Numbers 5:10

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Every man's holy things shall be his: whatever any man gives the priest, it shall be his."

World English Bible · Public Domain

Highlights

Septuagint runs longer here — compare

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קֳדָשָׁ֖יו

qôdesh

H6944

“holy things · his”

Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct + Suffix, Personal, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular

Appears 467× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Exodus 3:5

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H6942

TWOT: 1990a

apartness, holiness, sacredness, separateness - apartness, sacredness, holiness - of God - of places - of things - set-apartness, separateness

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 →

11: words
7: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Grammatical profile

3 verbs
4 nouns
2 prepositions
2 particles

Verb forms

יִהְי֑וּ Qal · Imperfect
יִתֵּ֥ן Qal · Imperfect
יִהְיֶֽה Qal · Imperfect

Repetition

Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

וְאִ֥ישׁ man H376 ×2
יִהְי֑וּ to be H1961 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 17 words from the Hebrew and 25 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.

In the original languages it is 11 Hebrew tokens and 14 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 5:10 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Leviticus 10:13 and you shall eat it in a holy place, because it is your portion, and your sons' portion, of the offerings of Yahweh made by fire: for so I am commanded.

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) 25 words vs World English Bible 17. 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 5:10 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וְאִ֥ישׁ אֶת קֳדָשָׁ֖יו ל֣וֹ יִהְי֑וּ אִ֛ישׁ אֲשֶׁר יִתֵּ֥ן לַכֹּהֵ֖ן ל֥וֹ יִהְיֶֽה

Every man's holy things shall be his: whatever any man gives the priest, it shall be his."

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Numbers 5:10 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ἕκαστος ὁ ἁγιάζω αὐτός εἰμί ἀνήρ ὅς ἐάν δίδωμι ὁ ἱερεύς αὐτός εἰμί

And the hallowed things of every man shall be his; and whatever man shall give any thing to the priest, the gift shall be his.

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)

וּגְבַר יָת מַעֲשַׂר קוּדְשֵׁהּ דִלֵהּ יְהוֹן גְבַר דְיִתֵּן לְכַהֲנָא דִלֵהּ יְהֵא

(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)

וּגְבַר יַת מַעֲשֵר קוּדְשׁוֹי דִילֵיהּ יְהוֹן וְלָא חַסְרִין נִכְסוֹי גְבַר מַה דְיִתֵּן לְכַהֲנָא דִילֵיהּ יְהֵי

The consecrated tithe, also, of any man shall be his, that his substance may not fail; whatever a man giveth unto the priest shall be his.

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 5:10 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 →

Joseph Benson's Commentary

Num 5:10. Every man’s hallowed things — Understand this not of the sacrifices, because these were not the priest’s entirely, but part of them was offered to God, and the remainder was eaten by the offerer as well as by the priest; but of such other things as were devoted to God, and could not be offered in sacrifices; as, suppose a man consecrated a house to the Lord, this was to be the priest’s.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

10. every man’s holy things shall be his] i.e. the priest’s. The verse gives a general description of all priestly dues; (1) every holy thing that is, from any cause, due to Jehovah, shall go to the priest as His representative, and (2) every gift which a man may make to any particular priest shall belong to that priest.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And every man's hallowed things shall be his,.... Which he, by a vow or freewill offering, separates to holy uses; these are at his own dispose, to give to what priest he will, or they are the priest's; for what a man devotes to the Lord is to be given to them, or such things as God has hallowed, sanctified, and set apart for sacred uses, as the firstfruits and tithes, they were the priests'; the Jewish writers (i) restrain it to tithes:

whatsoever any man giveth the priest, it shall be his; his personally, who officiates, or to whom the gift is given, and is not to be divided among the other priests in the course.

(i) Targ. Jon. Siphri & Midrash in Jarchi in loc.

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

Every man’s hallowed things; understand this not of the sacrifices, no, not of such of them as were voluntary or vowed, as most understand it, because these were not the priest’s peculiar, but a good part of them was offered to God, and the remainder was eaten by the offerer as well as by the priest, as is manifest; but of such other things as were devoted to God, and were such as could not be offered in sacrifice; as suppose a man consecrated a house, or rent of it, to the Lord, this was to be the priest’s. And this restriction may be easily collected from the nature of the thing, because he speaketh in this and the other branches here of such things as were appropriated to the priest as his portion, which none of the sacrifices were.

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

The Pulpit Commentary

Every man"s hallowed things. Dedicatory offerings, such as first-fruits, not exactly of the nature of sacrifices. His, i.e., the priest"s. Whatsoever any man giveth the priest, it shall be his. A general principle, including and confirming the previous rules; subject, of course, to the other and greater principle, that whatever the Lord claimed for himself by fire must first be consumed. These directions concerning the rights of the priests to offerings are very often repeated in various connections. There was probably a strong tendency amongst the people to cheat the priests of their dues, or to represent their claims as exorbitant. It is in the spirit of covetousness which underlies all such conduct that we are to find the connection between these two verses and the rest of the paragraph.

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

John Wesley's Explanatory Notes

Every man's hallowed things - Understand this not of the sacrifices, because these were not the priest's peculiar, but part of them was offered to God, and the remainder was eaten by the offerer as well as by the priest; but of such other things as were devoted to God, and could not be offered in sacrifice; as suppose a man consecrated an house to the Lord, this was to be the priest's.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

ואיש את קדשיו לו יהיו AND EVERY MAN’S HOLY THINGS SHALL BE HIS — Because the gifts due to the priests and the Levites are merely mentioned in the Torah (Deuteronomy 18:1—8) (without any statement as to how they are to come into possession of them), therefore one might think they may come and take them by force. On this account, it states here, ‘‘and every man’s holy things shall be his” — in some respect — thus it teaches us that the טובת הנאה, the gratification of using them in this respect as he wishes, belongs to the owner. — Many other Halachic rules have they (the Rabbis) deduced about it (this statement) in Sifrei Bamidbar 6:2. — An Agadic explanation of ואיש את קדשיו לו יהיו is the following: Whosoever retains the tithes and does not give them to the Levite, only the tithes will be his, i.e., his field will ultimately yield no more than a tithe of what it was accustomed to yield (so that his whole possession will not exceed the gifts he should have given to the priests and the Levites; cf. Midrash Tanchuma, Re'eh 10).

איש אשר יתן לכהן, A MAN, HOWEVER, WHO GIVES TO THE PRIEST the gifts that are due to him,

לו יהיה HE SHALL HAVE great riches (Berakhot 63a).

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.

Ramban (Nachmanides)

Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman (Ramban / Nachmanides)

AND EVERY MAN’S HALLOWED THINGS SHALL BE HIS; WHATSOEVER ANY MAN GIVETH THE PRIEST, IT SHALL BE HIS. The correct interpretation of this verse is that Scripture is saying that all hallowed things of a man shall be his, meaning to say that all hallowed things about which He has not commanded that they be given to the priest, [such as the Second Tithe, fourth-year produce of trees and the tithe of the cattle] shall be the owners’ [entirely], and they may have the benefit of eating their meat, even though they are called “holy.” But whatsoever any man giveth the priest as I have commanded him, it shall be his [partially], for even in the hallowed things about which Scripture commanded that they be given to the priest, the owners have a certain right, for although they belong to the priest to whom the owner gives them, as his personal property [but the owners have the right in these hallowed things to choose to whom to give them]. Thus the Second Tithe and the fourth-year produce of trees about which Scripture stated that they be holy to the Eternal belong to the owner as his personal property, and likewise the tithe of cattle., 27:32. The tithe of cattle likewise did not have to be given to the priest, but belonged wholly to the owner, after the blood and fat of the animal were offered upon the altar (see “The Commandments,” Vol. I, pp. 90-91). But as for all other hallowed things concerning which He commanded in the section of Vayikach Korach, 18:8-32). that they should give them to the priest, they are to be given to him directly by the owners, and the priests cannot take them from them by force. From this we may deduce ourselves that the right of choosing to whom to give them [with the consequent satisfaction of so doing] is that of the owners. This is the correct interpretation in accordance with the plain meaning of the verse. It is also the opinion of Onkelos [who rendered the verse: “and every man’s hallowed ‘tithe’ shall be his,” thus in dicating that he understood the verse as referring to a tithe which is the owner’s, for instance the Second Tithe]. It is interpreted in a similar manner in the Sifre, where the Rabbis have said: 6. “All hallowed things are included in the general verse stating, And every man’s hallowed things shall be his. Scripture took away all hallowed things and gave them to the priests, leaving only the thanks-offering, the peace-offering, and the Passover-offering, because they too belong to the owners” [and they are permitted to eat them]. However, this verse is not necessary at all for these matters [i.e., to teach us that the thanks-offering, peace-offering, and Passover-offering belong to their owners, since in each of these cases Scripture clearly states that the meat is eaten by the owners, hence the verse before us must refer, as indicated above, to the Second Tithe, and fourth-year produce of trees].

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 11 words (7 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is qôdesh (“holiness”). The Greek Septuagint runs longer here. A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “holiness” (qôdesh) shape what this verse is saying?
Leviticus 10:13 shares this passage’s theme. How do the two illuminate each other?
“man” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
Compared with the Hebrew, the Septuagint runs longer here. What questions does that raise?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
The verb «יִהְי֑וּ» is Qal Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Joseph Benson's Commentary and The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 11 Hebrew ↔ 14 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 11 words in this verse.
“man” occurs 2× in this single verse.
7 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 11 words in this verse.