Leviticus 14:19

Summary

The verse describes the priest performing two ritual actions in sequence: first offering the chattat ("sin offering", H2403H) and making atonement for the person undergoing purification, then afterward slaughtering the olah ("burnt offering", H5930A). The Hebrew marks a strict temporal order between these two acts using the sequential verb chain and the adverb "after."

Key words

• khiPer ("he will make atonement", H3722A) — piel (intensive) stem, sequential perfect form; the piel stem here conveys an intensive/effective action, "to bring about atonement," rather than a simple action.
• mitaHer ("[one] purifying himself", H2891) — hithpael (reflexive) participle; the reflexive stem indicates the subject undergoes the purification process himself, described as an ongoing state ("the one purifying himself") rather than a completed act.
• tum'aT ("uncleanness", H2932) — feminine singular noun in construct form, linked to the following pronominal suffix o ("his", H9023), producing "his uncleanness."
• 'aChar ("after", H0310A) — functions adverbially here to sequence the narrative, explicitly separating the atonement act from the burnt-offering slaughter.
• yishChat ("he will cut [the] throat of", H7819A) — qal imperfect, denoting the specific action of slaughtering by cutting the throat, applied to the olah.

What the text says

The sentence is built as a chain of sequential perfect verbs connected by the narrative ve ("and", H9001): 'aSah ("he will offer", H6213I) followed by khiPer ("he will make atonement", H3722A). This verb chain construction in Hebrew narrative indicates one action following directly upon another in the storyline, here describing the priest's handling of the chattat. The atonement action is directed "on" ('al, H5921A) the mitaHer, the participial form describing the person as one currently in the process of purifying himself (hithpael, reflexive), "from his uncleanness" (mi-tum'aTo).

The clause then shifts using ve-'aChar ("and after", H0310A) plus the qal imperfect yishChat ("he will cut the throat of", H7819A), marking a distinct temporal break: the burnt offering's slaughter happens only once the sin-offering ritual and atonement are complete. This explicit ordering — sin offering and atonement first, burnt offering second — is grammatically marked by the shift from the sequential perfect chain to the adverb "after" plus imperfect verb, distinguishing it from a simple continuation of the same narrative sequence.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders khiPer ("he will make atonement", H3722A) with ἐξιλάσεται περὶ αὐτοῦ ὁ ἱερεὺς ("the priest will atone for him"), making the priest as subject explicit a second time, where the Hebrew uses only the verb without repeating "the priest." The Vulgate adds "coram Domino" ("before the Lord"), a phrase not present in the Hebrew text provided. The Vulgate also reorders the clauses, placing "Rogabitque pro eo" (praying/atoning for him) before mentioning the sin sacrifice, whereas the Hebrew sequence presents the chattat offering first, then the atonement act.