Exodus 29:13

Summary

The verse instructs the offerer to take specific internal fat portions of a sacrificial animal — the fat covering the entrails, the lobe attached to the liver, both kidneys, and the fat on them — and to burn them so they rise as smoke on the altar.

Key words

• la.kach.Ta ("you will take", H3947G) — qal sequential perfect, continuing the chain of commanded actions begun in prior verses; addresses a single male addressee (Moses/Aaron).
• che.Lev ("fat", H2459) — masculine singular noun, appearing twice (items 6 and 27), naming the fatty tissue to be removed and later burned.
• m.kha.Seh ("covers", H3680) — piel participle, masculine singular, describing the fat's function ("the [fat] that covers") rather than a completed action; the piel stem gives it an intensive/durative nuance of enveloping.
• yo.Te.ret ("lobe", H3508) — feminine singular noun designating a specific anatomical part attached "on" ('al, H5921A) the liver.
• hik.tar.Ta ("you will make [them] smoke", H6999A) — hiphil sequential perfect, causative: the subject causes the fat to become smoke, distinct from simply "burning" in a general sense.

What the text says

The verse is built as a chain of sequential perfect verbs (la.kach.Ta ... hik.tar.Ta) linked by the narrative vav (H9001), a construction typical of legal/procedural instruction in Biblical Hebrew: each verb continues the action sequence of the surrounding instructions rather than standing as an independent statement. The object of la.kach.Ta is a list of four items, each introduced by the direct object marker 'et (H0853, untranslated) and joined by simple vav (H9002): the fat covering the entrails, the lobe on the liver, the two kidneys, and the fat that is "on them" ('a.lei.Hen, combining preposition and third-person feminine plural suffix, referring back to the kidneys).

The final clause uses hik.tar.Ta, a hiphil form of the root behind "to burn as smoke" (H6999A), which is causative in force — the subject causes the fat to go up as smoke — rather than a general verb "to burn." The directional he suffixed to miz.Be.cha ("altar", H4196) marks motion toward the altar ("altar-ward"), a common Hebrew way of expressing direction without a separate preposition.

Differences between versions

The LXX (Septuagint) renders yo.Te.ret ("lobe", H3508) as λοβὸν ("lobe"), matching the Hebrew closely, while the Vulgate uses reticulum ("small net/caul"), a different anatomical image for the same structure. The Vulgate also renders the final clause as "offeres incensum" ("you will offer as incense"), a broader phrasing than the Hebrew's causative "make smoke" (hik.tar.Ta), and the LXX uses ἐπιθήσεις ("you will place/lay upon"), which describes placement on the altar rather than the act of causing smoke itself.