Leviticus 14:23

Summary

The verse specifies that on the eighth day, the person undergoing purification must bring the required items (previously listed) to the priest at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, before Yehovah. It marks the timing and location of the final stage of a purification ritual.

Key words

• he.Vi' ("he will bring", H0935P) — hiphil (causative) verb in sequential perfect, continuing the narrative chain from prior verses; the causative form indicates the subject actively brings/causes the items to be brought, not that they arrive on their own.
• she.mi.Ni ("eighth", H8066) — masculine singular ordinal number, defining the specific day within the purification timeline.
• to.ho.ra.T ("purification", H2893) — feminine singular noun in construct state ("purification of..."), linked to the following suffix o ("his"), forming "his purification."
• Pe.tach ("entrance of", H6607) — masculine singular noun in construct, chained to 'o.hel ("tent of", H0168G) and then mo.'Ed ("meeting", H4150I), building the compound phrase "entrance of the tent of meeting."
• f.Nei ("before", H6440G) — masculine plural noun in construct, literally "face of," here forming the idiomatic expression "before Yehovah" (li-f.Nei Yehovah).

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with the narrative vav ve (H9001) attached to he.Vi' (H0935P), continuing a sequence of actions from the preceding verses in the ritual description. The verb is hiphil, a causative stem, meaning the grammatical subject causes the items (marked by the object marker 'o.Ta + suffix m, "them") to be brought — the text does not specify who performs this action within this verse alone, relying on the antecedent subject established earlier in the passage.

The temporal phrase ba.Yom ha.she.mi.Ni ("on the eighth day") places the action within a fixed ritual calendar. The construct chain le.to.ho.ra.T-o ("for his purification") uses the preposition le (H9005) to indicate purpose, and the construct-plus-suffix structure ties the purification directly to the subject's own state ("his purification"), rather than to a generic or communal purification.

The spatial description builds through a double construct chain: Pe.tach ("entrance of") governs 'o.hel ("tent of"), which governs mo.'Ed ("meeting"), yielding "entrance of the tent of meeting." This is followed by li-f.Nei Yehovah ("before Yehovah"), itself a construct of f.Nei ("face of") plus the divine name, an idiom expressing physical or ritual presence rather than a literal "face."

Differences between versions

The LXX renders he.Vi' ("he will bring") with προσοίσει ("he will offer/bring near"), a term with cultic connotations of presenting an offering, where the Hebrew hiphil verb is more generally causative ("cause to bring"). The Vulgate's offeret similarly carries an offering nuance. Additionally, the LXX and Vulgate render le.to.ho.ra.T-o ("for his purification") with εἰς τὸ καθαρίσαι αὐτὸν ("for him to be cleansed") and purificationis suæ respectively, both preserving the possessive/purpose sense present in the Hebrew construct chain.