Exodus 29:1

Summary

The verse opens a set of instructions with a formulaic introduction — "this is the thing that you shall do" — announcing the procedure for consecrating priests, followed by the first concrete command: taking a young bull and two unblemished rams.

Key words

• da.Var ("thing", H1697I) — masculine singular noun, here functioning as "matter/procedure," introduced by the demonstrative Zeh ("this", H2088), forming the standard opening formula for ritual instructions.
• ta.'a.Seh ("you will do", H6213A) — qal imperfect, second person masculine singular, expressing an action still to be carried out; the imperfect aspect gives it a prospective, instructional sense rather than a simple statement of fact.
• ka.Desh ("consecrate", H6942G) — piel infinitive from the root meaning "to be holy/set apart"; the piel stem intensifies the verb into a causative sense, "to make holy," and the infinitive form expresses purpose ("in order to consecrate them").
• kha.Hen ("serve as priests", H3547) — piel infinitive parallel in construction to ka.Desh, indicating a second purpose clause: the goal is not only consecration but priestly service directed toward the speaker (marked by the suffix -i, "to me").
• Le.kach ("take", H3947G) — qal imperative, second person masculine singular, marking the shift from the introductory formula to the first concrete instruction.

What the text says

The verse divides into two grammatical units. The first is a nominal clause built on the demonstrative Zeh ("this") plus the article-bearing noun da.Var ("the thing"), followed by a relative clause introduced by 'a.Sher ("which"): "this is the thing which you shall do." This construction is a recognized formula in the text for introducing procedural instructions, placing emphasis on the noun "thing/matter" before specifying its content. The verb ta.'a.Seh is imperfect, addressed to a singular "you," even though the action concerns "them" (Hem, referring to the group to be consecrated, marked twice by the third person masculine plural suffix).

The two purpose infinitives, ka.Desh ("to consecrate") and kha.Hen ("to serve as priests"), both piel stems, are chained together: the consecrating action serves the further goal of priestly service, which is explicitly directed "to me" (li, first-person suffix attached to the preposition le). After this framing sentence, the text shifts abruptly to an imperative, Le.kach ("take"), introducing the material requirements: one par ("young bull", H6499), defined further by the construct phrase ben-baqar ("son of the herd"), and 'ei.lim shenayim ("two rams"), qualified by the plural adjective temimim ("unblemished").

Differences between versions

The LXX renders da.Var ("thing") with the plural demonstrative ταῦτα ("these things"), differing from the Hebrew singular ha.davar. The LXX also renders the Hebrew par... ben-baqar ("a bull, a son of the herd") more simply as μοσχάριον ἐκ βοῶν ("a little bull/calf from cattle"), and the Vulgate renders it as vitulum de armento ("a calf from the herd"), both compressing the Hebrew's construct phrase into a single descriptive expression.