Numbers 1:4-5

1:4 And to help you ¹  there is to be a man from each ²  tribe, each man ³  the head ⁴  of his family. ⁵  1:5 Now these are the names of the men who are to help ⁶  you:

from ⁷  Reuben, Elizur son of Shedeur;

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¹ tn Heb “and with you.”

² tn The construction uses the noun in a distributive sense: “a man, a man for a tribe,” meaning a man for each tribe.

³ tn The clause expresses a distributive function, “a man” means “each man.”

⁴ sn See J. R. Bartlett, “The Use of the Word ראשׁ as a Title in the Old Testament,” VT 19 (1969): 1-10.

⁵ tn Heb “the house of his fathers.”

⁶ tn The verb is עָמַד (’amad, “to stand”). It literally then is, “who will stand with you.” They will help in the count, but they will also serve as leaders as the camp moves from place to place.

⁷ tn The preposition lamed (ל) prefixed to the name could be taken in the sense of “from,” but could also be “with regard to” (specification).