Exodus 29:30

Summary

The verse specifies that the priest who succeeds the current one — one of his sons — must wear the priestly garments for seven days when he enters the Tent of Meeting to serve in the holy place. The subject is "the priest," further defined by the phrase "in his place, one of his sons."

Key words

• yil.ba.Sham ("he will wear them", H3847) — qal imperfect, 3rd masculine singular, with pronominal suffix "them," referring back to the garments described in earlier verses; agrees with "the priest" as subject.
• tach.Ta ("in place of", H8478H) — construct noun with possessive suffix "his," specifying that this priest stands in succession to another (his predecessor).
• mi.Ba.na ("one of his sons", H1121A) — construct noun with preposition mi ("one of") and suffix "his," identifying the successor as belonging to the group of the current priest's sons.
• ya.Vo' ("he will come", H0935G) — qal imperfect, 3rd masculine singular, introduced by the relative particle 'a.Sher ("who", H0834A), describing the future action of entering the Tent of Meeting.
• sha.Ret ("serve", H8334) — piel infinitive, expressing the purpose ("in order to serve") of entering the sanctuary, governed by the preposition le ("to").

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with the temporal phrase shiv.'At ya.Mim ("seven of days", H7651 + H3117G), fronted for emphasis, before the main verb yil.ba.Sham ("he will wear them"). The grammatical subject of this verb is ha.ko.Hen ("the priest", H3548), which is then qualified by two appositional phrases: tach.Ta ("in place of him") and mi.Ba.na ("one of his sons"). Together these specify that the wearer is not the current priest but his successor, a son who takes his place. This construction places the identity of the successor after the verb, unlike some translations that move the subject to the front of the sentence.

The clause continues with a relative clause introduced by 'a.Sher ("who"), attached to this successor, describing his future action: ya.Vo' ("he will come") into 'O.hel mo.'Ed ("tent of meeting", H0168G + H4150I). The purpose of this entry is expressed through the infinitive sha.Ret ("to serve"), governed by le, functioning in ba.Ko.desh ("in the holy place", H6944J). The seven-day period, the succession formula, and the purpose clause are thus linked in a single extended sentence in the Hebrew.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate adds the participle "constitutus" ("having been appointed"), a word not present in the Hebrew text, to describe how the successor obtains his office. The SBLIBRE Spanish translation specifies "el hijo de Aarón" ("the son of Aaron"), naming Aaron explicitly, though the Hebrew only says ha.ko.Hen tach.Ta mi.Ba.na ("the priest in place of him, one of his sons") without naming Aaron in this verse. The BSB reorders the sentence so that "the son who succeeds him" appears as the grammatical subject at the start, whereas in the Hebrew the verb yil.ba.Sham precedes the full identification of the subject.