Numbers 31:33 — Word Study
WLCוּבָקָ֕ר שְׁנַ֥יִם וְשִׁבְעִ֖ים אָֽלֶף׃
BSA72,000 {}shᵉnayim cattlebâqâr [oxen, beeves, domesticated animals]
| Greek | English | Parsing |
|---|---|---|
| וּבָקָ֕ר | and cattle | Conjunction, noun common both singular absolute |
| שְׁנַ֥יִם | two | Adj |
| וְשִׁבְעִ֖ים | and seventy | Conjunction |
| אָֽלֶף׃ | thousand |
Every word in the verse. Click a row to open it in the panel on the left.
| BSB | 72,000 cattle, |
| KJV | And threescore and twelve thousand beeves, |
| ASV | and threescore and twelve thousand oxen, |
| YLT | and of the herd two and seventy thousand; |
| WEB | seventy-two thousand head of cattle, |
| BBE | And seventy-two thousand oxen, |
All translations agree on the rendering of בָּקָר as cattle.
The verse consists of a main clause stating the quantity of cattle, with numeral phrases detailing the specific numbers.
2 commentators on this verse
Jamieson, Cambridge & more — read them ›
clause
The sentence as the grammar sees it Open the tree ›
Every word here is used elsewhere in the Old Testament.
Bars are logarithmic — אֵת, the commonest word in the Hebrew Bible, stands about 11,000 times, so a linear scale would leave everything else invisible. Click a row to open that word.
Deep Study — Numbers 31:33
Sections marked generated are written from the data on this page rather than by a named author. Everything else — the lexicon entries, the cross references, the manuscript readings, the counts — is quoted from its source unchanged.
Context — The Spoils of Wargenerated
Numbers 31:33 details the spoils taken by the Israelites after a battle, including various livestock and captives. The context shows the results of military success, where the Israelites received a significant amount of cattle, sheep, and donkeys, indicating their prosperity and the favor of God in their endeavors.
Cross References
The Key Word — בָּקָר, u.va.Kargenerated
The word בָּקָר (baqar) refers specifically to cattle, particularly oxen and domesticated animals used for labor or sacrifice. It is derived from a root that relates to cattle and encompasses various forms, including those used in temple sacrifices, as seen in 1 Kings 8:63.
This term is common in the Old Testament and signifies both individual animals and collective herds. Its usage here emphasizes the scale of the resources acquired by the Israelites.
How Translations Differ — measured against the Berean Standard Biblegenerated
All translations on this page agree in rendering בָּקָר as cattle.
Sentence Structuregenerated
The structure of the verse is straightforward, consisting of a noun phrase for the subject followed by a numeral phrase indicating the quantity. The finite verb is implied within the context of the larger sentence about the spoils.
The Hebrew word order places emphasis on the quantity of cattle, highlighting the significance of the number as part of the spoils taken.
Septuagint Backgroundgenerated
In the Septuagint, בָּקָר is rendered as βόες (boes), which also means 'cattle.' This choice aligns closely with the Hebrew meaning, maintaining the focus on domesticated livestock.
The translation reflects a consistent understanding of the term as it pertains to agricultural and sacrificial contexts.
In plain words — the whole versegenerated
Numbers 31:33 states that the Israelites took 72,000 cattle as part of the spoils after a battle. This number reflects the wealth gained from their victory and the resources available to them.
Frequently Asked Questionsgenerated
The number signifies a large quantity of cattle taken as plunder, indicating the wealth and resources gained from the victory.
Cattle were vital for agricultural work, sacrifices, and as a measure of wealth in ancient Israel.
This verse highlights the outcome of military success and the blessings received by the Israelites following their obedience to God's commands.
The surrounding verses also mention sheep and donkeys, indicating the diverse spoils acquired.
Reflection Questionsgenerated
- What does this verse teach about the consequences of obedience to God?
- How can we understand the significance of wealth and resources in our own lives?
- In what ways does this account reflect God's provision for His people?
- How do the spoils of war in this passage relate to the concept of stewardship?
Commentators on this verse — 2 expositors, verse by verse
Each of these wrote on Numbers 31:33 itself, not merely on the chapter around it.
Robert Jamieson1802–1880Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's CommentaryAnd threescore and twelve thousand beeves, No JFB commentary on these verses.
Read Robert Jamieson on Numbers 31 →CambridgeThe Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges25–54. The apportionment of the spoil. Those who fought and those who remained behind were to receive equal shares. This was an ancient custom, which was traced to the action of David (1 Samuel 30:24 f.). But before the appropriation by individuals, a religious tax was to be paid. The fighters were to pay from their share 1/500th to the priests, and the others 1/50th to the Levites. Such a tax is not mentioned elsewhere in the O.T., but perhaps, like the foregoing regulation, it had an ancient custom behind it. Mohammed, whose religion was ultimately based on the O.T., enjoined a similar tax of 1/5th (Koran viii. 42, cited by Gray).
Read Cambridge on Numbers 31 →The verse in English, compared — 17 translations, and where they part company
Every translation on this page is a decision someone had to make and commit to. Read down a column and you see one translator's judgement; read across a row and you see the range the Greek actually allows. The BSB is the wording the rest of this page is measured against, so it is listed first.
Modern formal
72,000 cattle,
seventy-two thousand head of cattle,
72,000 cattle,
72,000 cattle,
Tyndale line
And threescore and twelve thousand beeves,
and threescore and twelve thousand oxen,
and threescore and twelve thousand beeves,
And seventy two thousand beeves,
And seuentie and two thousand beeues,
Strictly literal
and seventy-two thousand oxen,
and of the herd two and seventy thousand;
and seventy-two thousand of the herd;
And of beef-cattle, seventy and two thousand,
seventy-two thousand oxen,
From the Latin
Seventy-two thousand oxen,
Simplified
72,000 cattle,
And seventy-two thousand oxen,
Counted from the translations carried on this site, not from a survey of every English Bible. A rendering shared by many versions is usually inherited rather than independently arrived at — the Tyndale line in particular runs through most of them.
The sentence as the grammar sees it — from the MACULA Hebrew treebank
This is not our own analysis: it is the scholarly syntax tree for the verse, showing how the clause actually holds together.
Boxes are the grammarian's groupings — clause, noun phrase, prepositional phrase.
The four witnesses to this verse — Masoretic, Septuagint, Samaritan, Qumran
The Masoretic Text is supported by the Samaritan Pentateuch, which agrees word for word. The Septuagint matches the Hebrew closely, while the Dead Sea Scrolls show partial restoration, indicating some loss of text.
וּבָקָ֕ר שְׁנַ֥יִם וְשִׁבְעִ֖ים אָֽלֶף׃
4 of the 4 words are matched. This is the word-by-word correspondence, not the Septuagint's own sentence — its word order and its articles are its own.
ובקר שׁנים ושׁבעים אלף
Agrees with the Masoretic Text here, word for word.
[ובקר] שנים [ושבעים] [אלף]
nothing on the leather here — 1 partly restored, 3 supplied entire by an editor.
Four traditions, not one. “On the leather” means the letters physically survive on the scroll, as against letters an editor has supplied to fill a hole in it — a restoration is a scholar’s reading, not a reading of the manuscript. Words in [square brackets] are supplied; the notes count them apart from what survives.
The map of this verse — what each word keeps company with
This is a map of two things, both counted rather than judged. Company kept: which words stand within three words of each of these, anywhere in the Hebrew Bible — the thicker the line, the more often the pair meet compared with chance. Built from: the words a word is made out of, taken from its own Strong’s entry. It is not a map of meaning: nothing here claims two words mean the same thing. Click any circle to see the numbers behind it.
Lexicons — every word in Numbers 31:33
One dossier per word, with every reference work grouped by kind — Hebrew lexicons, morphology, Bible dictionaries, topical chains and the English of the translators themselves. The verse sits at the head of each block with the word under study lit, so you never lose your place. The panel above gives the short answer; this is the long one, and it is the part of the page worth indexing.
Every entry below is the lexicographer's own text. On the Hebrew: Brown-Driver-Briggs entire and its gloss set, Strong's Hebrew Dictionary, and Tyndale House's Translators Brief lexicon. Where a cell says a work has no entry, that work genuinely has none for this word.
בָּקַר (baqar) refers to cattle, specifically oxen and herds, and can denote individual animals or a collective group. It is derived from a root meaning related to cattle and encompasses various forms such as beef cattle and oxen used for plowing. The term appears in contexts discussing livestock in the Old Testament.
בָּקַר 182 n.m. cattle, herd, ox
base
H1241 בָּקַר cattle, herd, ox
1241 baqar baw-kawr'
from 1239; beef cattle or an animal of the ox family of
either gender (as used for plowing); collectively, a herd:--
beeve, bull (+ -ock), + calf, + cow, great (cattle), + heifer,
herd, kine, ox.
see HEBREW for 01239
בָּקָר (ba.qar) — cattle.
1) cattle, herd, oxen, ox
1a) cattle (generic pl. but sing. in form-coll)
1b) herd (particular one)
1c) head of cattle (individually)
Conj | N-cs — Conjunction · noun common both singular absoluteHC/Ncbsa
kat'-'-l (behemah, "a dumb beast"; miqneh, "a possession" from qanah, "to acquire" (compare Arabic qana', "to acquire," and Greek kienos, "beast," and plural ktenea, "flocks," from ktaomai, "to acquire," flocks being both with the Homeric peoples and with the patriarchs an important form of property; compare English "fee"); tso'n "small cattle," "sheep" or goats (compare Arabic da'n, "sheep"); seh, a single sheep or goat (compare Arabic shah); mela'khah, "property," from la'akh, "to minister" (compare Arabic malakah and mulk, "property," from malak, "to possess"); meri' "fatling" (1Ki 19); thremma (Joh 4:12), "cattle," i.e. "that which is nourished," from trepho, "to nourish"; baqar, "kine," "oxen" (compare Arabic baqar, "cattle"); shor, tor (Da 4:25), tauros (
Cattle
Abounded in the Holy Land. To the rearing and management of them the inhabitants chiefly devoted themselves (Deut. 8:13; 12:21; 1 Sam. 11:5; 12:3; Ps. 144:14; Jer. 3:24). They may be classified as,
(1.) Neat cattle. Many hundreds of these were yearly consumed in sacrifices or used for food. The finest herds were found in Bashan, beyond Jordan (Num. 32:4). Large herds also pastured on the wide fertile plains of Sharon. They were yoked to the plough (1 Kings 19:19), and were employed for carrying burdens (1 Chr.…
[BULL, BULLOCK].
שְׁנַ֫יִם (shnayim) means 'two' and serves as both a cardinal and ordinal number. It can denote 'both,' 'double,' or 'twice,' and is used in various combinations with other numbers. The word is derived as a dual form of שָׁנָה (shanah), which relates to the concept of pairs.
שְׁנַ֫יִם, שְׁתַּיִם 768 n.m. et f. du. two
base
H8147 שְׁנַ֫יִם, שְׁתַּיִם two
8147 shnayim shen-ah'-yim
dual of 8145; feminine shttayim {shet-tah'-yim}; two; also
(as ordinal) twofold:--both, couple, double, second, twain, +
twelfth, + twelve, + twenty (sixscore) thousand, twice, two.
see HEBREW for 08145
שְׁנַ֫יִם (she.na.yim) — two.
1) two
1a) two (the cardinal number)
1a1) two, both, double, twice
1b) second (the ordinal number)
1c) in combination with other numbers
1d) both (a dual number)
Adj — AdjHAcbda
too.
See NUMBER.
שִׁבְעִים (shib`iym) means 'seventy' in Hebrew. It is derived from a root meaning 'seven' and is used to denote the number seventy, often referenced in contexts involving counting or enumeration.
שִׁבְעִים 91 n.pl. seventy
base
H7657 שִׁבְעִים seventy
7657 shib`iym. shib-eem'
multiple of 7651; seventy:--seventy, threescore and ten
(+ -teen).
see HEBREW for 07651
שִׁבְעִים (shiv.im) — seventy.
seventy
HC/Acmpa — ConjunctionHC/Acmpa
sev'-n-ti (shibh`im; hebdomekonta).
See NUMBER.
→ The senate of the Israilites composed of seventy elders Ex 24:1,9; Nu 11:16,24,25
→ The seventy disciples sent forth by Jesus (though the best Greek mss. have “seventy-two”) Lu 10:1-17
→ The Jews in captivity in Babylon for seventy years Jer 25:11,12; 29:10; Da 9:2; Zec 1:12; 7:5
→ See ISRAEL
→ 70 Weeks in the vision of Daniel Da 9:24
אֶ֫לֶף (eleph) means 'thousand' in Hebrew. It can refer to the numeral itself or denote a company or clan, particularly a group of men under one leader. The word is built from the concept of a thousand, and it is associated with the ox's head, which is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
אֶ֫לֶף n.m. thousand
base
H505 אֶ֫לֶף thousand
505 'eleph eh'-lef
prop, the same as 504; hence (the ox's head being the first
letter of the alphabet, and this eventually used as a numeral)
a thousand:--thousand.
see HEBREW for 0504
אֶ֫לֶף (e.leph) — thousand.
: thousand
1) a thousand
1a) as numeral
2) a thousand, company
2a) as a company of men under one leader, troops
אֶ֫לֶף (e.leph) — thousand: clan.
: clan
1) a thousand
1a) as numeral
2) a thousand, company
2a) as a company of men under one leader, troops
HAcbsa — HAcbsa
thou'-zand ('eleph; chilioi).
See NUMBER.