The Fallible Study Bible

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Numbers26:15–18

The Tribe of Gad

✦ Public-domain source — quoted & attributed⚙ AI synthesis — generated, verify

Numbers 26:15–18 — The Tribe of Gad. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

15

These were the descendants of Gad by their clans: The Zephonite clan from Zephon, the Haggite clan from Haggi, the Shunite clan from Shuni,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

bə·nê ḡāḏ lə·miš·pə·ḥō·ṯām haṣ·ṣə·p̄ō·w·nî miš·pa·ḥaṯ liṣ·p̄ō·wn lə·ḥag·gî miš·pa·ḥaṯ ha·ḥag·gî haš·šū·nî miš·pa·ḥaṯ lə·šū·nî

Word by word12 · parsed
בְּנֵ֣יbə·nê[These were] the descendantsH1121
√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine plural construct
bᵉnê — construct "sons of," the standard census-roll opening (cf. v. 18). The root bēn denotes a son as builder of the family name; the whole unit is an act of name-building.
גָד֮ḡāḏof GadH1410
√ Gâd — Gad, a son of Jacob, including his tribe and its territoryNounpropermasculine singular
Gad (H1410), seventh-listed son of Jacob (by Zilpah), here placed directly after Reuben and Simeon because the three camped together south of the Tabernacle (Numbers 2:10). Matthew Poole notes Gad is "placed next, because he was joined with Reuben and Simeon in the same camp."
לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָם֒lə·miš·pə·ḥō·ṯāmby their clansH4940
√ mishpâchâh — a family, iPreposition-lNounfeminine plural constructthird person masculine plural
mišpāḥāh (H4940), "clan / family" — the structural keyword of the whole chapter, recurring twelve times in this Gadite roll alone (singular mišpaḥaṯ for each line, plural mišpᵉḥōṯ at the summary in v. 18). The root denotes the kinship-band between household and tribe; it is the unit by which Israel will later be apportioned the land (Joshua 13:24), so the census is already an allotment-document in embryo.
הַצְּפוֹנִ֔יhaṣ·ṣə·p̄ō·w·nîThe ZephoniteH6831
√ Tsᵉphôwnîy — a Tsephonite, or (collectively) descendants of TsephonArticleAdjectivemasculine singular
Zephonite (H6831): the gentilic adjective formed on the head Zephon. The article + adjective haṣṣᵉp̄ônî names not the man but his collective house.
מִשְׁפַּ֙חַת֙miš·pa·ḥaṯclanH4940
√ mishpâchâh — a family, iNounfeminine singular construct
לִצְפ֗וֹןliṣ·p̄ō·wnfrom ZephonH6827
√ Tsᵉphôwn — Tsephon, an IsraelitePreposition-lNounpropermasculine singular
Zephon (H6827) — called Ziphion in Genesis 46:16. Poole, Gill, and Keil & Delitzsch all flag the spelling drift; the consonantal skeleton is preserved while the vocalization shifts.
לְחַגִּ֕יlə·ḥag·gîthe HaggiteH2291
√ Chaggîy — Chaggi, an IsraelitePreposition-lNounpropermasculine singular
מִשְׁפַּ֖חַתmiš·pa·ḥaṯclanH4940
√ mishpâchâh — a family, iNounfeminine singular construct
הַֽחַגִּ֑יha·ḥag·gîfrom HaggiH2291
√ Chaggîy — Chaggi, an IsraeliteArticleNounpropermasculine singular
הַשּׁוּנִֽי׃haš·šū·nîthe ShuniteH7765
√ Shûwnîy — a Shunite (collectively) or descendants of ShuniArticleNounpropermasculine singular
Shunite (H7765) — Shuni (H7764) and his clan appear in only two verses of the whole canon (here and Genesis 46:16), making this proper name a rare verbal anchor between the two genealogies. The same low-frequency overlap holds for Haggi (Chaggî, H2291, also just two verses), so two independent rare names — not the common tribal name alone — tie the Moab roll back to Jacob's descent into Egypt.
מִשְׁפַּ֖חַתmiš·pa·ḥaṯclanH4940
√ mishpâchâh — a family, iNounfeminine singular construct
לְשׁוּנִ֕יlə·šū·nîfrom ShuniH7764
√ Shûwnîy — Shuni, an IsraelitePreposition-lNounpropermasculine singular
16

the Oznite clan from Ozni, the Erite clan from Eri,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

lə·’ā·zə·nî miš·pa·ḥaṯ hā·’ā·zə·nî hā·‘ê·rî miš·pa·ḥaṯ lə·‘ê·rî

Word by word6 · parsed
לְאָזְנִ֕יlə·’ā·zə·nîthe OzniteH244
√ ʼOznîy — Ozni, an IsraelitePreposition-lNounpropermasculine singular
Ozni (H244) is the major textual divergence in the list: Genesis 46:16 reads Ezbon. Gill calls this difference "much wider" than the mere vowel-shifts of the other names; Keil & Delitzsch single it out as the one substantive change.
מִשְׁפַּ֖חַתmiš·pa·ḥaṯclanH4940
√ mishpâchâh — a family, iNounfeminine singular construct
הָאָזְנִ֑יhā·’ā·zə·nîfrom OzniH244
√ ʼOznîy — Ozni, an IsraeliteArticleNounpropermasculine singular
הָעֵרִֽי׃hā·‘ê·rîthe EriteH6180
√ ʻÊrîy — a Erite (collectively) or descendants of EriArticleNounpropermasculine singular
Erite (H6180), the clan of Eri (H6179). The article-bound gentilic again names the corporate house rather than the individual ancestor.
מִשְׁפַּ֖חַתmiš·pa·ḥaṯclanH4940
√ mishpâchâh — a family, iNounfeminine singular construct
לְעֵרִ֕יlə·‘ê·rîfrom EriH6179
√ ʻÊrîy — Eri, an IsraelitePreposition-lNounpropermasculine singular
Eri (H6179) — the head-name, here with the affiliation-prefix lᵉ-; its clan-form in the previous word shows the same root under the article.
17

the Arodite clan from Arod, and the Arelite clan from Areli.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

hā·’ă·rō·w·ḏî miš·pa·ḥaṯ la·’ă·rō·wḏ lə·’ar·’ê·lî miš·pa·ḥaṯ hā·’ar·’ê·lî

Word by word6 · parsed
הָאֲרוֹדִ֑יhā·’ă·rō·w·ḏîthe AroditeH722
√ ʼĂrôwdîy — an Arodite or descendant of ArodArticleNounpropermasculine singular
Arodite (H722), clan of Arod (H720) — Genesis 46:16 spells the head Arodi. Poole records the variant: "Arod, called Arodi, Genesis 46:16."
מִשְׁפַּ֖חַתmiš·pa·ḥaṯclanH4940
√ mishpâchâh — a family, iNounfeminine singular construct
לַאֲר֕וֹדla·’ă·rō·wḏfrom ArodH720
√ ʼĂrôwd — Arod, an IsraelitePreposition-lNounpropermasculine singular
לְאַ֨רְאֵלִ֔יlə·’ar·’ê·lî[and] the AreliteH692
√ ʼArʼêlîy — Areli (or an Arelite, collectively), an Israelite and his descendantsPreposition-lNounpropermasculine singular
Arelite/Areli (H692): the closing name of the Gadite roll. Its lexeme spans both the individual ancestor and his descendants, the genealogist's economy — one word for one house.
מִשְׁפַּ֖חַתmiš·pa·ḥaṯclanH4940
√ mishpâchâh — a family, iNounfeminine singular construct
הָאַרְאֵלִֽי׃hā·’ar·’ê·lîfrom AreliH692
√ ʼArʼêlîy — Areli (or an Arelite, collectively), an Israelite and his descendantsArticleNounpropermasculine singular
The seven clans (Zephon, Haggi, Shuni, Ozni, Eri, Arod, Areli) complete the tribe Gill counts: "Seven families sprang from Gad."
18

These were the clans of Gad, and their registration numbered 40,500.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

’êl·leh miš·pə·ḥōṯ bə·nê- ḡāḏ lip̄·qu·ḏê·hem ’ar·bā·‘îm ’e·lep̄ wa·ḥă·mêš mê·’ō·wṯ

Word by word9 · parsed
אֵ֛לֶּה’êl·lehTheseH428
√ ʼêl-leh — these or thosePronouncommon plural
’êlleh (H428), "these," the closing demonstrative that brackets the roll opened by bᵉnê in v. 15 — an inclusio framing the whole Gadite register.
מִשְׁפְּחֹ֥תmiš·pə·ḥōṯ[were] the clansH4940
√ mishpâchâh — a family, iNounfeminine plural construct
בְּנֵֽי־bə·nê-vvvH1121
√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine plural construct
גָ֖דḡāḏof GadH1410
√ Gâd — Gad, a son of Jacob, including his tribe and its territoryNounpropermasculine singular
לִפְקֻדֵיהֶ֑םlip̄·qu·ḏê·hemand their registration numberedH6485
√ pâqad — to visit (with friendly or hostile intent)Preposition-lVerbQalQalPassParticiplemasculine plural constructthird person masculine plural
pāqad (H6485) — the verb that titles the book in Hebrew tradition is the muster-word; the QalPass participle here names the people precisely as the-counted. It denotes a reckoning "with friendly or hostile intent": a census is also a draft (cf. Numbers 1:3).
אַרְבָּעִ֥ים’ar·bā·‘îm. . . 40,500H705
√ ʼarbâʻîym — fortyNumbercommon plural
’arbā‘îm (H705) — forty thousand five hundred. Benson, Poole, and Ellicott all compute the same loss: a decrease of 5,150 against the 45,650 of the Sinai census (Numbers 1:25). Ellicott reads it as the fruit of Reuben, Simeon, and Gad being "mutually contaminated by each other's evil example."
אֶ֖לֶף’e·lep̄. . .H505
√ ʼeleph — hence (the ox's head being the first letter of the alphabet, and this eventually used as a numeral) a thousandNumbermasculine singular
וַחֲמֵ֥שׁwa·ḥă·mêš. . .H2568
√ châmêsh — fiveConjunctive wawNumberfeminine singular construct
מֵאֽוֹת׃סmê·’ō·wṯ. . .H3967
√ mêʼâh — a hundredNumberfeminine plural
mê’ôṯ (H3967), "hundreds" — the final counting-word, closing the sum and the tribe. The trailing samekh (ס) in the text is a scribal paragraph-marker, not a number.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. A roll built name by name — 26:15-17

The unit is a register, and its grammar is the grammar of belonging. Each line files a clan under a head with the prefixed lᵉ- ("of / belonging-to"): liṣᵊp̄ôn — the clan of the Zephonite; lᵉ’oznî — the clan of the Oznite. The opening word bᵉnê (H1121) is no idle "descendants"; its root bēn means a son as builder of the family name, so the very act of listing is an act of construction. The Geneva Study Bible (1599) preserves the older texture — "of Zephon, the family of the Zephonites" — where modern English smooths to "clan." The names themselves drift from their earlier form: Matthew Poole notes "Zephon, called Ziphion, Genesis 46:16," and again "Arod, called Arodi." John Gill catalogs the shifts and singles out the widest one — "for Ezbon, here Ozni" — while Keil & Delitzsch confirm the Gadites "are the same as in Genesis 46:16, except that Ozni is called Ezbon there." The names breathe and change across the centuries between Jacob's descent into Egypt and Moses' plains-of-Moab muster; the house endures under a shifting spelling.

ii. The muster and the missing five thousand — 26:18

The roll closes as it opened, with the demonstrative ’êlleh ("these") bracketing the Gadites, and then the counting-words mount up one by one: ’arbā‘îm ’elep̄ wᵉ-ḥămêš mê’ôṯ — forty thousand and five hundred. The reckoning-verb is pāqad (H6485), "to muster, to visit, to call to account" — the same root that names the book in Hebrew and turns every census into a draft. The number is down. Joseph Benson states it plainly: "Fewer by above five thousand than there were in their last numbering." Charles Ellicott computes the exact loss — "a decrease of 5,150" — and reads its cause in the camp's geography: Reuben, Simeon, and Gad lay together south of the Tabernacle and "had probably been mutually contaminated by each other's evil example." Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, commenting on Simeon's far steeper collapse, name the principle behind the whole census: God's "justice and holiness in the sweeping judgments that reduced the ranks of some tribes," set against "His truth and faithfulness in the extraordinary increase of others." Gad's modest decline sits inside that double display — chastened, but not consumed.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

Read under Sola Scriptura, this dry register is the wilderness generation's last act of obedience before the land. Matthew Henry rightly fixes the heading: "Moses did not number the people but when God commanded him." Two generations are bracketed here — the men counted at Sinai have died in the desert under the oath of Numbers 14, and these forty thousand five hundred Gadites are largely a new people standing on old names. That the clan-names persist while the persons are replaced is the quiet argument of the chapter: God keeps His covenant to the house even as He judges the individuals. The verb pāqad — muster, visit, call to account — holds both edges at once. To be numbered by the LORD is to be both known and reckoned with. The five thousand who are missing are missing because the muster is also a judgment; the forty thousand who remain remain because the muster is also a mercy. I offer this as a fallible reading, to be tested: the genealogy is not filler but the visible ledger of a faithfulness that outlasts a faithless generation.

The names outlive the men who bore them — covenant kept to the house while judgment falls on the persons. (A reading, not a verse.)

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The twin genealogy: Gad in Egypt and on the plains of Moab verbal / quotation — confirmed

This roll is the only other full enumeration of Gad's sons besides Genesis 46:16, where Jacob's household descends into Egypt — the Pulpit Commentary marks it precisely as "the only other enumeration of the sons of Gad." The link is anchored by genuinely rare shared proper names — Chaggî (H2291, occurring in only 2 verses of the canon) and Shûnî (H7764, also only 2 verses) — together with the tribal name Gad (H1410). Because two independent low-frequency proper names are shared verbatim between two Hebrew texts, the Verifier records the basis as a confirmed verbal link; were Gad alone the overlap, this would be a common-lexeme structural tie, but the rare names lift it to verbal. The two lists differ in spelling (Ziphion/Zephon, Arodi/Arod) and in one substantive name (Ezbon/Ozni), yet trace the same house across the four centuries of the sojourn.

Genesis 46:16

basis: rare shared lexemes H2291 Chaggîy (freq 2) and H7764 Shûwnîy (freq 2), plus H1410 Gâd (freq 69) — Hebrew↔Hebrew verbal overlap of two low-frequency proper names per Verifier

The first census against the second: Gad at Sinai structural / thematic — confirmed

The tribe's count here (40,500) is set against its Sinai muster at Numbers 1:24-25 (45,650), a decline the human commentators compute precisely. The shared basis is the structural machinery of the census itself — Gad (H1410), the muster-verb pāqad (H6485), and the counting-words ’arbā‘îm/’elep̄/mê’ôṯ — not a quotation. These are common, high-frequency lexemes (pāqad in 269 verses), so the link is pattern, not citation: two parallel registers of the same tribe bracketing forty years of wilderness.

Numbers 1:24 · Numbers 1:25

basis: shared census frame H1410 Gâd, H6485 pâqad (freq 269), H705 ʼarbâʻîym — common lexemes form a structural register-parallel, not a verbal quotation

Inside the chapter: the second census as a single muster structural / thematic — confirmed

The closing-formula of v. 18 (’êlleh mišpᵉḥōṯ… lip̄quḏêhem, "these are the clans… by those mustered of them") repeats verbatim down the chapter for every tribe — e.g. Numbers 26:7 (Reuben), 26:41 (Benjamin), 26:50 (Naphtali). The shared basis is the recurring clan-and-muster wording — mišpāḥāh (H4940), pāqad (H6485), and the number-words — a deliberate liturgical refrain that binds the twelve rolls into one act of obedience. High-frequency lexemes; the link is structural.

Numbers 26:7 · Numbers 26:41 · Numbers 26:50

basis: intra-chapter closing-formula sharing H4940 mishpâchâh (freq 224), H6485 pâqad, H705 ʼarbâʻîym — recurring structural refrain, not quotation

Gad's allotment: the muster looks toward the land structural / thematic — confirmed

The Gadite clans counted here receive their inheritance in Joshua 13:24-28, where the same mišpāḥāh (H4940) and Gad (H1410) recur as the tribe is settled in Gilead. The census is forward-looking: men are mustered precisely so the land can be divided "by their clans." The shared lexemes are common, so the connection is thematic/structural — the bridge from numbering to allotment — not a verbal citation.

Joshua 13:24 · Joshua 13:28

basis: shared H4940 mishpâchâh and H1410 Gâd link census to allotment — high-frequency lexemes, thematic continuity not quotation

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

Mustered to inherit: the named people of God widely-held

The whole point of the muster is inheritance — men are counted "by their clans" so that each house receives its portion of the land. The New Testament takes up this very logic figurally: believers are "enrolled in heaven" (Hebrews 12:23) and counted as heirs of an inheritance kept for them. The genealogical patience of Scripture — tribe by tribe, name by name — flowers in the genealogies of Matthew 1 and Luke 3 that lead to Christ, in whom the counting of the tribes finds its end. This is a widely-held typological reading: the registered people of God prefigure the named and inheriting people of the gospel. I do not claim a verbal link — no shared Strong's number can cross from Hebrew Numbers to the Greek NT — only a figural one.

Hebrews 12:23 · Luke 10:20

Gad diminished, yet preserved: the tribe sealed in Revelation novel

Gad's count falls by some five thousand under the wilderness judgments, yet the tribe is not erased — and in Revelation 7:5 Gad reappears among the sealed twelve thousand of the redeemed Israel. The thread from a chastened census to a sealed remnant is figural: the LORD who musters and reduces also preserves a people to the end. I offer this as a more novel typological reading rather than an ancient consensus — the canonical arc from Numbers' shrinking tribe to Revelation's sealed tribe is suggestive, not a quotation, and crosses Testaments where no shared lexeme can run. It should be tested against the text, not assumed.

Revelation 7:5

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Keil & Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1860s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

This unit is a tribal register; its primary apparatus problem is name-variation, not theology. Several heads differ from Genesis 46:16: Zephon/Ziphion and Arod/Arodi are vocalization shifts on a stable consonantal skeleton, while Ozni/Ezbon (Gill: "much wider") is a genuine substantive variant whose relationship is debated — the human voices record the divergence without resolving it, and I do not resolve it either. The cross-references in this unit are honest about tier: only the Genesis 46:16 link rises to "verbal" status, and it does so solely because of two rare shared proper names (Chaggî, Shûnî, each in just two verses); every other thread rests on common census-vocabulary (mišpāḥāh, pāqad, the number-words) and is therefore tiered structural, never verbal. Both Christ-threads are explicitly figural and cross-Testament: no Hebrew↔Greek shared Strong's number exists, so they are tiered typological by attestation (one widely-held, one novel) and offered to be tested. Several human notes (Matthew Henry, Albert Barnes, JFB) in the source are keyed to the whole census section or to neighboring tribes rather than to the Gadite verses specifically; where used, this is flagged in the per-voice editorial notes.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)