Numbers 4:14

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

They shall put on it all its vessels, with which they minister about it, the fire pans, the flesh hooks, the shovels, and the basins; all the vessels of the altar; and they shall spread on it a covering of sealskin, and put in its poles.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Highlights

Septuagint runs longer here — compare

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כְּס֛וּי

kâçûwy

H3681

“covering of”

Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Construct

Appears 2× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Numbers 4:6

Full BDB Definition

Origin: passive participle of H3680

TWOT: 1008a

covering, outer covering

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 →

27: words
18: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is כְּס֛וּי covering H3681 — appearing just 2 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

כְּס֛וּי covering H3681 occurs in 2 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Numbers 4:6

Grammatical profile

4 verbs
13 nouns
4 prepositions
6 particles

Verb forms

וְנָתְנ֣וּ Qal · Sequential Perfect
יְֽשָׁרְת֧וּ Piel · Imperfect
וּפָרְשׂ֣וּ Qal · Sequential Perfect
וְשָׂמ֥וּ Qal · Sequential Perfect

Repetition

Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

עָ֠לָיו upon H5921 ×3
כָּל all H3605 ×2
כֵּלָ֞יו vessel H3627 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 46 words from the Hebrew and 82 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.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Numbers 4:14 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Exodus 38:1–7 He made the altar of burnt offering of acacia wood. It was square. Its length was five cubits, its breadth was five cubits, and its height was three cubits.
2 Chronicles 4:19 Solomon made all the vessels that were in the house of God, the golden altar also, and the tables whereon was the show bread;

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.

Here the Septuagint runs noticeably longer than the Hebrew — LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) 82 words vs World English Bible 46. 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 4:14 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וְנָתְנ֣וּ עָ֠לָיו אֶֽת כָּל כֵּלָ֞יו אֲשֶׁ֣ר יְֽשָׁרְת֧וּ עָלָ֣יו בָּהֶ֗ם אֶת הַמַּחְתֹּ֤ת אֶת הַמִּזְלָגֹת֙ וְאֶת הַיָּעִ֣ים וְאֶת הַמִּזְרָקֹ֔ת כֹּ֖ל כְּלֵ֣י הַמִּזְבֵּ֑חַ וּפָרְשׂ֣וּ עָלָ֗יו כְּס֛וּי ע֥וֹר תַּ֖חַשׁ וְשָׂמ֥וּ בַדָּֽיו

They shall put on it all its vessels, with which they minister about it, the fire pans, the flesh hooks, the shovels, and the basins; all the vessels of the altar; and they shall spread on it a covering of sealskin, and put in its poles.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Numbers 4:14 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ἐπιτίθημι ἐπί αὐτός πᾶς ὁ σκεῦος ὅσος λειτουργέω ἐπί αὐτός ἐν αὐτός καί ὁ πυρεῖον καί ὁ κρεάγρα καί ὁ φιάλη καί ὁ καλυπτήρ καί πᾶς ὁ σκεῦος ὁ θυσιαστήριον καί ἐπιβάλλω ἐπί αὐτός κάλυμμα δερμάτινος ὑακίνθινος καί δια ἐνβάλλω ὁ ἀναφορεύς αὐτός καί λαμβάνω ἱμάτιον πορφύρεος καί συνκαλύπτω ὁ λουτήρ καί ὁ βάσις αὐτός καί ἐνβάλλω αὐτός εἰς κάλυμμα δερμάτινος ὑακίνθινος καί ἐπιτίθημι ἐπί ἀναφορεύς

And they shall put upon it all the vessels with which they minister upon it, and the fire-pans, and the flesh hooks, and the cups, and the cover, and all the vessels of the altar; and they shall put on it a blue cover of skins, and shall put in its staves; and they shall take a purple cloth, and cover the laver and its foot, and they shall put it into a blue cover of skin, and put it on bars.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

On this verse, John Gill's Exposition discusses the Septuagint’s reading. Read the note in Commentary ↓

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)

וְיִתְּנוּן עֲלוֹהִי יָת כָּל מָנוֹהִי דִי יְשַׁמְשׁוּן עֲלוֹהִי בְהוֹן יָת מַחְתְּיָתָא וְיָת צִנוֹרְיָתָא וְיָת מַגְרוֹפְיָתָא וְיָת מִזְרְקַיָא כֹּל מָנֵי מַדְבְּחָא וְיִפְרְסוּן עֲלוֹהִי חוֹפָאָה דִמְשַׁךְ סַסְגוֹנָא וִישַׁווּן אֲרִיחוֹהִי

(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)

וְיִתְּנוּן עֲלוֹי יַת כָּל מָנוֹי דִישַׁמְשׁוּן עֲלוֹי בְּהוֹן יַת מַחְתְּיָיתָא וְיַת מַשִׁלְיָיתָא וְיַת מַגְרוֹפְיָיתָא וְיַת מִזְרְקַיָא כָּל מָאנֵי מַדְבְּחָא וְיִפְרְסוּן עֲלוֹי חוֹפָאָה דִמְשַׁךְ סַסְגוֹנָא וִישַׁווּן אֲרִיחוֹי

and put upon it all its vessels with which it is served, the cinder-holders, flesh-hooks, prongs, and basins, even all the vessels of the altar, and spread upon it a covering of hyacinthine skin, and inset its staves.

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 4:14 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 →

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(14) The censers.—Better, the fire-pans, as in Exo_27:3.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And when Aaron and his sons had made an end of covering the sanctuary,.... Not the holy place, nor the most holy place, for these were not covered by them; but "the holy things" in them, as the Septuagint version, the ark, shewbread table, &c. and all "the vessels of the sanctuary"; all appertaining to those holy things, which are before mentioned. Jarchi interprets the "sanctuary", or the "holiness", of the ark and altar:

and all the vessels of the sanctuary; of the candlestick and the instruments of ministry:

as the camp is to set forward; which made the covering of them necessary, in order to their being carried as that moved:

after that the sons of Kohath shall come to bear it; or rather them, all the holy things, and their vessels, and that upon their shoulders:

but they shall not touch any holy thing; even in bearing them, neither the ark nor any other, only the staves and bar, on which they were carried: lest they die; by the immediate hand of God:

these things are the burden of the sons of Kohath, in the tabernacle of the congregation; the above things, the ark, &c. which they were to bear on their shoulders, and not make use of wagons to carry them.

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

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

Amongst all these vessels here and above named there is no mention of the brazen laver though that be elsewhere. reckoned among the holy things, as Exo 35:16; 38:8; 39:39; 40:30, whereof possibly the reason may be because it was not covered, as not being capable of much hurt by the weather; though some ancient translations of the Bible do here add these words, They shall take a purple covering, and cover the laver, &c.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

מחתת THE CENSERS into which the coals were raked for the purpose of the ceremony of תרומת הדשן, removing a pan of ashes from the copper altar (cf. Rashi on Leviticus 6:4), and which were formed like a pan which has only three walls (none in front) and with the front of it draws in the coals.

מזלגת — copper hooks (cf. Rashi on Exodus 27:3) which they stuck forcibly into the limbs that were on the altar in order to turn them over so that they might become thoroughly and quickly consumed.

יעים are shovels; in O. F. vedil. They were of copper and with them they cleared the ashes from off the altar.

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 27 words (18 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is kâçûwy (“covering”). The Greek Septuagint runs longer here. A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word kâçûwy carries the sense “covering.” How does it shape the verse?
How does Numbers 4:6, which shares the word «covering», read alongside this verse?
What does the repetition of “upon” (3× in this one verse) do in this verse?
The Septuagint runs longer here than the Hebrew. What might account for the difference?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
«וְנָתְנ֣וּ» is a Qal Sequential Perfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers and John Gill's Exposition read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

These translations choose different wording for 26 words in this verse.
“upon” occurs 3× in this single verse.
18 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 27 words in this verse.