Leviticus 2:5

Summary

Leviticus 2:5 introduces a conditional case within the instructions for grain offerings: if the offering (minchah, H4503G) is prepared on a baking tray (machavat, H4227), it must be made of fine flour (solet, H5560) mixed (belulah, H1101A) with oil, and it must be unleavened (matzah, H4682).

Key words

• minchah ("grain offering", H4503G) — feminine singular noun naming the offering type under discussion.
• machavat ("baking tray", H4227) — feminine singular noun with definite article ha- (H9009), specifying the cooking implement.
• qorbanekha — qorban ("offering/present", H7133A) in construct form plus 2nd person masculine singular suffix -kha (H9021), meaning "your offering."
• belulah ("mixed", H1101A) — Qal passive participle, feminine singular, describing the flour as having undergone mixing (a completed state, not an ongoing action).
• tihyeh ("it will be", H1961) — Qal imperfect, 3rd feminine singular, placed at the very end of the verse, giving the clause a forward-looking or prescriptive force.

What the text says

The verse opens with the conjunction ve ("and", H9002) plus the conditional particle 'im ("if", H0518A), marking this as one case among several offering types described in the surrounding chapter. The phrase minchah 'al-hamachavat ("a grain offering on the baking tray") identifies the cooking method. Notably, the word qorbanekha ("your offering") appears after this phrase rather than before it — the Hebrew word order places the general term "offering" between the specific cooking description and the further specification "your," creating a kind of apposition: the tray-prepared minchah is restated as "your qorban."

The ingredients follow: solet ("fine flour", H5560) belulah ("mixed", H1101A) ba-shemen ("with the oil", H8081 + H9003). The participle belulah is passive, describing the flour as already in a mixed state rather than describing an action being performed. The clause ends with matzah tihyeh — "unleavened it will be" — with the predicate noun matzah placed before the verb tihyeh, an imperfect form (H1961) that carries a sense of ongoing requirement or future certainty rather than a simple present statement.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the final clause as ἄζυμά ἐστιν ("it is unleavened"), using a present-tense verb (ἐστιν) where the Hebrew has the imperfect tihyeh ("it will be"), shifting the verse's stated aspect from a forward-looking requirement to a simple present description. Additionally, the LXX uses ἀπὸ τηγάνου ("from a pan") where the Hebrew uses the preposition 'al ("on/upon", H5921A) with machavat, describing the same implement but with a different spatial relation (source "from" versus surface "on"). The Vulgate's de sartagine ("from a frying-pan") follows the LXX's "from" construction rather than the Hebrew's "on."