| 21. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with the conjunction vav joined to the noun utseva’o {וּצְבָא֖וֹ | ṣəḇāʼô} ‘host’, forming a construct phrase that denotes the military unit assigned to each tribal banner. This phrase is paratactically linked by the next conjunction and noun in ufekudeihem {וּפְקֻדֵיהֶ֑ם | pəqūḏêhem} ‘numbered’, indicating the registered muster of personnel. The following sequence shenayim ushlošim elef umatayim {שְׁנַ֧יִם וּשְׁלֹשִׁים אֶ֖לֶף וּמָאתָֽיִם} employs the Hebrew numeral structure (unit + tens) × 1,000 + hundreds to yield 32,200. In translation, this order is adapted into English numerical convention (“thirty-two thousand and two hundred”), and the absence of an explicit verb in Hebrew is conveyed by introducing “were” to maintain grammatical cohesion. |