Exodus 29:17

Summary

The verse instructs that the ram be cut into pieces, its entrails and legs washed, and these placed together with the rest of the pieces and the head. It continues the ritual procedure for the ram's sacrifice described in the surrounding context of Exodus 29.

Key words

• tenatteach ("you will cut in pieces", H5408) — Piel imperfect, giving the verb an intensive nuance: a thorough dismembering rather than a single cut, addressed to "you" (masculine singular).
• netachayv ("its pieces", H5409) — masculine plural construct with pronominal suffix, marking each division of the ram as belonging to "it" (the ram); appears twice in the verse (as lintachayv and netachayv), framing the beginning and near-end of the action.
• rachatzta ("you will wash", H7364) — Qal sequential perfect, linking this action to the prior command in a continuous narrative chain ("and then you will wash").
• qirbo ("its entrails", H7130H) — masculine singular construct with suffix, specifying the internal organs of the ram as the object to be washed.
• natatta ("you will put [them]", H5414H) — Qal sequential perfect, again continuing the sequence of actions, describing the placement of the washed parts with the other pieces.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a chain of sequential verbs connected by the narrative vav (H9001): tenatteach ("you will cut in pieces"), followed by ve-rachatzta ("and you will wash"), followed by ve-natatta ("and you will put"). This construction, common in procedural or legal Hebrew, presents a series of required actions in temporal order without needing separate connecting words like "then" — the vav plus the perfect form (sequential perfect) carries that function grammatically.

The direct object marker 'et (H0853) before ha-'ayil ("the ram", H0352A) marks the ram as the definite object of the cutting. The repeated use of construct forms with pronominal suffixes — netachayv ("its pieces"), qirbo ("its entrails"), khera'ayv ("its legs"), rosho ("its head") — ties each body part explicitly back to the ram itself, a stylistic feature of Hebrew construct chains that some translations render more loosely as plain possessives ("its" or "the").

The final clause uses two instances of 'al ("with"/"on", H5921A) to indicate that the washed entrails and legs are to be placed together with both the previously cut netachayv ("pieces") and the rosho ("its head"), gathering all components before the next step in the ritual sequence.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders tenatteach ("you will cut in pieces") with διχοτομήσεις ("you will cut in two" or "divide"), and adds κατὰ μέλη ("according to members/limbs"), a clarifying phrase not present in the Hebrew. The LXX also adds ὕδατι ("with water") after "wash," specifying the washing medium, which the Hebrew text leaves unstated at this point. The Vulgate's "lotaque intestina ejus ac pedes" ("and having washed its entrails and feet") uses "pedes" ("feet") where the Hebrew has khera'ayv ("legs", H3767), a slight difference in body-part terminology also reflected in the LXX's πόδας ("feet").