Numbers 13:4

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

These were their names: Of the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Highlights

2 first appearances in the Hebrew Bible
Septuagint runs longer here — compare

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שַׁמּ֖וּעַ

Shammûwaʻ

H8051

“Shammua”

Noun, Proper

Appears 5× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears here

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H8074

TWOT: None

Shammua = "renowned" - son of Zaccur and the spy from the tribe of Reuben - son of David by his wife Bathsheba - also 'Shammuah' and 'Shimea' - a Levite, son of Galal and father of Abda who lived in Jerusalem after the return from exile in the time of Nehemiah - also 'Shemaiah' - a priest, head of the family of Bilgah in the time of Joiakim after the return from exile

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 →

7: words
7: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is שַׁמּ֖וּעַ Shammua H8051 — appearing just 5 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

First appearance in Scripture

These words make their first canonical appearance in the Hebrew Bible here:

שַׁמּ֖וּעַ Shammua H8051
זַכּֽוּר Zaccur H2139

Shared distinctive vocabulary

שַׁמּ֖וּעַ Shammua H8051 occurs in 5 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

6 nouns
1 pronoun

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 14 words from the Hebrew and 26 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — the Septuagint runs noticeably longer here. See the side-by-side →

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 7 Hebrew tokens and 11 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.

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

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

Here the Septuagint runs noticeably longer than the Hebrew — LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) 26 words vs World English Bible 14. A rough length comparison of the two English translations, not a word-level alignment — read both below.

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

Hebrew Numbers 13:4 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וְאֵ֖לֶּה שְׁמוֹתָ֑ם לְמַטֵּ֣ה רְאוּבֵ֔ן שַׁמּ֖וּעַ בֶּן זַכּֽוּר

These were their names: Of the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Numbers 13:4 Septuagint · lemma form

καί οὗτος ὁ ὄνομα αὐτός ὁ φυλή ρουβην σαλαμιηλ υἱός ζακχουρ

And Moses sent them out of the wilderness of Pharan by the word of the Lord; all these were the princes of the sons of Israel.

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)

וְאִלֵין שְׁמָהַתְהוֹן לְשִׁבְטָא דִרְאוּבֵן שַׁמוּעַ בַּר זַכּוּר

(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)

וְאִלֵין שְׁמָהָתָא דִתְרֵיסַר גוּבְרַיָא מְאַלְלַיָא לְשִׁבְטָא דִרְאוּבֵן עַזְגָד שַׁמוּעַ בַּר זַכּוּר

And these are the names of the twelve men, the explorers: the messenger of the tribe of Reuben, Shamua bar Zakkur;

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 13:4 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

And these were their names, of the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur. From Num 13:4, there is nothing but the names of the said persons, whose sons they were, and of what tribe; and the several tribes are mentioned, not according to the order of the birth of the patriarchs, nor according to the dignity of their mothers that bore them, but, very likely, according to the order in which they were sent, two by two, to search the land; for had they gone all twelve in a body, they would have been liable to suspicion: the signification of their names is of no importance to know, and will give us no light into their characters or the reason of their choice, nor are their parents elsewhere taken notice of, nor any of them but Joshua and Caleb, of whom we shall hear more hereafter.

, there is nothing but the names of the said persons, whose sons they were, and of what tribe; and the several tribes are mentioned, not according to the order of the birth of the patriarchs, nor according to the dignity of their mothers that bore them, but, very likely, according to the order in which they were sent, two by two, to search the land; for had they gone all twelve in a body, they would have been liable to suspicion: the signification of their names is of no importance to know, and will give us no light into their characters or the reason of their choice, nor are their parents elsewhere taken notice of, nor any of them but Joshua and Caleb, of whom we shall hear more hereafter.

Numbers 13:5

num 13:5

num 13:5

num 13:5Of the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori. See Gill on Num 13:4.

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

Geneva Bible (1599)

Geneva Bible translators

Or, rulers.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

The Pulpit Commentary

These were their names. None of these names occur elsewhere, except those of Caleb and Joshua. The order of the tribes is the same as in Nu 1, except that Zebulun is separated from the other sons of Leah, and placed after Benjamin, while the two sons of Joseph are separated from one another. In verse 11 "the tribe of Joseph" is explained to be "the tribe of Manasseh;" elsewhere it is either common to both, or confined to Ephraim. (see Rev_7:8, and cf. Eze_37:16) No spy was sent for the tribe of Levi, because it was now understood to have no territorial claims upon.the land of promise, and to stand altogether by itself in relation to the national hopes and duties.

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

Ramban (Nachmanides)

Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman (Ramban / Nachmanides)

OF THE TRIBE OF REUBEN etc. The verse [here] lists the tribes neither according to [the pattern of encampment of] their standards, nor according to the order of birth [of the ancestors of each tribe]. It appears that Scripture saw fit to mention them here according to the importance of the delegates [on the mission], for they were heads and princes of the people, as is related, but they were not all of equal standing, some of them being greater than the others in wisdom and honor; therefore Scripture mentioned first those who were most honored, who were first in status, since it named them according to their personal standing, not that of their tribe. Similarly in [citing the names of] the princes who were to divide the Land up amongst the people, He mentioned them according to their personal standing, not according to the order of birth [of the tribal ancestors].

Ramban (Nachmanides) on the Tanakh — English translation: “Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

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 7 words (7 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is Shammûwaʻ (“Shammua”). The Greek Septuagint runs longer here. A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “Shammua” (Shammûwaʻ) shape what this verse is saying?
2 words here appear for the first time in Scripture. What is being introduced at this debut?
2 Samuel 5:14 shares the word «Shammua» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
Compared with the Hebrew, the Septuagint runs longer here. What questions does that raise?
Reading how John Gill's Exposition and Geneva Bible (1599) read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

2 words make their first canonical appearance in Scripture here.
This verse counts 7 Hebrew ↔ 11 Greek words.
7 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 7 words in this verse.