Exodus 29:7

Summary

The verse instructs the addressee (grammatically "you," masculine singular) to take the anointing oil, pour it on the head of a person (referred to by the pronominal suffix "his"), and anoint him. The action unfolds in three consecutive steps linked by sequential verb forms.

Key words

• la.kach.Ta ("you will take", H3947G) — qal sequential perfect, 2nd masculine singular; opens the chain of instructions addressed directly to "you."
• She.men ("oil of", H8081) — masculine singular noun in construct state, linking to the following word to form "oil of the anointing."
• mish.Chah ("anointing", H4888A) — feminine singular noun, definite article attached (ha, H9009), completing the construct phrase "the oil of the anointing."
• ya.tzak.Ta ("you will pour", H3332G) — qal sequential perfect, 2nd masculine singular; continues the sequence of actions.
• ma.shach.Ta ("you will anoint", H4886) — qal sequential perfect, 2nd masculine singular; closes the three-verb chain, sharing the same root as mish.Chah ("anointing").

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built entirely on the sequential perfect verb form (also called waw-consecutive perfect), a construction that chains successive actions into a single narrative or instructional sequence: la.kach.Ta ("you will take", H3947G), ya.tzak.Ta ("you will pour", H3332G), and ma.shach.Ta ("you will anoint", H4886). Each verb is prefixed by the conjunction ve (H9001), and each carries the same 2nd person masculine singular subject, producing a rhythmic, step-by-step instruction: take → pour → anoint.

The phrase She.men ha.mish.Chah ("oil of the anointing", H8081 + H9009 + H4888A) is a construct chain, where She.men ("oil") stands in construct relationship to the definite noun mish.Chah ("anointing"), meaning literally "the oil of the anointing" rather than a simple adjectival "anointing oil." Notably, the verb ma.shach.Ta ("you will anoint", H4886) shares its consonantal root with mish.Chah ("anointing", H4888A), a root-repetition visible only in the Hebrew, where the noun for the substance and the verb for the action performed with it are etymologically the same word.

The pronominal suffixes o ("his", H9023) attached to ro.Sh ("head", H7218A) and o ("him", H9033) attached to the object marker 'o.T (H0853) both refer to the same third person, though the text under analysis does not itself name this person.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the sequence with λήμψῃ ("you will take"), ἐπιχεεῖς ("you will pour"), and χρίσεις ("you will anoint"), preserving the same three-verb structure as the Hebrew. The Vulgate condenses the sequence differently: it omits an explicit verb for "take," combines pouring and anointing into "oleum unctionis fundes super caput ejus" ("you will pour the oil of anointing upon his head"), and adds an interpretive clause, "atque hoc ritu consecrabitur" ("and by this rite he will be consecrated"), which has no corresponding wording in the Hebrew text provided.