Numbers 2:33

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

But the Levites were not numbered among the children of Israel; as Yahweh commanded Moses.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Download a study sheet

One document with this verse’s original text, its word-by-word gloss line, the meaning frame, cross-references with their text, attributed commentary, and full source and license credits — printable, and it pastes into notes with its structure intact.

This verse Autodidact and up

Study sheet (.html) Plain text (.txt)

A passage Seminary Student

Up to 50 verses in one chapter. A passage sheet keeps up to 6 commentary sources and 12 cross-references per verse, in the order this page ranks them, and says so on the sheet whenever that leaves anything out. Ask for a single verse and you get the Autodidact verse sheet above.

Everything on this page stays free to read, with no account — the sheet is a download of what is already on screen, not access to it.

Want to remove ads? Support Godless Engineer

Word by word

More ways to search: Search by grammar → Find every occurrence → Compare this word →

Practice this passage: Drill this verse → Learn its vocabulary →

וְהַ֨לְוִיִּ֔ם

Lêvîyîy

H3881

“and · the · Levites”

Conjunction + Particle, Definite Article + Noun, Gentilic, Masculine, Plural, Absolute

Appears 286× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Exodus 4:14

Full BDB Definition

Origin: patronymically from H3878

TWOT: None

Levite = see Levi " joined to" - the descendants of Levi, the 3rd son of Jacob by Leah - the tribe descended from Levi specially set aside by God for His service

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 →

11: words
11: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
6 nouns
3 particles

Verb forms

הָתְפָּקְד֔וּ Hothpaal · Perfect
צִוָּ֥ה Piel · Perfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 15 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.

In the original languages it is 11 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 2:33 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Numbers 1:47–49 But the Levites after the tribe of their fathers were not numbered among them.
Numbers 26:57–62 These are those who were numbered of the Levites after their families: of Gershon, the family of the Gershonites; of Kohath, the family of the Kohathites; of Merari, the family of the Merarites.

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 2:33 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וְהַ֨לְוִיִּ֔ם לֹ֣א הָתְפָּקְד֔וּ בְּת֖וֹךְ בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל כַּאֲשֶׁ֛ר צִוָּ֥ה יְהוָ֖ה אֶת מֹשֶֽׁה

But the Levites were not numbered among the children of Israel; as Yahweh commanded Moses.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Numbers 2:33 Septuagint · lemma form

ὁ δέ λευίτης οὐ συν ἐπισκέπτομαι ἐν αὐτός καθά ἐντέλλομαι κύριος ὁ μωυσῆς

But the Levites were not numbered with them, as the Lord commanded Moses.

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)

וְלֵוָאֵי לָא אִתְמְנִיאוּ בְּגוֹ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל כְּמָא דְפַקֵיד יְיָ יָת משֶׁה

(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)

וְלֵיוָאֵי לָא אִתְמְנִיאוּ בְּגוֹ בְנֵי יִשְרָאֵל הֵיכְמָא דְפַקֵיד יְיָ יַת משֶׁה

But the Levites were not numbered among the sons of Israel, as the Lord commanded Mosheh.

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 2:33 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

But the Levites were not numbered among the children of Israel,.... At this time, not among the Israelites, but by themselves, they being a camp of themselves:

as the Lord commanded Moses; Num 1:48.

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

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Such was the ideal form of the encampment in the wilderness: a form reproduced in the square court with which the temple was eventually surrounded, and in the vision of the heavenly city as seen by Ezekiel Eze 48:20, and by John (Rev 21:16; compare Rev 20:9). Thus the camp of God’s earthly people was divinely ordered so as to set forth the completeness of His Church; and to illustrate by its whole arrangement, which was determined by the tabernacle in the center, both the dependance of all on God, and the access which all enjoyed to God.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

Because their warfare was of another kind.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword 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 11 words (11 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is Lêvîyîy (“Levite”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

What does “Levite” (Lêvîyîy) contribute to the verse as a whole?
Numbers 1:47–49 shares this passage’s theme. How do the two illuminate each other?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
The verb «הָתְפָּקְד֔וּ» is Hothpaal Perfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how John Gill's Exposition and Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 11 Hebrew ↔ 13 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 11 words in this verse.
11 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 11 words in this verse.