Exodus 30:31
וְאֶל־בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל תְּדַבֵּר לֵאמֹר שֶׁמֶן מִשְׁחַת־קֹדֶשׁ יִהְיֶה זֶה לִי לְדֹרֹתֵיכֶֽם׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וְאֶל־בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל תְּדַבֵּ֣ר לֵאמֹ֑ר שֶׁ֠מֶן מִשְׁחַת־קֹ֨דֶשׁ יִהְיֶ֥ה זֶ֛ה לִ֖י לְדֹרֹתֵיכֶֽם׃
καὶ τοῖς υἱοῖς Ἰσραὴλ λαλήσεις λέγων Ἔλαιον χρίσεως ἅγιον ἔσται τοῦτο ὑμῖν εἰς τὰς γενεὰς ὑμῶν·
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Filiis quoque Israël dices: Hoc oleum unctionis sanctum erit mihi in generationes vestras.
Y les dirás a los israelitas: ‘Este será mi aceite sagrado para la unción, de generación en generación.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y hablarás á los hijos de Israel, diciendo: Este será mi aceite de la santa unción por vuestras edades.
And you are to tell the Israelites, ‘ This will be My sacred anointing oil for the generations to come.
✦ What the text says
Summary
Moses is instructed to tell the Israelites that a specific oil formula, described as belonging to God ("to me"), will serve as sacred anointing oil for all future generations.
Key words
- tedaBer ("you will speak", H1696G) — Piel imperfect, second person masculine singular: an intensive/factitive verb form indicating an act of formal speech-giving (Moses addressing the people), not just casual talk.
- shemen ("oil of", H8081) — masculine singular construct, the first link in a double construct chain that binds this noun to what follows.
- mishchat ("anointing of", H4888A) — feminine singular construct, the second link in the chain, connecting "oil" to "holiness."
- qodesh ("holiness", H6944G) — absolute noun completing the construct chain: literally "oil of anointing of holiness," i.e., a triple-layered genitive relationship.
- li ("to me / of me", H9005+H9030) — preposition with first-person suffix, marking possession or dedication: the oil is specified as belonging to the speaker (God).
What the text says
The verse opens with a command for continued or future speech: tedaBer ("you will speak," H1696G) placed after the object phrase ve'el-benei Yisra'el ("and to the people of Israel"), a common Biblical Hebrew word order where the addressee precedes the verb of speaking, followed by le'mor ("saying," H0559), an infinitive that introduces the direct quotation.
The core content of the speech is built on a construct chain: shemen mishchat-qodesh ("oil of anointing of holiness"). Each noun in this chain — shemen (H8081), mishchat (H4888A), and qodesh (H6944G) — stands in construct relationship to the next, producing a compact genitive stack that Hebrew allows without additional prepositions. This chain functions as the subject of the sentence, followed by the demonstrative zeh ("this," H2088) and the verb yihyeh ("it will be," H1961), a Qal imperfect indicating a durative or future state.
The phrase li ("to me," H9005+H9030) attaches possession of this oil to the speaker in first person, and ledorotekhem ("to your generations," H1755+H9026) extends the validity of this designation across time, using a plural construct noun with a second-person plural suffix.
Differences between versions
The Hebrew li ("to me," H9005+H9030) marks the oil as belonging to the speaker in first person. The Vulgate preserves this with mihi ("to me"). The LXX, however, renders this phrase as ὑμῖν ("to you," plural), shifting the possessive reference from the speaker to the addressees.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.