Leviticus 12:6

Summary

The verse specifies what a woman must bring once the days of her purification are completed, whether she had given birth to a son or a daughter: a year-old lamb for a burnt offering and a young dove or turtledove for a sin offering, to be presented to the priest at the entrance of the tent of meeting.

Key words

• m.Lot ("are completed", H4390) — qal infinitive construct, used with the preposition vi ("when") to mark the temporal clause "when the days are completed."
• to.ho.Ra(h) ("purification", H2892A) — masculine singular construct noun with the pronominal suffix h ("her"), forming "her purification," the state whose duration governs the timing of the offering.
• ta.Vi' ("she will bring", H0935P) — hiphil imperfect, third person feminine singular; the causative stem indicates she brings/causes the offering to be brought, and the imperfect marks the required future action.
• Ke.ves ("a male lamb", H3532) paired with ben-shena.T-o ("son of its year", H1121L/H8141) — a construct chain meaning "a lamb in its first year," specifying the animal's age for the 'o.Lah ("burnt offering", H5930A).
• cha.Tat ("sin offering", H2403H) — feminine singular noun designating the category of the second offering, distinct from the 'o.Lah.

What the text says

The verse opens with a temporal clause built on the infinitive m.Lot ("to be completed") governed by the preposition vi ("when"), followed by the construct phrase yemei toho.Rah ("days of her purification"). This construction ties the entire ritual instruction to the completion of a defined period rather than to a fixed calendar date. The phrase le.Ven 'o le.Vat ("for a son or for a daughter") is inserted between the temporal clause and the main verb, clarifying that the requirement applies regardless of the sex of the child born.

The main verb ta.Vi' ("she will bring"), a hiphil imperfect, places the woman as the causative agent of the offering's arrival — she is the one who brings the animals, not merely presents herself. Two distinct offerings are specified through construct chains: Keves Ben-shena.To le'oLah ("a lamb, son of its year, for a burnt offering") and ven-yoNah 'o tor lechaTat ("a young dove or a turtledove, for a sin offering"). The construct pattern ben-shena.To ("son of its year") is an idiomatic way of expressing age, indicating the lamb is in its first year. The destination of the offerings is given through two parallel prepositional phrases with 'el ("to"): first to the entrance of the tent of meeting (Petach 'Ohel-mo'Ed), then to the priest (ha.Kohen), marking both the physical location and the officiant who receives the offering.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders Keves ("a male lamb", H3532) as ἀμνὸν ἄμωμον ("a lamb without blemish"), adding a qualifier of unblemished status not present in the Hebrew construct phrase itself. The Vulgate's agnum anniculum ("a yearling lamb") corresponds closely to the Hebrew construct Keves ben-shena.To, while the LXX's ἐνιαύσιον ("yearly/of a year") conveys the same age notion through a single adjective rather than a construct chain.