Numbers 17:11

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Thus did Moses: as Yahweh commanded him, so did he.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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צִוָּ֧ה

tsâvâh

H6680

“to command”

Verb, Piel, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular

Appears 496× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 2:16

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a primitive root

TWOT: 1887

to command, charge, give orders, lay charge, give charge to, order - (Piel) - to lay charge upon - to give charge to, give command to - to give charge unto - to give charge over, appoint - to give charge, command - to charge, command - to charge, commission - to command, appoint, ordain (of divine act) - (Pual) to be commanded

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
7: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Grammatical profile

3 verbs
2 nouns
3 particles

Verb forms

וַיַּ֖עַשׂ Qal · Sequential Imperfect
צִוָּ֧ה Piel · Perfect
עָשָֽׂה Qal · Perfect

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

וַיַּ֖עַשׂ to do H6213 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 10 words from the Hebrew and 13 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.

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 17:11 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיַּ֖עַשׂ מֹשֶׁ֑ה כַּאֲשֶׁ֨ר צִוָּ֧ה יְהוָ֛ה אֹת֖וֹ כֵּ֥ן עָשָֽׂה

Thus did Moses: as Yahweh commanded him, so did he.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Numbers 17:11 Septuagint · lemma form

καί εἶπον μωυσῆς πρός ἀαρών λαμβάνω ὁ πυρεῖον καί πείθω ἐπί αὐτός πῦρ ἀπό ὁ θυσιαστήριον καί ἐπιβάλλω ἐπί αὐτός θυμίαμα καί ἀποφέρω ὁ τάχος εἰς ὁ παρεμβολή καί ἐκἱλάσκομαι περί αὐτός ἐκἔρχομαι γάρ ὀργή ἀπό πρόσωπον κύριος ἄρχω θραύω ὁ λαός

And Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded Moses, so did they.

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)

וַאֲמַר משֶׁה לְאַהֲרֹן סַב יָת מַחְתִּיתָא וְהַב עֲלַהּ אֶשָׁתָא מֵעִלָוֵי מַדְבְּחָא וְשַׁו קְטוֹרֶת בּוּסְמַיָא וְאוֹבִיל בִּפְרִיעַ לִכְנִשְׁתָּא וְכַפֵּר עֲלֵיהוֹן אֲרֵי נְפַק רָגְזָא מִן קֳדָם יְיָ שָׁרֵי מוֹתָנָא

(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)

וַאֲמַר משֶׁה לְאַהֲרן סַב יַת מַחְתְּיָא וְהַב עֲלָהּ אֵישָׁתָא מֵעִילַוֵי מַדְבְּחָא וְשַׁוִי קְטוֹרֶת בּוּסְמִין עַל אֵישָׁתָא וְאוֹבִיל בִּפְרִיעַ לְוַת כְּנִישְׁתָּא וְכַפֵּר אַמְטוּלְהוֹן אֲרוּם נְפַק מְחַבְּלָא דְאִתְכָּלוּ בְּחוֹרֵב דִשְׁמֵיהּ קֶצֶף מִן קָדָם יְיָ בִּהוּרְמָנָא שָׁרֵי לְקַטְלָא

And Mosheh said to Aharon, Take the censer, put fire in it from the altar, and sweet incense on the fire; bear it quickly into the congregation, and make atonement for them: for a destruction like that which consumed them in Horeb, whose name is Burning, hath begun by commandment to kill, from the presence of the Lord.

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 17:11 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

Whosoever cometh anything near unto the tabernacle of the Lord shall die,.... They who before were so bold and daring as to think the priesthood was common to them with Aaron, or they had as good a right to it, and might go into the sanctuary of the Lord where he did, are now so frightened at the rod being laid up as a token against them, that they thought they must not come near the tabernacle at all, and, if they did, would be in the utmost danger of death:

shall we be consumed with dying? such violent deaths, until there are none left of us? but the Syriac and Arabic versions render the words affirmatively; we are near or about to be consumed; and so the Targum of Onkelos, lo, we are to be consumed; which agrees best with the preceding clause, for they would scarcely make a question of what they had affirmed.

Next: Numbers Chapter 18

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

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

וכפר עליהם AND MAKE AN EXPIATION FOR THEM — This secret the Angel of Death communicated to him (Moses) when he went up unto heaven to receive the Torah, viz., that the incense holds back the plague — as is related in Treatise Shabbat 89a.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (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 8 words (7 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is tsâvâh (“to command”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “to command” (tsâvâh) shape what this verse is saying?
“to do” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
The verb «וַיַּ֖עַשׂ» is Qal Sequential Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how John Gill's Exposition and Rashi read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

These translations choose different wording for 5 words in this verse.
“to do” occurs 2× in this single verse.
7 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 8 words in this verse.