Numbers 5:4

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

The children of Israel did so, and put them out outside of the camp; as Yahweh spoke to Moses, so did the children of Israel.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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Word by word

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מִח֖וּץ

chûwts

H2351

“from · outside”

Preposition + Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute

Appears 164× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 6:14

Full BDB Definition

Origin: (both forms fem. in the pl.) from an unused root meaning to sever

TWOT: 627a

outside, outward, street, the outside

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 →

18: words
13: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Grammatical profile

4 verbs
8 nouns
2 prepositions
1 adverb
3 particles

Verb forms

וַיַּֽעֲשׂוּ Qal · Sequential Imperfect
וַיְשַׁלְּח֣וּ Piel · Sequential Imperfect
דִּבֶּ֤ר Piel · Perfect
עָשׂ֖וּ Qal · Perfect

Repetition

Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

וַיַּֽעֲשׂוּ to do H6213 ×2
כֵן֙ thus H3651 ×2
בְּנֵ֣י son H1121 ×2
יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל Israel H3478 ×2
אֶל to H413 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 25 words from the Hebrew and 26 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 18 Hebrew tokens and 23 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 5:4 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיַּֽעֲשׂוּ כֵן֙ בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל וַיְשַׁלְּח֣וּ אוֹתָ֔ם אֶל מִח֖וּץ לַֽמַּחֲנֶ֑ה כַּאֲשֶׁ֨ר דִּבֶּ֤ר יְהוָה֙ אֶל מֹשֶׁ֔ה כֵּ֥ן עָשׂ֖וּ בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל

The children of Israel did so, and put them out outside of the camp; as Yahweh spoke to Moses, so did the children of Israel.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Numbers 5:4 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ποιέω οὕτως ὁ υἱός ἰσραήλ καί ἐκ ἀποστέλλω αὐτός ἔξω ὁ παρεμβολή καθά λαλέω κύριος ὁ μωυσῆς οὕτως ποιέω ὁ υἱός ἰσραήλ

And the children of Israel did so, and sent them out of the camp: as the Lord said to Moses, so did the children of Israel.

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)

וַעֲבָדוּ כֵן בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְשַׁלְחוּ יָתְהוֹן לְמִבָּרָא לְמַשְׁרִיתָא כְּמָא דִי מַלִיל יְיָ עִם משֶׁה כֵּן עֲבָדוּ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל

(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)

וַעֲבָדוּ כֵן בְּנֵי יִשְרָאֵל וּפַטְרוּ יַתְהוֹן לְמִבָּרָא לְמַשְׁרִיתָא הֵיכְמָא דְמַלֵיל יְיָ עִם משֶׁה הֵיכְדֵין עֲבָדוּ בְּנֵי יִשְרָאֵל

And the sons of Israel did so, and sent them away from the camp; as the Lord had commanded Mosheh, so did the sons of Israel.

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 5:4 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 →

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 4. And the children of Israel - put them out] This is the earliest account we have of such separations; and probably this ordinance gave the first idea of a hospital, where all those who are afflicted with contagious disorders are put into particular wards, under medical treatment. Though no mention be made of the situation, circumstances, c., of those expelled persons, we may certainly infer that they were treated with that humanity which their distressed state required. Though sinners must be separated from the Church of God, yet they should be treated with affectionate regard, because they may be reclaimed. It is too often the case when a man backslides from the way of truth, he is abandoned by all finding his case desperate, he plunges yet deeper into the mire of sin, and the man who, with tender treatment, might have been reclaimed, becomes incurably hardened. One class says, he cannot finally fall, and shall in due time be restored; another class says, he may finally fall and utterly perish. If the unfortunate person be restored, his recovery is taken as a proof of the first doctrine; if he be not, his wretched end is considered a proof of the second. In the first case the person himself may presume on his restoration as a point infallibly determined in the Divine counsel; or in the second, he may consider his case hopeless, and so abandon himself to profligacy and desperation. Thus both parties leave him, and both opinions (misunderstood certainly) render him secure or desperate; and in either case totally inactive in behalf of his own soul. Who is he that properly estimates the worth of one immortal spirit? He who does will at once feel that, in a state of probation, any man may fall through sin, and any sinner may be renewed again unto repentance, through the infinitely meritorious sacrifice, and all powerfully efficacious grace, of Christ. This truth properly felt equally precludes both presumption and despair, and will induce the followers of God to be active in preserving those who have escaped from the corruption that is in the world, and make them diligent to recover those who have turned back to earth and sin.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And the children of Israel did so, and put them without the camp,.... Aben Ezra observes, that this was done immediately before they journeyed, and that those that were defiled journeyed between the standard of Ephraim and the standard of Dan; but this, he says, was by way of conjecture, since it is not expressed:

as the Lord spake unto Moses, so did the children of Israel; they were obedient in this particular.

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

So did the children of Israel. It is difficult to form any estimate of the numbers thus separated; if we may judge at all from the prevalence of such defilements (especially those under the second head) now, it must have seriously aggravated both the labour and the difficulty of the march. Here was a trial of their faith.

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 18 words (13 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is chûwts (“outside”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

What does “outside” (chûwts) contribute to the verse as a whole?
What does the repetition of “to do” (2× in this one verse) do in 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?
«וַיַּֽעֲשׂוּ» is a Qal Sequential Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Adam Clarke's Commentary and John Gill's Exposition read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 18 Hebrew ↔ 23 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 13 words in this verse.
“to do” occurs 2× in this single verse.
13 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 18 words in this verse.