Numbers 31:33
in Numbers 3172,000 cattle,
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
and threescore and twelve thousand oxen,
KJV
And threescore and twelve thousand beeves,
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This verse in Numbers 31
Commentary
4 notes on this verseThis site's exposition
this plunder remained from the spoils
on Numbers 31:32-40
The plunder comes to 675,000 sheep, 72,000 cattle, 61,000 donkeys and 32,000 women. The soldiers’ half pays one in five hundred exactly: 675 sheep from 337,500.
This site's exposition
72,000 cattle
Half of 72,000 is 36,000, the figure for each half at verses 38 and 44. One in five hundred of 36,000 is the tribute of 72 in verse 38. Albert Barnes notes the totals are round thousands.
The record, by era
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
Take the sum of the prey that was taken--that is, of the captives and cattle, which, having been first lumped together according to ancient usage (Ex 15:9;
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
the booty, being the rest of the prey which the men of war had caught--Some of the captives having been killed (Nu 31:17) and part of the cattle taken for the support of the army, the total amount of the booty remaining was in the following proportions:
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
The words behind it
4 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וּבָקָ֕ר | uvakar | and cattle | H1241 → | 183 times |
| שְׁנַ֥יִם | shenayim | two | H8147 → | 768 times |
| וְשִׁבְעִ֖ים | veshivim | and seventy | H7657 → | 91 times |
| אָֽלֶף׃ | ʾalef | thousand | H505 → | 505 times |
וּבָקָ֕רand cattle
uvakarH1241 →183 times
שְׁנַ֥יִםtwo
shenayimH8147 →768 times
וְשִׁבְעִ֖יםand seventy
veshivimH7657 →91 times
אָֽלֶף׃thousand
ʾalefH505 →505 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Numbers
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments and Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible.