Leviticus 19:6

Summary

The verse regulates the timing for consuming a sacrificial offering: it must be eaten on the day of sacrifice or the following day, while anything remaining until the third day must be destroyed by fire.

Key words

• ziv.cha ("sacrifice", H2077) — construct noun paired with the suffix khem ("your"), forming "the sacrifice of you (plural)," anchoring the timing rule to the act of offering by the community.
• ye.'a.Khel ("it will be eaten", H0398) — niphal imperfect, a passive verbal form indicating the meat "will be eaten" without specifying who eats it, marking permission/expectation extending into the near future.
• mo.cho.Rat ("the next day", H4283) — feminine singular noun preceded by mi ("from", H9006), literally "from the next day," extending the eating window to a second day.
• no.Tar ("what remains", H3498) — niphal participle, functioning as a substantive ("the one/thing remaining"), naming the leftover portion as a category requiring action.
• yi.sa.Ref ("it will be burned", H8313) — niphal imperfect, parallel in form to ye.'a.Khel, another passive verb describing the mandated destruction by fire.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built around two passive (niphal) imperfect verbs, ye.'a.Khel ("it will be eaten", H0398) and yi.sa.Ref ("it will be burned", H8313), which frame the entire verse and create a temporal contrast: what happens within the permitted period versus what happens afterward. The construct chain be.yom ziv.cha.khem ("on the day of your sacrifice") ties the timeframe directly to the act of sacrificing, using the day of the offering as the reference point from which the following day (mi.mo.cho.rat, H4283) is counted.

The participle no.Tar ("what remains", H3498) functions grammatically as a noun ("the remainder"), a common niphal participle usage in Hebrew where a passive form names the resulting object rather than describing an ongoing action. This "remainder" is then subject to the second passive verb, yi.sa.Ref, creating a structural parallel: eaten matter is acted upon by ye.'a.Khel, leftover matter is acted upon by yi.sa.Ref. Neither verb names an agent, leaving the responsible party (presumably those participating in the sacrifice) implicit through the grammar of the niphal.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the sentence with subjunctive/conditional constructions (ἐὰν καταλειφθῇ, "if it should be left"), framing the disposal of leftovers as a conditional scenario, whereas the Hebrew presents no.Tar ("what remains", H3498) as a definite participial noun without an "if" clause. The Vulgate uses active verb forms (comedetis, "you shall eat"; comburetis, "you shall burn"), explicitly supplying "you" as the subject, in contrast to the Hebrew's impersonal passive (niphal) constructions that leave the agent unstated.