Leviticus 14:11

Summary

The verse describes the priest presenting the person undergoing purification, together with associated offerings, before Yehovah at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. The action is framed as the culmination of a ritual sequence, marked by a sequential verb form continuing from prior verses.

Key words

• he'emid ("he will station", H5975) — hiphil (causative) verb in sequential perfect form: the priest causes the person to stand, rather than the person standing on their own initiative.
• hakohen hametaher ("the priest who declares pure", H3548 + H2891) — the participle metaher is piel (intensive/causative stem), describing the priest's active role in effecting purification.
• ha'ish hamittaher ("the man who purifies himself", H0376 + H2891) — same root as above but hithpael (reflexive) stem, describing the person as the one undergoing the process himself.
• otam ("them", H0854+H9038) — third person plural suffix attached to a preposition; its referent is not specified within this verse but points back to items named in the preceding context.
• lifnei YHWH ("before Yehovah", H6440+H3068) — construct noun penei ("face of") governing the divine name, marking the location as one of divine presence.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with the narrative ve- prefix on he'emid, linking this action to the sequence of prior verses. The verb is hiphil, meaning the priest is grammatically the causer of the standing/presenting — the text frames the priest as active agent, not merely accompanying the person. The double object construction is notable: et ha'ish hamittaher ("the man who purifies himself") and ve-otam ("and them") are both marked as objects of the same verb, meaning the priest presents both the person and an unspecified set of items in a single act.

The contrast between metaher (piel, applied to the priest) and mittaher (hithpael, applied to the man) is a grammatical minimal pair built on the same root taher ("to be pure", H2891). The piel form assigns the priest a declarative/causative function regarding purity, while the hithpael assigns the man a reflexive role — he is presented as one who purifies himself, even though the priest is the one performing the ritual actions. The phrase lifnei YHWH ("before Yehovah") is followed by an appositional construct chain, petach ohel mo'ed ("entrance of the tent of meeting"), specifying the location without a separate preposition — the entrance itself is described as coinciding with the position "before Yehovah."

Differences between versions

The Hebrew otam ("them") is rendered by the LXX as ταῦτα ("these things") and by the Vulgate as haec omnia ("all these things"), both making explicit that the referent is objects (offerings) rather than persons, whereas the Hebrew pronoun alone does not specify this within the verse.