Numbers 32:29

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Moses said to them, If the children of Gad and the children of Reuben will pass with you over the Jordan, every man who is armed to battle, before Yahweh, and the land shall be subdued before you; then you shall give them the land of Gilead for a possession:

World English Bible · Public Domain

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וְנִכְבְּשָׁ֥ה

kâbash

H3533

“and · to subdue”

Conjunction + Verb, Niphal, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular

Appears 15× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 1:28

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a primitive root

TWOT: 951

to subject, subdue, force, keep under, bring into bondage - (Qal) - to bring into bondage, make subservient - to subdue, force, violate - to subdue, dominate, tread down - (Niphal) to be subdued - (Piel) to subdue - (Hiphil) to bring into bondage

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 →

26: words
21: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is וְנִכְבְּשָׁ֥ה to subdue H3533 — appearing just 15 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

וְנִכְבְּשָׁ֥ה to subdue H3533 occurs in 13 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

5 verbs
15 nouns
3 prepositions
1 conjunction
2 particles

Verb forms

וַיֹּ֨אמֶר Qal · Sequential Imperfect
יַעַבְר֣וּ Qal · Imperfect
חָל֤וּץ Qal · Participle Passive
וְנִכְבְּשָׁ֥ה Niphal · Sequential Perfect
וּנְתַתֶּ֥ם Qal · Sequential Perfect

Repetition

Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

בְנֵי son H1121 ×2
לִפְנֵ֣י face H6440 ×2
הָאָ֖רֶץ land H776 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 50 words from the Hebrew and 50 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — the same length.

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 26 Hebrew tokens and 38 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.

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

Hebrew Numbers 32:29 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיֹּ֨אמֶר מֹשֶׁ֜ה אֲלֵהֶ֗ם אִם יַעַבְר֣וּ בְנֵי גָ֣ד וּבְנֵי רְאוּבֵ֣ן אִ֠תְּכֶם אֶֽת הַיַּרְדֵּ֞ן כָּל חָל֤וּץ לַמִּלְחָמָה֙ לִפְנֵ֣י יְהוָ֔ה וְנִכְבְּשָׁ֥ה הָאָ֖רֶץ לִפְנֵיכֶ֑ם וּנְתַתֶּ֥ם לָהֶ֛ם אֶת אֶ֥רֶץ הַגִּלְעָ֖ד לַאֲחֻזָּֽה

Moses said to them, If the children of Gad and the children of Reuben will pass with you over the Jordan, every man who is armed to battle, before Yahweh, and the land shall be subdued before you; then you shall give them the land of Gilead for a possession:

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Numbers 32:29 Septuagint · lemma form

καί εἶπον πρός αὐτός μωυσῆς ἐάν διαβαίνω ὁ υἱός ρουβην καί ὁ υἱός γαδ μετά σύ ὁ ἰορδάνης πᾶς ἐνὁπλίζω εἰς πόλεμος ἔναντι κύριος καί κατακυριεύω ὁ γῆ ἀπέναντι σύ καί δίδωμι αὐτός ὁ γῆ γαλαάδ ἐν κατάσχεσις

And Moses said to them, If the sons of Ruben and the sons of Gad will pass over Jordan with you, every one armed for war before the Lord, and you⌃ shall subdue the land before you, then you⌃ shall give to them the land of Galaad for a possession.

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 לְהוֹן אִם יַעְבְּרוּן בְּנֵי גָד וּבְנֵי רְאוּבֵן עִמְכוֹן יָת יַרְדְנָא כָּל דִמְזָרַז לִקְרָבָא קֳדָם עַמָא דַיְיָ וְתִתְכְּבֵשׁ אַרְעָא קֳדָמֵיכוֹן וְתִתְּנוּן לְהוֹן יָת אַרְעָא דְגִלְעָד לְאַחֲסָנָא

(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 לְהוֹן משֶׁה אִין יְעִיבְרוּן בְּנֵי גָד וּבְנֵי רְאוּבֵן עִמְכוֹן יַת יוֹרְדְנָא כָּל דִמְזָרֵז לִקְרָבָא קֳדָם עַמָא דַיְיָ וְתִתְכְּבֵשׁ אַרְעָא קֳדָמֵיכוֹן וְתִתְּנוּן לְהוֹן יַת אַרַע גִלְעָד לְאַחְסָנָא

and said to them: If the sons of Gad and of Reuben go over the Jordan with you, every one armed for the war, before the people of the Lord, and the land be subdued before you, then shall you give to them the land of Gilead for a possession.

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 32:29 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 Moses said unto them,.... To Eleazar, Joshua, and the princes of the congregation:

if the children of Gad and the children of Reuben will pass with you over Jordan, every man armed to battle before the Lord; as they have promised they will:

and the land shall be subdued before you; which must be done before their return:

then ye shall give them the land of Gilead for a possession; which, no doubt, included that of Jazer too, since Jaazer, which is the same, is after mentioned as one of the cities built by the children of Gad, Num 32:35.

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

Ramban (Nachmanides)

Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman (Ramban / Nachmanides)

[AND MOSES SAID UNTO THEM]: ‘IF THE CHILDREN OF GAD AND THE CHILDREN OF REUBEN WILL PASS WITH YOU etc. THEN YE [Joshua and the princes] SHALL GIVE THEM THE LAND OF GILEAD FOR A POSSESSION.’ The reason for this [command that then ye shall give them …] is that Moses did not give them now all the land of Sihon and Og, but only a few cities in the land of Gilead which was a place fit for cattle, namely Ataroth, and Dibon, etc. and those mentioned here, in which they built fortifications to settle their children and cattle therein, but the rest of the land they left waste. Therefore [Moses] commanded Joshua and the princes: “If they will pass over [the Jordan] with you, you shall give them all the land as a perpetual inheritance. But if they will not want to pass over with you, you should take away from them all this land and drive out from it their wives and children, and give them an inheritance fitting for them in the land of Canaan, which they shall conquer for themselves when they cross over [the Jordan].” And Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra commented: “But if they will not pass over of their own free will, you shall take them with you against their will, and they shall take their possession there [in the land of Canaan] together with you.”

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 26 words (21 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is kâbash (“to subdue”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word kâbash carries the sense “to subdue.” How does it shape the verse?
Genesis 1:28 shares the word «to subdue» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
“son” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
The verb «וַיֹּ֨אמֶר» is Qal Sequential Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how John Gill's Exposition and Ramban (Nachmanides) read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 26 Hebrew ↔ 38 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 14 words in this verse.
“son” occurs 2× in this single verse.
21 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 26 words in this verse.