Leviticus 16:24

Summary

Leviticus 16:24 describes the sequence of ritual actions following the high priest's handling of the sin offerings on the Day of Atonement: he washes, dresses in his own garments, exits the sanctuary area, offers two burnt offerings, and makes atonement for himself and for the people.

Key words

• ra.Chatz ("he will wash", H7364) — qal sequential perfect; continues the narrative chain of actions, indicating this washing follows directly from what precedes it in the ritual sequence.
• ma.Kom kaDosh ("a holy place", H4725 / H6918G) — the location is unmarked by a definite article on ma.Kom, giving the sense "a holy place" rather than pointing to one specific pre-identified site (though translations often render it as "the holy place").
• la.Vash ("he will put on", H3847) — qal sequential perfect; the verb governs be.ga.Da(v) ("his garments", H0899B) in construct, marking the garments as belonging specifically to him, distinguishing them from the special linen vestments used earlier in the rite.
• khi.Per ("he will make atonement", H3722A) — piel (intensive/factitive) stem, sequential perfect; the piel form marks this as a causative-intensive action ("to effect atonement") rather than a simple verb, and it is the final act in the sequence.
• ba'aD ("for/on behalf of", H1157) — construct form used twice (once with a suffix "for himself," once before ha'am, "for the people"), structuring the object of atonement into two distinct beneficiaries.

What the text says

The verse is built entirely on a chain of five sequential perfect verbs joined by the narrative ve- ("and"): ra.Chatz ("wash"), la.Vash ("put on"), ya.Tza' ("go out"), 'a.Sah ("offer"), and khi.Per ("make atonement"). This verb-chain construction in Biblical Hebrew presents the actions as a single continuous ritual sequence rather than isolated independent events, each action logically and temporally following the last.

Two construct pairs mark possession precisely: 'olat-o ("his burnt offering") and 'olat ha-'am ("the burnt offering of the people") distinguish the priest's own offering from that of the community, both governed by the same verb 'a.Sah ("he will offer"). The final clause splits the object of atonement into two prepositional phrases with ba'aD, "for himself" and "for the people," giving the atonement two distinct but paired recipients within one clause.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the final clause as "he shall make atonement for himself and for his house and for the people, as for the priests" — introducing "his house" and "the priests" as objects of atonement, elements not present in the Hebrew text, which mentions only ba'aD-o ("for himself") and ve-'ad ha-'am ("for the people"). The Vulgate's rogabit tam pro se quam pro populo ("he shall pray/petition as much for himself as for the people") stays closer to the twofold structure of the Hebrew.