Numbers 8:14

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Thus you shall separate the Levites from among the children of Israel, and the Levites shall be mine.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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וְהִבְדַּלְתָּ֙

bâdal

H914

“and · to separate”

Conjunction + Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular

Appears 42× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 1:4

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a primitive root

TWOT: 203

to divide, separate - (Hiphil) - to divide, separate, sever - to separate, set apart - to make a distinction, difference - to divide into parts - (Niphal) - to separate oneself from (reflexive of 1a2) - to withdraw from - to separate oneself unto - to be separated - to be excluded - to be set apart

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 →

9: words
7: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Shared distinctive vocabulary

וְהִבְדַּלְתָּ֙ to separate H914 occurs in 40 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
5 nouns
1 preposition
1 particle

Verb forms

וְהִבְדַּלְתָּ֙ Hiphil · Sequential Perfect
וְהָ֥יוּ Qal · Sequential Perfect

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

הַלְוִיִּ֔ם Levite H3881 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 18 words from the Hebrew and 19 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 9 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.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Numbers 8:14 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Numbers 3:45 "Take the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites instead of their cattle; and the Levites shall be mine. I am Yahweh.
Numbers 18:6 I, behold, I have taken your brothers the Levites from among the children of Israel: to you they are a gift, given to Yahweh, to do the service of the tent of meeting.
Malachi 3:17 They shall be mine," says Yahweh of Hosts, "my own possession in the day that I make, and I will spare them, as a man spares his own son who serves him.
Numbers 3:12 "Behold, I have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel instead of all the firstborn who open the womb among the children of Israel; and the Levites shall be mine:
Numbers 6:2 "Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them: When either man or woman shall make a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to Yahweh,
Numbers 8:17 For all the firstborn among the children of Israel are mine, both man and animal. On the day that I struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I sanctified them for myself.
Numbers 16:9–10 [seems it but] a small thing to you, that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to himself, to do the service of the tent of Yahweh, and to stand before the congregation to minister to them;
Deuteronomy 10:8 At that time Yahweh set apart the tribe of Levi, to bear the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, to stand before Yahweh to minister to him, and to bless in his name, to this day.

Romans 1:1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the Gospel of God,
Galatians 1:15 But when it was the good pleasure of God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me through his grace,
Hebrews 7:26 For such a high priest was fitting for us: holy, guiltless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;

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 8:14 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וְהִבְדַּלְתָּ֙ אֶת הַלְוִיִּ֔ם מִתּ֖וֹךְ בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל וְהָ֥יוּ לִ֖י הַלְוִיִּֽם

Thus you shall separate the Levites from among the children of Israel, and the Levites shall be mine.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Numbers 8:14 Septuagint · lemma form

καί διαστέλλω ὁ λευίτης ἐκ μέσος υἱός ἰσραήλ καί εἰμί ἐγώ

And you shall separate the Levites from the midst of the sons of Israel, and they shall be mine.

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)

וְתַפְרֵישׁ יָת לֵוָאֵי מִגוֹ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וִיהוֹן מְשַׁמְשִׁין קֳדָמַי לֵוָאֵי

(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)

וְתַפְרֵישׁ יַת לֵיוָאֵי מִגוֹ בְּנֵי יִשְרָאֵל וִיהוֹן מְשַׁמְשִׁין קֳדָמַי לֵיוָאֵי

and thus shalt thou separate the Levites from among the sons of Israel, that the Levites may be ministers before Me.

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 8:14 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 →

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown

and the Levites shall be mine--that is, exempt from all military duty or secular work--free from all pecuniary imposition and wholly devoted to the custody and service of the sanctuary.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

John Gill's Exposition

Thus shalt thou separate the Levites from among the children of Israel,.... By sprinkling the water of purification upon them; by offering sacrifices for them; by presenting them before the Lord, with the hands of the people of Israel put upon them; by offering and waving them before the Lord, and by setting them before Aaron and his sons, as their ministers:

and the Levites shall be mine: in a special and peculiar manner devoted to his service, and by him given to his priests for that purpose; so the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan,"and the Levites shall minister before me.''

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

Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Mine. Free from the burdens of the state, and employed in singing and keeping the doors of the sanctuary. (Menochius)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

unfoldingWord translationNotes

Door43 World Missions Community

You must purify them. You must offer them as a wave offering

Yahweh repeats these things to emphasize their importance. This must happen before the Levites go to serve at the tent of meeting. The full meaning of this statement can be made clear. AT: "But first, you must purify them. You must offer them as a wave offering" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

You must offer them as a wave offering

Aaron was to present the Levites to Yahweh as if they were a wave offering to him. AT: "You must dedicate them to me, as if you were presenting a wave offering to me" (See: Simile)

translationWords

people group

Israel

pure

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

Sforno

Rabbi Ovadia Sforno

You shall separate the Levites. The Levites currently alive were to be separated by their encampment.

And the Levites shall be Mine. They and their seed will be readied for My service.

Sforno on the Tanakh — English translation: “Yalkut, Sifsei Chachomim Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009” (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 9 words (7 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is bâdal (“to separate”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

What does “to separate” (bâdal) contribute to the verse as a whole?
How does Genesis 1:4, which shares the word «to separate», read alongside this verse?
What does the repetition of “Levite” (2× in this one verse) do in this verse?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
«וְהִבְדַּלְתָּ֙» is a Hiphil Sequential Perfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Jamieson, Fausset & Brown and John Gill's Exposition read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 9 Hebrew ↔ 11 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 8 words in this verse.
“Levite” occurs 2× in this single verse.
7 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 9 words in this verse.