Leviticus 1:11

Summary

The verse describes the second step of the burnt offering ritual for flock animals: the offerer slaughters the animal at the north side of the altar in the presence of Yehovah, and the priests, sons of Aaron, sprinkle its blood around the altar.

Key words

• sha.Chat ("he will cut [the] throat of", H7819A) — qal sequential perfect, continuing the chain of ritual actions begun earlier in the chapter; the subject is the offerer.
• tza.Fo.na ("north", H6828G) with the directional he (H9011) — indicates orientation, "toward the north," specifying the location relative to the altar.
• li.f.Nei ("before", from H9005 + H6440G) — construct noun phrase "face of," here meaning "in the presence of," followed by Yehovah (H3068G).
• za.re.Ku ("they will sprinkle", H2236) — qal sequential perfect, plural, marking a shift in subject to the priests.
• be.Nei 'a.ha.Ron ha.ko.ha.Nim ("sons of Aaron, the priests", H1121A + H0175 + H3548) — an appositional phrase identifying who performs the sprinkling: the sons of Aaron, defined as "the priests."
• sa.Viv ("all around", H5439H) — describes the spatial extent of the blood-sprinkling action on the altar.

What the text says

The verse is built on two sequential perfect verbs joined by the narrative ve (H9001), a construction typical of ritual instruction sequences in this chapter: sha.Chat ("he will cut the throat of") and za.re.Ku ("they will sprinkle"). The first action's subject is implicit (the offerer, continuing from the prior verse), while the second explicitly names be.Nei 'a.ha.Ron ha.ko.ha.Nim ("the sons of Aaron, the priests") as the ones who sprinkle the blood — marking a division of ritual labor between the offerer and the priesthood.

The location of slaughter is specified through a chain of construct and prepositional phrases: 'al Ye.rekh ha.miz.Be.ach ("at the side of the altar"), further qualified by tza.Fo.na with the directional he, meaning "toward the north" side specifically. The phrase li.f.Nei Yehovah ("before Yehovah") uses the construct plural noun pa.nim ("face") to express presence, a common idiom rather than a literal reference to a face. The final phrase 'al ha.miz.Be.ach sa.viv ("on the altar, all around") describes the blood being applied to the altar's surface in a circular or comprehensive manner, using the object marker 'et (H0853) before da.mo ("its blood") to mark the direct object of the sprinkling.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders 'al Ye.rekh ha.miz.Be.ach ("at the side of the altar") as ἐκ πλαγίων τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου ("from the sides of the altar"), a slightly different spatial preposition (from/of rather than at/side). The Vulgate's ad latus altaris, quod respicit ad aquilonem ("at the side of the altar, which faces north") expands the Hebrew's compact tza.Fo.na into a relative clause describing the altar's orientation, rather than the animal's placement.