Leviticus 10:5

Summary

The verse narrates that certain men approached and carried out two bodies, still in (or by) their tunics, to a location outside the camp, in compliance with a prior instruction given by Moses. The action is presented as a direct fulfillment of that command.

Key words

• yiqrevu ("they drew near", H7126G) — qal narrative form (wayyiqtol), marking the next sequential event in the story: approaching the bodies.
• yisa'um ("they carried them", H5375H) — qal narrative verb with a 3rd person masculine plural pronominal suffix ("them"), indicating the direct object being lifted/carried.
• kutonotam ("their tunics", H3801) — feminine plural noun in construct form with possessive suffix ("their"), governed by the preposition be ("in/by").
• chutz ("outside", H2351) — masculine singular noun in construct form, forming the phrase "outside of the camp" with la-machaneh.
• dibber ("he had spoken", H1696G) — piel perfect of the root for "to speak," denoting a completed prior act of speech, here referring back to an earlier instruction by Moses.

What the text says

The sentence is built as a chain of narrative (wayyiqtol) verbs — yiqrevu and yisa'um — each introduced by the narrative vav (H9001), which links this verse tightly to the preceding action as a direct continuation: "and they drew near, and they carried them." The object suffix on yisa'um ("-am," H9038) supplies "them" without repeating a noun, assuming the reader already knows who is being carried.

The phrase be-kutonotam ("in/by their tunics") uses the preposition be (H9003) attached to the construct plural noun kutonot ("tunics," H3801) plus a possessive suffix. The preposition be is grammatically ambiguous between a locative sense ("in their tunics," i.e., still clothed) and an instrumental sense ("by means of their tunics," i.e., using the garments to drag or lift the bodies). The Hebrew grammar alone does not resolve which sense is intended.

The final clause, ka'asher dibber Mosheh ("as Moses had spoken"), uses the piel perfect dibber (H1696G) to mark completed prior speech, subordinating the entire preceding action to an earlier command attributed to Moses.

Differences between versions

The two possible readings of be-kutonotam appear reflected in the modern translations: BSB renders "still in their tunics" (locative sense), while SBLIBRE renders "agarrados de sus túnicas" ("grabbed by their tunics," instrumental sense). The Vulgate expands considerably beyond the Hebrew, adding "sicut jacebant, vestitos lineis tunicis" ("as they lay, dressed in linen tunics"), specifying "linen" and the detail "as they lay," neither of which appears in the Hebrew text or in the LXX, which simply reads "ἐν τοῖς χιτῶσιν αὐτῶν" ("in their tunics"), closely paralleling the Hebrew phrase without added interpretive detail.