Leviticus 17:6

Summary

The verse describes two priestly actions performed in sequence: the priest sprinkles the blood on the altar of Yehovah at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and then burns the fat as a pleasing odor for Yehovah. The Hebrew presents both actions as parts of one continuous ritual sequence.

Key words

• za.Rak ("he will sprinkle", H2236) — qal sequential perfect; continues a chain of actions begun earlier in the passage, functioning like a future/consecutive "and he will sprinkle."
• hik.Tir ("he will make smoke", H6999A) — hiphil (causative) sequential perfect; the causative stem indicates the priest causes the fat to go up in smoke, distinct from a simple burning.
• miz.Bach ("[the] altar of", H4196) — construct form, linking directly to Yehovah to form "altar of Yehovah."
• Pe.tach ("[the] entrance of", H6607) and 'O.hel ("[the] tent of", H0168G) — chained construct nouns building the phrase "entrance of the tent of meeting."
• Rei.ach ("an odor of", H7381) — construct noun paired with ni.Cho.ach ("soothing", H5207), forming the fixed expression "odor of soothing."

What the text says

The verse is built on two sequential perfect verbs, za.Rak ("he will sprinkle") and hik.Tir ("he will make smoke"), both governed by the narrative vav (H9001) that chains this verse to the preceding ritual instructions. The subject in both cases is ko.Hen ("the priest", H3548), marked with the definite article. The grammar treats the sprinkling of the blood and the burning of the fat as two stages of a single continuous procedure rather than separate, isolated commands.

The location of the first action is specified through a stack of construct nouns: miz.Bach ("altar of") + Yehovah, followed by Pe.tach ("entrance of") + 'O.hel ("tent of") + mo.'Ed ("meeting"). This construct chain narrows the location from the general altar of Yehovah down to the specific entrance of the tent of meeting, without needing additional prepositions beyond the initial 'al ("on", H5921A).

The second verb, hik.Tir, uses the hiphil stem, which is causative — the priest causes the fat (Che.lev, H2459) to rise as smoke, rather than simply "burning" it in a general sense. The result of this action is described through another construct pair, Rei.ach ("odor of") + ni.Cho.ach ("soothing"), governed by the preposition le ("to", H9005), and directed la.Yehovah ("to Yehovah").

Differences between versions

The LXX text given includes the phrase κύκλῳ ἀπέναντι ("round about, in front of") describing the altar's location, an element not present in the Hebrew word-by-word data, which moves directly from mizbach Yehovah to petach ohel mo'ed. Additionally, where the Hebrew reads Yehovah (H3068G) twice, the LXX text supplied here reads "Τυρίου" and "Τυρίῳ" in those positions rather than the expected κυρίου/κυρίῳ ("Lord"). The Vulgate and the Spanish/English translations (RV1909, SBLIBRE, BSB) follow the Hebrew construct structure closely, rendering "altar of the LORD" and "tent of meeting" without the added locational phrase found in the LXX.