Numbers 1:47

But ¹  the Levites, according to the tribe of their fathers, ²  were not numbered ³  among them.

The families of the tribe of Levi, however, were not counted along with the others.

The Levites, however, were not numbered among them by their fathers’ tribe.

But this total did not include the Levites.

The Levites, however, were not counted by their ancestral family along with the others.

But the Levites, of the tribe of their fathers, were not numbered among them.

The Levites, however, were not numbered by their ancestral tribe along with them.

But the Levites were not numbered among them by their fathers’ tribe;

But ¹  the Levites, according to the tribe of their fathers, ²  were not numbered ³  among them.

¹ tn The vav (ו) on this word indicates a disjunction with the previous sequence of reports. It may be taken as a contrastive clause, translated “but” or “however.”

² tn The construction is unexpected, for Levites would be from the tribe of Levi. The note seems more likely to express that all these people were organized by tribal lineage, and so too the Levites, according to the tribe of their fathers – individual families of Levites.

³ tc The form in the text is הָתְפָּקְדוּ (hotpaqÿdu); if this is correct, then it is an isolated instance of the reflexive of the Qal of פָּקַד (paqad). Some, however, explain the form as the Hitpael without the doubling of the middle letter and with a compensatory lengthening of the vowel before it (G. B. Gray, Numbers [ICC], 10).