Leviticus 16:1

וַיְדַבֵּר יְהוָה אֶל־מֹשֶׁה אַחֲרֵי מוֹת שְׁנֵי בְּנֵי אַהֲרֹן בְּקָרְבָתָם לִפְנֵי־יְהוָה וַיָּמֻֽתוּ׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וַיְדַבֵּ֤ר יְהוָה֙ אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֔ה אַחֲרֵ֣י מ֔וֹת שְׁנֵ֖י בְּנֵ֣י אַהֲרֹ֑ן בְּקָרְבָתָ֥ם לִפְנֵי־יְהוָ֖ה וַיָּמֻֽתוּ׃

Greek (Septuagint)

Καὶ ἐλάλησεν κύριος πρὸς Μωυσῆν μετὰ τὸ τελευτῆσαι τοὺς δύο υἱοὺς Ἀαρὼν ἐν τῷ προσάγειν αὐτοὺς πῦρ ἀλλότριον ἔναντι Κυρίου, καὶ ἐτελεύτησαν·

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

Locutusque est Dominus ad Moysen post mortem duorum filiorum Aaron, quando offerentes ignem alienum interfecti sunt:

Spanish

Yehová le habló a Moisés después de la muerte de los dos hijos de Aarón, quienes murieron al acercarse a la presencia de Yehová.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Y HABLÓ Jehová á Moisés, después que murieron los dos hijos de Aarón, cuando se llegaron delante de Jehová, y murieron;

English

Now the LORD spoke to Moses after the death of two of Aaron’s sons when they approached the presence of the LORD.

✦ What the text says

Summary

The verse opens a new divine speech to Moses, dated "after the death" of Aaron's two sons, specifying that they died "when they drew near before Yehovah." The clause structure links this legislation to the prior narrative of their deaths.

Key words

y.daBer ("he spoke", H1696G) — piel narrative verb; the intensive stem is standard for formal divine speech-introductions, marking this as an official communication rather than casual talk.
'acha.Rei ("after", H0310A) construct + Mot ("death of", H4194) construct — a construct chain meaning "after the death of," anchoring the following material in time relative to a prior event.
be.qare.va.Tam ("in/when their drawing near", H7126G + H9048) — qal infinitive with 3mp pronominal suffix attached via the preposition be; this construction expresses simultaneity ("in their act of drawing near"), giving the circumstance under which death occurred.
lifnei ("before", H6440G) construct — literally "to the face of," a construct noun used idiomatically for "in the presence of," here governing Yehovah.
va.ya.Mutu ("and they died", H4191) — qal narrative verb, 3mp; a simple, non-intensive statement of the fact of death, closing the temporal clause.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence begins with the standard narrative formula va.y.daBer Yehovah 'el-Moshe ("and Yehovah spoke to Moses"), then inserts a temporal qualifier before any content of the speech is given. This qualifier is built as a construct chain: 'acharei mot shenei benei Aharon — "after the death of the two sons of Aaron" — which compresses genealogical and narrative information into a string of nouns in construct relation, each one specifying the next.

The second half of the verse, be.qare.vatam lifnei-Yehovah, uses an infinitive construct with a pronominal suffix (qare.va.Tam, "their drawing near") governed by the preposition be, a common Hebrew way to express "when/while they did X." This phrase does not state what they were doing when they drew near — only that the act of approaching lifnei Yehovah ("before Yehovah") coincided with their death, expressed by the closing narrative verb va.ya.Mutu ("and they died"). The Hebrew leaves the cause or manner of death unspecified within this verse itself.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the circumstantial clause with an added phrase, πῦρ ἀλλότριον ("strange/foreign fire"), stating they died ἐν τῷ προσάγειν αὐτοὺς πῦρ ἀλλότριον ("when they brought strange fire near"). The Vulgate likewise adds offerentes ignem alienum ("offering strange fire") and uses the passive interfecti sunt ("they were killed") rather than a simple "they died." The Hebrew text of this verse contains no reference to fire and uses the intransitive va.ya.Mutu ("they died"), not a passive/causative form.

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.