Leviticus 16:26

Summary

The verse describes the ritual obligation of the man who released the goat designated la-Azazel ("for/to Azazel", H5799) into the wilderness. Before returning to the camp, he must wash his clothes and bathe his body in water. Only after completing this purification is he permitted to re-enter the camp.

Key words

• m.sha.Le.ach ("[one who] let go", H7971H) — piel participle, masculine singular, functioning as a substantive ("the one who sends away/releases"); the piel stem gives an intensive or causative nuance to the act of sending, describing the agent by his ongoing role in the ritual.
• 'a.za.Zel ("[the] escape goat", H5799) — proper name/title, marking the destination or purpose of the goat's release; grammatically it is the object of the preposition la ("to", H9005), producing the phrase "to Azazel."
• ye.kha.Bes ("he will wash", H3526H) — piel imperfect, third person masculine singular; the imperfect aspect indicates an action pending or required, and the piel stem again intensifies the washing (thorough cleansing) of the garments.
• ra.Chatz ("he will wash", H7364) — qal sequential perfect (vav-consecutive), continuing the narrative chain begun by the imperfect ye.kha.Bes; this verb governs the washing of the body specifically, using the simple (qal) stem rather than the intensive piel.
• ya.Vo' ("he will come", H0935G) — qal imperfect, third masculine singular, marking the final action in the sequence: entry into the camp, grammatically dependent on the prior completion of washing.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built around a chain of verb forms that establish sequence and dependency. The subject is introduced as a participle, m.sha.Le.ach ("the one who let go", H7971H), which functions almost as a title — "the sender-away" — rather than a finite verb, framing the whole verse as being about this person's subsequent obligations rather than his prior action. The action of releasing the goat la-Azazel (H5799) is presupposed, already completed, and the verse's grammatical weight falls on what happens next.

Two washing actions follow: ye.kha.Bes (H3526H, piel imperfect) for garments and ra.Chatz (H7364, qal sequential perfect) for the body. The shift from piel to qal reflects the standard Hebrew distinction between washing cloth (often piel) and washing one's own body (qal), though both are rendered "wash" in English. The vav-consecutive on ra.Chatz links it temporally to the imperfect that precedes it, producing a natural "he will wash...and he will wash" sequence in Hebrew narrative style. The final clause is introduced by the temporal phrase 'a.cha.rei khen ("after thus", H0310A + H3651C), explicitly marking that entry into the camp (ya.Vo', H0935G) occurs only subsequent to the washing acts, making the order of actions grammatically explicit rather than merely implied.