Leviticus 1:6

Summary

Leviticus 1:6 describes two sequential actions performed on the burnt offering: the animal is skinned, and then it is cut into its constituent pieces. Both verbs continue a narrative chain describing the ritual procedure for the burnt offering.

Key words

• hif.Shit ("he will skin", H6584) — hiphil (causative) verb in sequential perfect form, indicating an action that follows logically from what precedes it in the ritual sequence; the hiphil stem frames the skinning as something the agent causes to happen to the animal.
• 'o.Lah ("burnt offering", H5930A) — feminine singular noun, marked with the definite article ha ("the", H9009) and preceded by the direct object marker 'et- (H0853), identifying it as the direct object of the skinning action.
• ni.Tach ("he will cut in pieces", H5408) — piel (intensive) verb in sequential perfect, continuing the narrative chain; the piel stem suggests a thorough or repeated action of cutting, distinct from a simple act.
• n.ta.Chei. ("pieces", H5409) — masculine plural noun in construct state, meaning it is grammatically bound to what follows ("pieces of..."), here completed by the pronominal suffix ha ("its", H9024) referring back to the offering.
• 'o.Ta + h ("it/her", H0853 + H9034) — direct object marker with pronominal suffix, referring back to the 'olah ("burnt offering") as the object being cut.

What the text says

The verse is built on two verbs joined by the narrative vav ve (H9001), a grammatical feature that chains actions together in sequence: first hif.Shit ("he will skin"), then ni.Tach ("he will cut in pieces"). Both verbs appear in the sequential perfect form, a construction that in Biblical Hebrew narrative continues the flow of action from a preceding verb, presenting these steps as parts of one continuous ritual procedure rather than isolated events.

The object of the first verb is explicitly marked: 'et-ha-'olah ("the burnt offering"), using the direct object marker 'et (H0853) together with the definite article. The second verb takes a pronominal object, 'otah ("it/her"), referring back to the same 'olah, avoiding repetition of the noun. The phrase li-ntacheiha ("into its pieces") uses a construct noun (netachim, "pieces") with a possessive suffix, literally meaning "into the pieces belonging to it" — a grammatical construction that ties the resulting pieces directly back to the whole animal being divided.

The stem choice for nitach (piel, intensive) contrasts with the simpler causative hiphil of hifshit, suggesting a distinction in the Hebrew between the single act of removing the skin and a more thorough or systematic process of cutting the carcass into its parts.