Exodus 30:10

Summary

The verse prescribes an annual atonement rite performed by Aaron on the horns of the altar, using blood from the sin offering of atonement. The rite is to be repeated once a year across all future generations, and the object of this atonement is declared "holy of holies" to Yehovah.

Key words

• khiPer ("he will make atonement", H3722A) — piel sequential perfect; the piel stem gives the verb an intensive/effective sense ("to perform atonement" rather than a simple action), and the sequential perfect form ties it to the preceding narrative as the next step in a legal sequence.
• yekhaPer ("he will make atonement", H3722A) — same root and piel stem as khiPer, but here an imperfect form, marking ongoing or repeated future action rather than a single completed act.
• achat ("one [time]", H0259) — cardinal number in construct form, appearing twice in the verse (lines 7 and 15), each time governing "in the year" (bashanah, H8141) to produce the phrase "once in the year."
• chaTat ("sin offering of", H2403H) — feminine singular construct, linking "blood" (dam, H1818) to "the atonement" (hakippurim, H3725) in a chain of construct nouns describing the source of the blood used.
• qodesh-qadashim ("holiness of holinesses", H6944G) — a construct doubling of the same noun (singular + plural), a Hebrew intensifying pattern that produces the superlative sense "most holy."

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a chain: a sequential perfect verb (khiPer, "he will make atonement") opens the instruction, followed by the prepositional phrase "on its horns" (al-qarnotav), then the temporal marker "once in the year" (achat bashanah). This same temporal phrase is repeated a second time before the second occurrence of the atonement verb, now in imperfect form (yekhaPer). The repetition of "once in the year" surrounding a chain of construct nouns ("blood of the sin offering of the atonements," mi-dam chatat ha-kippurim) creates a structure where the ritual timing frames the description of the blood's source.

The final clause uses a doubled construct noun, qodesh qadashim ("holiness of holinesses"), followed by the independent pronoun hu ("it/he", H1931) and the prepositional phrase la-Yehovah ("to Yehovah"). This construction — noun doubled in singular-then-plural construct — is a common Hebrew way of marking the superlative degree, here applied to the altar or the atoning object referenced by the pronoun hu.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the doubled construct qodesh qadashim as ἅγιον τῶν ἁγίων ("holy of the holies"), mirroring the Hebrew construct-doubling pattern. The Vulgate instead gives "Sanctum sanctorum" — a similar doubling but in Latin genitive form. Where the Hebrew literally reads "blood of the sin offering of the atonements" (dam chatat ha-kippurim, with "atonements" in plural), the LXX simplifies to "blood of the purification" (τοῦ αἵματος τοῦ καθαρισμοῦ), collapsing the plural construct chain into a single genitive noun. The Vulgate's "in sanguine quod oblatum est pro peccato" similarly does not preserve the plural form of kippurim ("atonements") found in the Hebrew.