Leviticus 16:9

Summary

The verse describes Aaron presenting the goat designated "for Yehovah" by the casting of lots (described in the preceding verse), and then making it into a chattat ("sin offering", H2403). The action is expressed as a sequence: first the presentation, then the offering.

Key words

• hikriv ("he will present", H7126H) — hiphil (causative) form of the root meaning "to come near": Aaron does not merely bring the goat, he causes it to come near, i.e., brings it forward for a ritual act.
• sa'ir ("male goat", H8163B) — the direct object, marked by 'et (H0853), identified further by the relative clause that follows.
• goral ("lot", H1486) — the subject of the relative clause; it is the lot, not Aaron, that is grammatically said to "come up" ('alah, H5927G) upon the goat.
• la-YHWH (H9005 + H3068G) — the preposition la ("for/to") attached to the divine name, marking the goat as the one allotted for Yehovah.
• chattat ("a sin offering", H2403H) — a feminine singular noun functioning as the resulting classification of the goat after the verb 'asah ("he will offer/make", H6213A) is applied to it.

What the text says

The clause opens with the sequential verb ve-hikriv ("and he will present"), placing Aaron as the grammatical subject who performs the presentation. The object is ha-sa'ir ("the male goat", H8163B with definite article H9009), immediately qualified by a relative clause: 'asher 'alah 'alav ha-goral ("which the lot came up upon it"). In this relative clause, the subject is ha-goral ("the lot", H1486), and the verb 'alah ("it came up", H5927G) is qal perfect, describing a completed action — the lot's ascent or falling upon the goat, with the pronominal suffix on 'alav ("upon it/him", H5921A + H9033) referring back to the goat.

The phrase la-YHWH attaches to this same clause, marking the destination or purpose of the lot's result: the goat that received this lot is "for Yehovah." The second half of the verse continues with another sequential verb, ve-'asahu ("and he will make/offer it", H6213A with object suffix H9033 "it"), whose object is again the goat via the pronominal suffix. The final word, chattat ("sin offering", H2403H), stands without a preposition, functioning as a predicate complement — the goat is made into a chattat, rather than simply being offered "as" one through an explicit preposition in the Hebrew syntax.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders hikriv with prosaxei ("he will bring forward") and 'asah with prosoisei ("he will offer"), both future-tense verbs, paralleling the Hebrew's two sequential actions but using different Greek roots for each, whereas the Hebrew uses two distinct roots (qrb and 'sh) as well. The Vulgate (VULCLEM) preserves only the second half of the verse as quoted here (offeret illum pro peccato, "he will offer it for sin"), rendering chattat with the prepositional phrase pro peccato ("for sin") rather than as a direct predicate noun as in the Hebrew.