Exodus 29:31

Summary

The verse instructs the taking of the ram associated with the millu'im offering and the boiling of its meat in a location described as holy. The syntax marks a two-step ritual action: first taking the ram, then cooking its flesh in a specified place.

Key words

• 'eil ("[the] ram of", H0352A) — masculine singular construct noun, syntactically bound to the following word, forming the phrase "ram of the millu'im."
• millu'im ("installation offering(s)", H4394) — masculine plural noun; the plural form denotes the ritual category as a whole rather than a single act, giving the ram its function.
• tiqqach ("you will take", H3947G) — qal imperfect, second person masculine; expresses a directed future/ongoing instruction, opening the clause even though it appears last in word order.
• vishalta ("you will boil", H1310) — piel sequential perfect; the piel stem intensifies the action ("to boil thoroughly"), and the sequential (vav-consecutive) form links this act as the next step after the taking.
• qadosh ("holy", H6918G) — masculine singular adjective modifying maqom ("a place", H4725), qualifying the location rather than naming a specific site.

What the text says

The first clause places the direct object — 'et 'eil hammillu'im, "the ram of the millu'im" — before the verb tiqqach, a common construction in instructional or legal Hebrew that foregrounds the object of the action. The construct chain 'eil ha-millu'im ("ram of the installation-offerings") ties the animal grammatically and functionally to the millu'im ritual category, rather than describing it as an independent sacrifice.

The second clause shifts to u-vishalta, a vav-consecutive (sequential) perfect verb continuing the instructional chain begun by the imperfect tiqqach. This verbal sequence (imperfect → sequential perfect) is typical of procedural Hebrew text, marking one action following another within a single set of directions. The piel stem of bishalta intensifies the basic sense of boiling, suggesting thorough cooking. The phrase be-maqom qadosh ("in a holy place") uses an indefinite noun with an adjective, describing a place characterized by holiness rather than pointing to a uniquely named location.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew bəśaro ("its meat", H1320 + suffix) is grammatically singular, referring to the ram's flesh as a unified mass. The LXX renders this with the plural τὰ κρέα ("the meats"), and the Vulgate similarly uses the plural carnes eius ("its meats"). This reflects a numeric divergence in how the flesh is expressed, though the underlying referent — the ram's meat — is the same across all three texts.