Leviticus 23:16

Summary

The verse instructs counting fifty days up to the day after the seventh shabbat, after which a new grain offering is to be presented to Yehovah. The sentence combines a temporal count with a resulting cultic action expressed through a verb chain.

Key words

• mo.cho.Rat ("[the] next day of", H4283) — feminine singular construct noun, meaning it must attach to what follows ("the next day of the sabbath"), marking the endpoint of the count.
• sha.Bat ("sabbath", H7676) — feminine singular noun with the definite article ha (H9009), further qualified by the ordinal she.vi.'It ("seventh", H7637), specifying which sabbath is meant.
• tis.pe.Ru ("you will count", H5608A) — qal imperfect, second person plural masculine, expressing an ongoing or repeated action of counting extending toward a future point.
• hik.rav.Tem ("you will present", H7126H) — hiphil (causative) sequential perfect, second person plural masculine, connected to the previous verb by the vav (H9001) that carries the narrative forward as a consequence.
• min.Chah ("a grain offering", H4503G) — feminine singular noun, modified by cha.da.Shah ("new", H2319H), an adjective agreeing in gender and number, specifying the offering's freshness.

What the text says

The clause opens with the preposition 'ad ("until", H5704) combined with mi ("from", H9006) prefixed to mo.cho.Rat, forming the compound sense "until from the next day of" — a construction that marks the terminal point of a count reaching back from a starting reference. The construct chain mo.cho.Rat ha.sha.Bat ha.she.vi.'It links "next day," "the sabbath," and "the seventh" into a single phrase identifying a specific day.

The main verb tis.pe.Ru is qal imperfect, indicating the counting action unfolds over time toward the stated fifty days (cha.mi.Shim yom, H2572 + H3117G). The following verb hik.rav.Tem is a hiphil sequential perfect, a verb form that in Biblical Hebrew narrative and legal sequences continues the temporal or logical flow begun by the imperfect — here presenting the offering as the action that follows once the counting is complete. The hiphil stem itself carries a causative nuance ("cause to come near / bring near"), consistent with cultic presentation language. The object min.Chah cha.da.Shah ("a new grain offering") is directed la.Yah.weh ("to Yehovah," H9005 + H3068G), marking the recipient of the offering.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders mo.cho.Rat ha.sha.Bat ha.she.vi.'It as "the next day of the last week" (τῆς ἐσχάτης ἑβδομάδος, "of the last week"), using "week" where the Hebrew has "sabbath" (sha.Bat, H7676) qualified by "seventh." The Vulgate similarly interprets the phrase as "the day after the completion of the seventh week" (expletionis hebdomadæ septimæ), also using "week" rather than "sabbath," and adds the explanatory phrase "that is, fifty days" (id est, quinquaginta dies), which is not present in the Hebrew wording at this point.