Numbers 4:38

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Those who were numbered of the sons of Gershon, their families, and by their fathers' houses,

World English Bible · Public Domain

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גֵרְשׁ֑וֹן

Gêrᵉshôwn

H1648

“Gershon”

Noun, Proper

Appears 17× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 46:11

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H1644

TWOT: None

Gershon or Gershom = "exile" - firstborn son of Levi born before Jacob's family went to Egypt

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 →

6: words
6: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is גֵרְשׁ֑וֹן Gershon H1648 — appearing just 17 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

גֵרְשׁ֑וֹן Gershon H1648 occurs in 17 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

1 verb
5 nouns

Verb forms

וּפְקוּדֵ֖י Qal · Participle Passive

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 16 words from the Hebrew and 18 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 6 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.

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 4:38 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וּפְקוּדֵ֖י בְּנֵ֣י גֵרְשׁ֑וֹן לְמִשְׁפְּחוֹתָ֖ם וּלְבֵ֥ית אֲבֹתָֽם

Those who were numbered of the sons of Gershon, their families, and by their fathers' houses,

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Numbers 4:38 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ἐπισκέπτω υἱός γεδσων κατά δῆμος αὐτός κατά οἶκος πατριά αὐτός

And the sons of Gedson were numbered according to their families, according to the houses of their lineage,

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)

וּמִנְיָנֵי בְּנֵי גֵרְשׁוֹן לְזַרְעֲיַתְהוֹן וּלְבֵית אֲבָהַתְהוֹן

(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)

וּמִנְיַן סְכוּמֵי בְּנַי גֵרְשׁוֹן לִגְנִיסַתְהוֹן וּלְבֵית אֲבָהַתְהוֹן

The numbers of the Beni Gershon, after the families of their father's house

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 4:38 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

From thirty years old and upward even unto fifty years old,.... See Gill on Num 4:34.

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Numbers 4:48

num 4:48

num 4:48

num 4:48Even those that were numbered of them,.... See Gill on Num 4:34.

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

unfoldingWord translationNotes

Door43 World Missions Community

The descendants of Gershon

This refers to the men. AT: "The male descendants of Gershon" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

The descendants of Gershon were counted

This can be stated in active form. AT: "Moses and Aaron counted the descendants of Gershon" (See: Active or Passive)

from thirty to fifty years old

"from 30 to 50 years old" (See: Numbers)

everyone who would join the company

Here the word "would" does not mean that the men "chose" to join the company but rather that they were "assigned" to the company. AT: "everyone who was assigned to join the company" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

join the company to serve in the tent of meeting

The word "company" refers to the rest of the people working in the tent of meeting. See how you translated this phrase in Numbers 4:3.

counted by their clans

This can be stated in active form. AT: "whom Moses and Aaron counted by their clans" (See: Active or Passive)

2,630

"two thousand six hundred and thirty." This refers to 2,630 men. (See: Numbers and Ellipsis)

translationWords

descend

clan

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

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 6 words (6 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is Gêrᵉshôwn (“Gershon”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “Gershon” (Gêrᵉshôwn) shape what this verse is saying?
How does Genesis 46:11, which shares the word «Gershon», read alongside this verse?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
«וּפְקוּדֵ֖י» is a Qal Participle Passive verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how John Gill's Exposition and unfoldingWord translationNotes read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 6 Hebrew ↔ 11 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 10 words in this verse.
6 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 6 words in this verse.