Numbers 32:36

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

and Beth Nimrah, and Beth Haran: fortified cities, and folds for sheep.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Highlights

2 first appearances in the Hebrew Bible

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Word by word

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בֵּ֣ית

Bêyth hâ-Rân

H1028

“Beth-haran”

Noun, Proper

Appears 2× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears here

Full BDB Definition

Origin: probably for H1027

TWOT: None

Beth-haran = "house of their mount: house of the joyful shouter" - a place in Gad, possibly " Beth Harran" , one hour east of Jordan, opposite Jericho

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 →

10: words
7: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is בֵּ֣ית Beth-haran H1028 — appearing just 2 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

First appearance in Scripture

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

בֵּ֥ית Beth-Nimrah H1039
בֵּ֣ית Beth-haran H1028

Grammatical profile

8 nouns
2 particles

Repetition

Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

בֵּ֥ית Beth-Nimrah H1039 ×2
בֵּ֣ית Beth-haran H1028 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 12 words from the Hebrew and 10 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 10 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.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Numbers 32:36 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Numbers 32:3 Ataroth, and Dibon, and Jazer, and Nimrah, and Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Sebam, and Nebo, and Beon,

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 32:36 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וְאֶת בֵּ֥ית נִמְרָ֖ה וְאֶת בֵּ֣ית הָרָ֑ן עָרֵ֥י מִבְצָ֖ר וְגִדְרֹ֥ת צֹֽאן

and Beth Nimrah, and Beth Haran: fortified cities, and folds for sheep.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Numbers 32:36 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ὁ ναμβραν καί ὁ βαιθαραν πόλις ὀχυρός καί ἔπαυλις πρόβατον

and Namram, and Baetharan, strong cities, and folds for sheep.

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)

וְיָת בֵּית נִמְרָה וְיָת בֵּית הָרָן קִרְוִין כְּרִיכָן וְחַטְרִין דְעָאן

(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)

וְיַת כְּרַכָּא תַּקִיפָא בְּבֵית נִמְרִין וְיַת בֵּית הָרַן קוֹרְיֵי חַקְרָא וּגְדִירִין דְעָאן

and the strong city of Beth Nimrin, and Beth Haran, fenced cities (with) folds for sheep.

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 32:36 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 the children of Reuben built Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Kirjathaim. Heshbon was the royal city of Sihon king of the Amorites, and Elealeh was within a mile of it, see Num 32:3, this shows that those cities were not built anew properly, only repaired, for they were cities in being long before; besides, they had not time to build new cities, for in a few months after this they passed over Jordan; though indeed they left men enough behind to rebuild cities, whom they might set to work about them when they departed: Kirjathaim is, by the Targum of Jonathan, called the city of two streets paved with marble, and it adds, this is Beresha: Jerom (t) says, it is now called Coraiatha, which is pretty near its ancient name, and that it is ten miles from Medeba, a city of Arabia, mentioned as one of the cities in the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites, Num 21:30.

(t) De loc. Heb. fol. 89. M.

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

Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Betharan, which Herod enlarged, and called Livias, south of Hesebon. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

36. Beth-nimrah — See Nimrah, Num_32:3, note.

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

Beth-nimrah and Beth-haran. Supposed to be the present Nimrun and Beit-haran in the plains of Moab, beside the Jordan, and in the immediate neighbourhood of the Israelitish comp. The latter would seem to have fallen subsequently to Reuben. Fenced cities, and folds for sheep. There should be no stop between these two clauses. All these places were "built" for the double purpose of affording protection to the families and to the flocks of the tribe.

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

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

ערי מבצר וגדרת צאן FORTIFIED CITIES AND ENCLOSURES FOR SHEEP — This end of the verse is to be connected back with the beginning of the paragraph (v. 24): And the children of Gad built these cities to be fortified cities and enclosures for sheep.

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 10 words (7 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is Bêyth hâ-Rân (“Beth-haran”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “Beth-haran” (Bêyth hâ-Rân) shape what this verse is saying?
2 words here appear for the first time in Scripture. What is being introduced at this debut?
Numbers 32:3 shares this passage’s theme. How do the two illuminate each other?
“Beth-Nimrah” 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?
Reading how John Gill's Exposition and Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 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 10 Hebrew ↔ 11 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 12 words in this verse.
“Beth-Nimrah” occurs 2× in this single verse.
7 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 10 words in this verse.