Leviticus 16:6

Summary

Aaron presents the bull designated as his own sin offering and performs the atonement rite for himself and for his household. The verse establishes the first step of the ritual sequence for the Day of Atonement, beginning with Aaron's personal purification before he acts on behalf of others.

Key words

• hik.Riv ("he will present", H7126H) — hiphil sequential perfect, causative form indicating Aaron causes the offering to be brought forward; the sequential form links this action to the preceding narrative as the next step in the ritual.
• par ("bull of", H6499) — masculine singular construct, joining directly to cha.Tat to form the phrase "bull of the sin offering," specifying the animal's ritual function.
• cha.Tat ("sin offering", H2403H) — feminine singular noun naming the category of offering; construct chain with par identifies which bull is meant.
• 'a.Sher-l.o ("which is for himself", H0834A + H9005 + H9033) — relative particle plus prepositional phrase with pronominal suffix, marking the bull as belonging to Aaron's own atonement, not the people's.
• khi.Per ("he will make atonement", H3722A) — piel sequential perfect, intensive stem denoting the act of atonement itself; continues the sequence begun by hik.Riv.

What the text says

The verse is built as two sequential clauses joined by narrative vav: ve.hik.Riv ("and he will present") and ve.khi.Per ("and he will make atonement"). Both verbs are in the sequential perfect, a form that signals continuation of a narrative or instructional chain rather than isolated statements — each action follows logically and temporally from what precedes it in the chapter's ritual instructions.

The object of the first verb is expressed through a construct chain: par ha.cha.Tat ("the bull of the sin offering"), followed by the relative clause 'a.Sher-l.o ("which is for himself"). This clause clarifies that the animal belongs specifically to Aaron's own atonement, distinguishing it from offerings made later in the chapter on behalf of the people. The double phrase ba.'a.D.o... u.ve.'ad bei.t.o ("for himself... and for his household") uses the preposition ba.'ad (H1157) twice, each time with a pronominal suffix, structurally pairing Aaron's personal atonement with that of his household as two distinct but linked objects of the same verb khi.Per.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders cha.Tat ("sin offering") with the phrase τὸν περὶ τῆς ἁμαρτίας αὐτοῦ ("concerning his sin"), making explicit with αὐτοῦ ("his") what the Hebrew relative clause 'a.Sher-l.o already conveys. The Vulgate compresses the second verb khi.Per ("make atonement") into oraverit ("he shall have prayed"), a different semantic field than the Hebrew's ritual atonement action or the LXX's ἐξιλάσεται ("he will make atonement/propitiate").