Numbers 4:8

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

They shall spread on them a scarlet cloth, and cover the same with a covering of sealskin, and shall put in its poles.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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תָּ֑חַשׁ

tachash

H8476

“badger”

Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute

Appears 14× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Exodus 25:5

Full BDB Definition

Origin: probably of foreign derivation

TWOT: 2503

a kind of leather, skin, or animal hide - perhaps the animal yielding the skin - perhaps the badger or dugong, dolphin, or sheep

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 →

13: words
12: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is תָּ֑חַשׁ badger H8476 — appearing just 14 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

תָּ֑חַשׁ badger H8476 occurs in 14 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

3 verbs
7 nouns
1 preposition
2 particles

Verb forms

וּפָרְשׂ֣וּ Qal · Sequential Perfect
וְכִסּ֣וּ Piel · Sequential Perfect
וְשָׂמ֖וּ Qal · Sequential Perfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 23 words from the Hebrew and 28 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 13 Hebrew tokens and 19 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 4:8 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Numbers 4:6–7 and shall put a covering of sealskin on it, and shall spread over it a cloth all of blue, and shall put in its poles.
Numbers 4:9 They shall take a blue cloth, and cover the lampstand of the light, and its lamps, and its snuffers, and its snuff dishes, and all its oil vessels, with which they minister to it.
Numbers 4:11–13 On the golden altar they shall spread a blue cloth, and cover it with a covering of sealskin, and shall put in its poles.

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 4:8 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וּפָרְשׂ֣וּ עֲלֵיהֶ֗ם בֶּ֚גֶד תּוֹלַ֣עַת שָׁנִ֔י וְכִסּ֣וּ אֹת֔וֹ בְּמִכְסֵ֖ה ע֣וֹר תָּ֑חַשׁ וְשָׂמ֖וּ אֶת בַּדָּֽיו

They shall spread on them a scarlet cloth, and cover the same with a covering of sealskin, and shall put in its poles.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Numbers 4:8 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ἐπιβάλλω ἐπί αὐτός ἱμάτιον κόκκινος καί καλύπτω αὐτός κάλυμμα δερμάτινος ὑακίνθινος καί δια ἐνβάλλω διά αὐτός ὁ ἀναφορεύς

And they shall put upon it a scarlet cloth, and they shall cover it with a blue covering of skin, and they shall put the staves into it.

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)

וְיִפְרְסוּן עֲלֵיהוֹן לְבוּשׁ צְבַע זְהוֹרִי וִיכַסוּן יָתֵהּ בְּחוֹפָאָה דִמְשַׁךְ סַסְגוֹנָא וִישַׁוּוּן יָת 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)

וְיִפְרְשׁוּן עֲלוֹי לְבוּשׁ צְבַע זְהוֹרִי וִיכַסוּן יָתֵיהּ בְּחוֹפָאָה דִמְשַׁךְ סַסְגוֹנָא וִישַׁווּן יַת אֲרִיחוֹהִי

And they shall spread upon it a wrapper of scarlet, and cover it with 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 4:8 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 →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Num 4:8 And they shall spread upon them a cloth of scarlet, and cover the same with a covering of badgers’ skins, and shall put in the staves thereof.

Ver. 8. And cover the same.] It is well observed, that only the ark (representing Christ), and the table with show bread, (representing the Church), had three coverings; all the other holy things had but two, for "a covert from storm and from rain." Thus, "upon all the glory shall be a defence." {Isa 4:5-6}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(8) And cover the same.—Better, and cover it (the table).

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 they shall spread upon them a cloth of scarlet,.... Upon the dishes and other vessels belonging to the shewbread table, and on the shewbread itself:

and cover the same with a covering of badgers' skins; this was clearly the outward covering, and seems to confirm the observation made in Num 4:6; that the same sort of covering was the outermost covering of the ark:

and shall put in the staves thereof; which belonged to the table, and were made to carry it with on occasion, from place to place; see Exo 25:27; and the same phrase being used as here of the staves of the ark in Num 4:6; seems to confirm the sense of them there, that they were taken out and put in upon this occasion, though otherwise fixed.

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

The Pulpit Commentary

Shall put in the staves thereof. This formula is repeated alike with reference to the ark, the table, and the two altars. It would therefore be natural to suppose that the staves had all been taken out while the various coverings were put on. On the other hand, it is expressly directed in Exo_25:15 that the staves of the ark shall "not be taken from it." Two explanations are possible. Either the former command does not contemplate the necessity of wrapping up the ark, and only applies to all times when it was at rest, or in movement; or else the latter direction only means, in the ease of the ark, that the staves should be adjusted for the purpose of bearing.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword 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 13 words (12 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is tachash (“badger”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “badger” (tachash) shape what this verse is saying?
Exodus 25:5 shares the word «badger» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
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?
The verb «וּפָרְשׂ֣וּ» is Qal Sequential Perfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 13 Hebrew ↔ 19 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 14 words in this verse.
12 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 13 words in this verse.