Leviticus 23:18

Summary

The verse specifies the animal offerings to be presented alongside the bread mentioned earlier in the chapter: seven lambs, one bull, and two rams, all designated as a burnt offering to Yehovah, accompanied by grain and drink offerings, and described as a fire offering of pleasing odor.

Key words

• hikravTem ("you will present", H7126) — hiphil causative verb in sequential perfect, continuing the narrative chain of priestly instructions; the causative form implies bringing something forward for offering, addressed to "you all" (plural).
• temiMim ("unblemished", H8549) — masculine plural adjective modifying the lambs, marking a qualitative requirement rather than a numerical one.
• yihYu ("they will be", H1961) — qal imperfect, third person masculine plural, indicating the ongoing/future status of the animals once designated as offering.
• olAh ("a burnt offering", H5930) — feminine singular noun naming the offering category into which the lambs, bull, and rams are classified.
• reiach niChoach ("odor of soothing", H7381 + H5207) — construct chain describing the quality of the fire offering, a fixed phrase pairing "odor" with "soothing/pleasing."

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with the sequential verb hikravTem ("you will present," H7126), continuing a chain of instructions begun earlier in the chapter with the vav-conjunction (H9001) attached. The direct object is introduced by 'al ("with," H5921), governing "the bread" (ha-Lechem, H3899), which sets up the animals as accompaniments to that bread rather than independent offerings. The list of animals follows in construct chains: "seven of lambs" (shiv'At kevaSim, H7651 + H3532), qualified by temiMim ("unblemished," H8549) and further specified as "sons of a year" (beNei shaNah, H1121 + H8141), a construct phrase meaning yearling animals. The bull is similarly specified as ben-baKar ("young one of the herd," H1121 + H1241), and the rams are counted with the dual-form numeral sheNayim ("two," H8147).

The verb yihYu ("they will be," H1961) in qal imperfect shifts the grammatical subject to the animals themselves, declaring their collective status as olAh ("burnt offering," H5930) dedicated la-Yehovah ("to Yehovah," H3068). The following nouns minchaTam ("their grain offering," H4503) and nisKeihem ("their drink offerings," H5262), both in construct with third-person plural suffixes (H9028), attach accompanying elements to the burnt offering. The final construct chain 'iSheh reiach-niChoach ("fire offering, odor of soothing," H0801 + H7381 + H5207) describes the sensory/qualitative designation of the whole offering, repeated with la-Yehovah at the close.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders hikravTem ("you will present," H7126, second person plural) as προσάξει (third person singular, "he will present"), shifting the grammatical subject from a plural "you" to a singular unspecified agent. The Vulgate follows the Hebrew's plural address with offeretis ("you will offer"). The LXX also renders par ben-baKar ("a bull, young one of the herd," H6499 + H1121 + H1241) as μόσχον ἕνα ἐκ βουκολίου ("one calf from the herd"), adding the numeral "one" explicitly, whereas in Hebrew the singularity is conveyed separately by 'eChad ("one," H0259).