Leviticus 14:31

Summary

This verse describes offerings made according to what a person's means allow: one bird as a sin offering and one as a burnt offering, alongside a grain offering. It concludes with the priest performing atonement before Yehovah for the person undergoing purification.

Key words

• ta.Sig ("it will reach", H5381) — Hiphil imperfect of the root meaning "to reach/attain," here describing what a person's hand is able to procure, i.e., their financial capacity.
• yad ("hand", H3027T) — construct singular noun with the suffix "his" (-o), forming the idiom "his hand reaches," an expression for material sufficiency or ability to afford something.
• chattat ("sin offering", H2403H) — feminine singular noun naming the purpose of the first bird offering.
• khi.Per ("he will make atonement", H3722A) — Piel sequential perfect, an intensive verb form indicating the priest's completed ritual action of atonement, continuing the narrative sequence begun earlier in the passage.
• mi.ta.Her ("[one] purifying himself", H2891) — Hithpael participle, reflexive form indicating the person is the one undergoing the purification process, not merely receiving it passively.

What the text says

The verse opens with the relative clause 'et 'asher tassig yado ("that which his hand reaches"), an idiomatic construction in Biblical Hebrew expressing what a person is financially able to provide. This phrase governs the following list of offerings: ha'echad chattat ("the one [bird], a sin offering") and ha'echad 'olah ("the one [bird], a burnt offering"), each marked with the direct object marker 'et, indicating these are the specific items being designated. The phrase 'al ha-minchah ("with/upon the grain offering") uses the preposition 'al (H5921A) to indicate that these offerings accompany the grain offering already mentioned.

The final clause shifts from the accusative sequence to a sequential perfect verb, ve-khipper ("and he will make atonement"), continuing the narrative chain (marked by the vav conjunction, H9001) begun earlier in the chapter. The subject is ha-kohen ("the priest"), who acts 'al ha-mittaher ("on behalf of the one purifying himself"), using the Hithpael participle to mark the ritual subject as self-purifying. The phrase concludes lifney Yehovah ("before the face of Yehovah"), using the construct plural noun peney (H6440G, "face of") to indicate the ritual takes place in a divine setting.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew phrase 'et 'asher tassig yado ("that which his hand reaches") — the idiom for financial capacity — is not rendered in the LXX or Vulgate texts provided, which begin directly with "the one" (τὴν μίαν / unum) without the idiomatic hand expression. The Vulgate further omits 'al ha-minchah ("with the grain offering") as a distinct clause, instead using cum libamentis suis ("with its libations"), a phrase not present in the Hebrew's specific wording.