong's Lexicon

ו

wə

Definition

and

Root

From H8505; a prefix

Exhaustive

The conjunctive ו is not merely a fixed coordinator with a stable semantic value (“and/but/or/then”). Its core function is linkage, not meaning. It binds units into a single discourse field—phrases, clauses, or whole scenes—while leaving the logical relation to be inferred from aspect, word order, genre, and context.

So the variability in translation (“and / but / or / even / then”) is not polyvalence in the particle; it is underspecification by design. The language expects the reader/hearer to perceive the relation rather than have it encoded.

Crucially, conjunctive ו does not imply temporal sequence. It implies continuity of attention. Think of it as:
- “this belongs with what precedes,”
- “remain within the same frame,”
“do not reset the discourse.”
This is why Hebrew can chain dozens of clauses with ו without subordination or explicit logic markers. The text advances by accumulation, not by branching syntactic trees. Meaning arises from the interaction:
- Aspect (qatal / yiqtol / participle),
- Position (fronted elements, resumptive nouns),
- Genre (law, narrative, oracle),
- Context (who speaks, to whom).
The ו simply keeps the circuit closed so these cues can operate together. Remove tense assumptions, and the system becomes coherent.

Source: The Aonic Nature of Biblical Hebrew Prepositions

חמש

châmêsh

Definition

five

Root

masculine חמשה; a primitive numeral;

Exhaustive

masculine חמשה; a primitive numeral; five; fif(-teen), fifth, five ([idiom] apiece).

Source: Strong's Exhaustive Concordance — H2568

Fürst

Fürst Lexicon

חָמֵשׁ

numeral / cardinal / feminine • Root חמש • Strongs / High • Page 501

Five (feminine cardinal number).

חָמֵשׁ

unknown • Strongs / High • Page 1363

Word derived from an old noun-ending (-שׁ), from חָמָם.

Gesenius

Gesenius Lexicon

חִמֵּשׁ

pi. denom. • Root חמש • Page 236

to cause to pay one fifth part as a tithe or tax. Gen. 41:34.

חָמֵשׁ

f. and m. • Page 236

five. Plur. חֲמִשִּׁים fifty.

Conjunction, Adjective cardinal number both singular construct

LXX: πέντε εἴκοσι πεντακόσιοι '' πεντεκαιδεκάτῃ

LXX Usage Statistics

H2568:

πέντε 209× (47.9%)

εἴκοσι 34× (7.5%)

πεντακόσιοι 25× (6.0%)

'' 12× (2.7%)

πεντεκαιδεκάτῃ 11× (2.2%)

πεντακοσίουσ 10× (2.6%)

δέκα 9× (2.1%)

πεντεκαίδεκα 8× (2.0%)

πεντακόσια 7× (1.7%)

τριάκοντα 7× (1.5%)

מאות מֵאוֹת

hundred

STRONGS

Strong's Lexicon

מאה

mêʼâh

Definition

a hundred; also as a multiplicative and a fraction

Root

or מאיה; properly, a primitive numeral

Exhaustive

or מאיה; properly, a primitive numeral; a hundred; also as a multiplicative and a fraction; hundred((-fold), -th), [phrase] sixscore.

Source: Strong's Exhaustive Concordance — H3967

Fürst

Fürst Lexicon

מֵאָה

f. noun • Root מאה • Strongs / High • Page 798

A multitude, a heap; then a hundred, either as a large round sum or a definite number. Its dual form מָאתַיִם means two hundred, and its plural מֵאוֹת means hundreds.

מֵאָה

numeral noun / f. • Strongs / High • Page 799

A hundred; a hundred-fold; the hundredth. Also used to denote extent or greatness, as in מִגְדַּל הַמֵּאָה (tower of extent, giant-tower).

Gesenius

Gesenius Lexicon

מֵאָה

f. const. מְאַת / dec. xi. b. • Page 351

a hundred. Includes various forms like dual מָאתַיִם and plur. מֵאוֹות. (Gen. 17:17, 25:7; Prov. 17:10; Ecc. 8:12). Also prob. interest, usury (Neh. 5:11). Also proper name of a tower in Jerusalem (Neh. 3:1, 12:39).

Adjective cardinal number feminine plural absolute

LXX: ἑκατὸν εἴκοσι πεντήκοντα τριάκοντα διακόσιοι

LXX Usage Statistics

H3967:

ἑκατὸν 146× (18.2%)

εἴκοσι 46× (5.0%)

πεντήκοντα 44× (4.5%)

τριάκοντα 39× (4.3%)

διακόσιοι 38× (4.8%)

ἑξακόσιοι 33× (4.1%)

πέντε 25× (2.1%)

ἑπτακόσιοι 23× (2.8%)

δύο 22× (1.9%)

τριακόσιοι 21× (2.7%)

ושמנים וּשְׁמֹנִים׃

and eighty

STRONGS

Strong's Lexicon

ו

wə

Definition

and

Root

From H8505; a prefix

Exhaustive

The conjunctive ו is not merely a fixed coordinator with a stable semantic value (“and/but/or/then”). Its core function is linkage, not meaning. It binds units into a single discourse field—phrases, clauses, or whole scenes—while leaving the logical relation to be inferred from aspect, word order, genre, and context.

So the variability in translation (“and / but / or / even / then”) is not polyvalence in the particle; it is underspecification by design. The language expects the reader/hearer to perceive the relation rather than have it encoded.

Crucially, conjunctive ו does not imply temporal sequence. It implies continuity of attention. Think of it as:
- “this belongs with what precedes,”
- “remain within the same frame,”
“do not reset the discourse.”
This is why Hebrew can chain dozens of clauses with ו without subordination or explicit logic markers. The text advances by accumulation, not by branching syntactic trees. Meaning arises from the interaction:
- Aspect (qatal / yiqtol / participle),
- Position (fronted elements, resumptive nouns),
- Genre (law, narrative, oracle),
- Context (who speaks, to whom).
The ו simply keeps the circuit closed so these cues can operate together. Remove tense assumptions, and the system becomes coherent.

Source: The Aonic Nature of Biblical Hebrew Prepositions

שמנים

shᵉmônîym

Definition

eighty, also eightieth

Root

or שמונים; multiple from H8083 (שמנה);

Exhaustive

or שמונים; multiple from שמנה; eighty, also eightieth; eighty(-ieth), fourscore.

Source: Strong's Exhaustive Concordance — H8084

Fürst

Fürst Lexicon

שְׁמָנִים

noun masculine • Consonantal / Low • Page 1449

fat, fat part, of the earth, i. e. fruitful soil.

Matched after stripping common prefixes

Gesenius

Gesenius Lexicon

שְׁמַנִּים

masc. plur. verbal noun / dec. viii. h. • Root שמן • Page 687

fat, fatness, (of the earth) (Gen. 27:28, 39).

Conjunction, Adjective cardinal number masculine plural absolute

LXX: ὀγδοήκοντα ἑκατὸν πέντε πεντήκοντα ἑπτὰ

LXX Usage Statistics

H8084:

ὀγδοήκοντα 28× (54.6%)

ἑκατὸν 7× (14.6%)

πέντε 4× (5.8%)

πεντήκοντα 3× (5.6%)

ἑπτὰ 2× (2.5%)

RBT Translation:

No verse found

RBT Paraphrase:
No verse found

Julia Smith Literal 1876 Translation:
And they being reviewed shall be eight thousand and five hundred and eighty. 49At the mouth of Jehovah he reviewed them by the hand of Moses, a man, a man for his works and for his lifting up: and they were reviewed which Jehovah commanded Moses.

LITV Translation:
even their numbered ones were eight thousand, five hundred and eighty;

Brenton Septuagint Translation:
And they that were numbered were eight thousand five hundred and eighty.