Leviticus 14:18

Summary

The verse describes the disposal of the oil remaining in the priest's palm after the preceding application rites: this leftover oil is placed on the head of the person undergoing purification, and the priest performs an atonement rite for that person before Yehovah.

Key words

• noTar ("remainder", H3498) — niphal participle, masculine singular; describes the oil not as an object simply "left over" but as that which "remains" through a passive process, functioning here as a substantive ("the remaining [oil]").
• mitaher ("one purifying himself", H2891) — hithpael participle, masculine singular; the reflexive/reciprocal stem marks the subject as the one undergoing the purification process himself, not merely a passive recipient.
• kaf ("palm of", H3709) — feminine singular construct, linking to ha-kohen ("the priest") to specify the exact location of the oil before its transfer.
• khiPer ("he will make atonement", H3722) — piel stem, sequential perfect (vav-consecutive) after the preceding imperfect yiTen; the piel intensive stem denotes the priest's performative action of atonement.
• lifnei Yehovah ("before Yehovah", H6440 + H3068) — construct noun fenei ("face of") plus divine name, marking the location/orientation of the ritual act as performed in Yehovah's presence.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built on two main verbs in sequence: yiTen ("he will put/give", imperfect) and khiPer ("he will atone", vav-consecutive perfect), which together narrate two successive priestly actions — first the physical placement of oil, then the ritual act of atonement. The subject of both verbs is ha-kohen ("the priest"), though it is stated explicitly only with the second verb, after the object clause describing the oil.

The oil itself is described through a chain of construct and relative constructions: ha-noTar ba-shemen ("the remainder in the oil") asher al-kaf ha-kohen ("which is on the palm of the priest"). The niphal participle noTar frames the oil as "what remains" from a prior action (not narrated in this verse but implied from context), rather than as newly introduced material.

The recipient of the oil, ha-mitaher, is marked with the hithpael participle, a form that in Hebrew often indicates a person in the state or process of undergoing an action affecting himself — here, undergoing purification. The verse closes with lifnei Yehovah, situating the atonement act spatially/relationally "before Yehovah."

Differences between versions

The Vulgate text supplied here (et super caput ejus, "and upon his head") is only a fragment corresponding to part of the clause about placing oil "on the head," not a full rendering of the verse, so no complete comparison with the Hebrew is possible from this data. The Septuagint (LXX) renders ha-mitaher ("the one purifying himself", hithpael) with the participle τοῦ καθαρισθέντος ("the one having been cleansed"), a passive form, where the Hebrew uses a reflexive/reciprocal stem — a difference in how the person's role in the purification is grammatically framed.