Leviticus 16:15

Summary

Leviticus 16:15 describes the second slaughter in the Day of Atonement ritual: the goat designated as sin offering for the people is killed, and its blood is brought inside the curtain and sprinkled on and before the kapporet ("atonement cover") in the same manner as the bull's blood was handled in the previous verses.

Key words

• sha.Chat ("he will cut the throat of", H7819A) — qal sequential perfect, continuing the narrative chain of ritual actions performed by the priest.
• cha.taT ("sin offering", H2403H) — feminine singular noun, here functioning to specify the purpose/category of the goat (se.'Ir, "male goat", H8163B), which stands in construct with it.
• ka.Po.ret ("atonement cover", H3727) — feminine singular noun, the object toward which the blood is directed; it appears twice, once as target of sprinkling ('al, "on", H5921A) and once with li.f.Nei ("before", H6440G).
• hi.Zah ("he will spatter", H5137A) — hiphil (causative) sequential perfect, denoting the specific sprinkling action of blood distinct from simply applying it.
• ka.'a.Sher ("just as", H9004+H0834D) — comparative construction linking this action to the prior treatment of the bull's blood (le.Dam ha.Par, "to the blood of the bull").

What the text says

The verse is built as a chain of sequential perfect verbs (ve- + qatal), a standard narrative structure in Hebrew ritual instruction: sha.Chat ("he will slaughter"), he.Vi' ("he will bring", hiphil of H0935P), 'a.Sah ("he will do"), and hi.Zah ("he will spatter"). Each verb is prefixed with the narrative vav (H9001), which chains these actions as consecutive steps in a single procedure rather than isolated commands.

The goat is identified by a construct chain: se.'Ir ha.cha.taT ("male goat of the sin offering") further qualified by the relative clause 'a.Sher la.'Am ("which is for the people"), distinguishing this goat's blood-purpose from the bull mentioned earlier in the chapter. The phrase mi.Beit la.pa.Ro.khet ("from inside to the curtain") uses a compound preposition (min + beit) indicating movement into an interior space, translated by the word-by-word gloss as "from inside" the curtain.

The comparative clause ka.'a.Sher 'a.Sah le.Dam ha.Par ("just as he did to the blood of the bull") explicitly links this action to a prior described procedure, using the same verb 'a.Sah but here in a simple (non-sequential) perfect, marking it as a completed reference point rather than a new step. The final action, hi.Zah ("he will spatter"), takes a direct object marker ('et, H0853) with pronominal suffix o ("it," referring to the blood) and two prepositional phrases: 'al ha.ka.Po.ret ("on the atonement cover") and li.f.Nei ha.ka.Po.ret ("before the atonement cover"), indicating two distinct locations for the sprinkling.

Differences between versions

The LXX adds ἔναντι κυρίου ("before the Lord") after naming the goat, a phrase not present in the Hebrew word list provided. The Vulgate's sicut præceptum est ("as it was commanded") interprets the Hebrew comparative ka.'a.Sher 'a.Sah ("just as he did") as a reference to a command rather than to a prior completed action, shifting the sense from "as he [previously] did" to "as was prescribed."