Leviticus 14:20

Summary

The verse describes the priest offering the burnt offering ('olah) and the grain offering (minchah) on the altar, after which he performs atonement for the person and that person becomes clean. Three consecutive priestly actions are narrated: offering up, atoning, and the resulting state of purity.

Key words

• he'elah ("he will offer up", H5927I) — hiphil (causative) sequential perfect: the priest causes the offering to go up onto the altar; it continues the narrative chain begun by the preceding verses.
• 'olah ("burnt offering", H5930A) — feminine singular noun with the definite article and the object marker 'et, marking it as the direct object of he'elah.
• minchah ("grain offering", H4503G) — feminine singular noun, joined to 'olah by the conjunction ve and also marked as a direct object with its own 'et, showing it is offered alongside, not merged into, the burnt offering.
• kipper ("he will make atonement", H3722A) — piel (intensive) sequential perfect: the priest performs an intensified action of atonement "on him" ('alav, preposition + 3ms suffix), continuing the same narrative sequence.
• tahar ("he will be clean", H2891) — qal sequential perfect: a simple resulting state, completing the three-step sequence (offer → atone → become clean).

What the text says

The Hebrew presents a tight chain of three sequential perfect verbs, each introduced by the narrative vav (ve-): he'elah ("and he will offer up"), kipper ("and he will make atonement"), and tahar ("and he will be clean"). This verbal chain shows a linear sequence of ritual actions performed by ha-kohen ("the priest", H3548), who is named twice in the verse (once with the burnt/grain offerings, once with the atonement), reinforcing that a single agent carries out both stages of the rite. The double object marker 'et before both ha-'olah and ha-minchah signals that these are two distinct offerings placed on the altar together, indicated by the directional he suffixed to ha-mizbecha ("to the altar"), showing motion toward the altar rather than static location. The atonement clause uses 'alav ("on him"), a preposition with a third-person masculine singular suffix, tying the atonement action directly to the individual for whom the offerings were made; the final verb tahar is qal (simple stem), presenting purification as a resulting state rather than an action performed by the priest.

Differences between versions

The LXX adds the phrase "ἀπέναντι Κυρίου" ("before the Lord"), a specification not present in the Hebrew text given. The Vulgate condenses the sequence differently, rendering "et ponet illud in altari cum libamentis suis, et homo rite mundabitur" — it does not explicitly render the priest's atonement action (kipper) as a separate clause, instead moving directly to the resulting purification of "homo" ("the man"), where the Hebrew explicitly states the priest performs atonement "on him" before the cleansing occurs.