Numbers 1:21

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

those who were numbered of them, of the tribe of Reuben, were forty-six thousand five hundred.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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רְאוּבֵ֑ן

Rᵉʼûwbên

H7205

“Reuben”

Noun, Proper

Appears 72× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 29:32

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from the imperative of H7200 and H1121

TWOT: None

Reuben = "behold a son" - the eldest son of Jacob by Leah - the tribe descended from Reuben - the territory inhabited by the tribe of Reuben

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

8: words
8: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Grammatical profile

1 verb
2 nouns
5 adjectives

Verb forms

פְּקֻדֵיהֶ֖ם Qal · Participle Passive

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 16 words from the Hebrew and 15 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 8 Hebrew tokens and 13 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Numbers 1:21 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Numbers 26:7 These are the families of the Reubenites; and those who were numbered of them were forty-three thousand seven hundred thirty.
Numbers 2:10–11 "On the south side shall be the standard of the camp of Reuben according to their divisions. The prince of the children of Reuben shall be Elizur the son of Shedeur.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Numbers 1:21 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

פְּקֻדֵיהֶ֖ם לְמַטֵּ֣ה רְאוּבֵ֑ן שִׁשָּׁ֧ה וְאַרְבָּעִ֛ים אֶ֖לֶף וַחֲמֵ֥שׁ מֵאֽוֹת

those who were numbered of them, of the tribe of Reuben, were forty-six thousand five hundred.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Numbers 1:21 Septuagint · lemma form

ὁ ἐπίσκεψις αὐτός ἐκ ὁ φυλή ρουβην ἕξ καί τεσσαράκοντα χιλιάς καί πεντακόσιοι

the numbering of them of the tribe of Ruben, was forty-six thousand and four hundred.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

מִנְיָנֵיהוֹן לְשִׁבְטָא דִרְאוּבֵן אַרְבְּעִין וְשִׁתָּא אַלְפִין וַחֲמֵשׁ מְאָה

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

סְכוּמְהוֹן לְשִׁבְטָא דִרְאוּבֵן אַרְבְּעִין וְשִׁית אַלְפִין וַחֲמֵשׁ מְאָה

the sum of the tribe of Reuben, forty-six thousand Five hundred.

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Numbers 1:21 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

John Gill's Exposition

Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Reuben, were forty and six thousand and five hundred. 46,500 men. See Gill on Num 1:20.

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Numbers 1:22

num 1:22

num 1:22

num 1:22Of the children of Simeon, by their generations,.... See Gill on Num 1:20.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

21. Those that were numbered — That is, mustered or marshalled on the basis of the prior enumeration in Exo_38:26, the total of which agrees with that here given. About thirty-eight years after this census another was taken on the table-lands of Moab, east of the Jordan, just before entering into Canaan. We tabulate the results for the convenience of the reader. They eloquently portray the hardships of that wilderness-life during more than a third of a century in which the people actually decreased instead of doubling their number, as they doubtless would have done even in Egyptian servitude:

1st Cen.2d Cen.Ch. 1.Ch. 26.1. Judah74,60076,5002. Dan62,70064,4003. Simeon59,30022,2004. Zebulun57,40060,5005. Issachar54,40064,3006. Naphtali53,40045,4007. Reuben46,50043,7308. Gad45,65040,5009. Asher41,50053,40010. Ephraim40,50032,50011. Benjamin35,40045,60012. Manasseh32,20052,700Total603,550601,730It is a corroborative proof of the correctness of this census that the totals, when arranged in the order of magnitude, correspond nearly with the order of birth of the heads of the tribes. Judah, Simeon, Dan, and Naphtali, among the six oldest, are among the six highest. The sons of Joseph — Ephraim and Manasseh — though each less than the average of the other tribes, because a generation later, yet, counted as one, rank second in the first census and first in the second census. Hence the prediction, Joseph shall be a fruitful bough, is fulfilled. Yet Dr. Adam Clarke sees “no very satisfactory reason for so great a difference” between Judah, of the first generation, and Manasseh, of the second. The real comparison is between Joseph’s descendants and Judah’s. There is only a difference of nineteen hundred. It will be observed that the lowest denomination of figures is neither units nor tens, except Gad, but hundreds. This is a singular coincidence in the figures of a census. It is not reasonable to suppose such an occurrence would happen in eleven enumerations out of twelve. The explanation is, that as the chief reason for this first enumeration was the military organization of the nation, fractions of hundreds — the smallest military division — were rejected if less than fifty, and counted as even hundreds if above fifty. Or the supernumerary units may have balanced the losses from sickness or casualties, it being the purpose of the muster to exhibit the available military strength of the Hebrews. We observe the fulfilment of two predictions as already begun in the first census: 1, That relating to the precedence of Judah, foreseen by Jacob on his dying bed two hundred years before; (Gen_49:8;) and, 2, That relating to the superiority of Ephraim, the younger, to Manasseh, the elder, predicted by the same patriarch. Gen_48:19-20. The decline in the second census was not permanent.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Pulpit Commentary

Forty and six thousand and five hundred. All the numbers (save of Gad only) are in unbroken hundreds. It might have been so arranged by miracle; but such an overruling would have no assignable object, and therefore it is far better to fall back on the obvious and natural explanation that the totals were approximate. If they were simply the poll-tax figures unaltered, it would be natural to suppose that the offerings were made up in fifty-shekel lots, and the offerers divided as nearly as possible into hundreds. For military purposes a certain number of supernumeraries would be convenient. In the one excepted case of Gad a half-hundred appears for some unexplained cause.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Numbers, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 8 words (8 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is Rᵉʼûwbên (“Reuben”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “Reuben” (Rᵉʼûwbên) shape what this verse is saying?
Numbers 26:7 shares this passage’s theme. How do the two illuminate each other?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
The verb «פְּקֻדֵיהֶ֖ם» is Qal Participle Passive. How does its form color the action?
Reading how John Gill's Exposition and Whedon's Commentary on the Bible read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 8 Hebrew ↔ 13 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 12 words in this verse.
8 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 8 words in this verse.