Leviticus 23:34

Summary

The verse instructs Moses to speak to the Israelites, announcing that on the fifteenth day of the seventh month begins the festival called chag ha-Sukkot ("the festival of booths", H2282/H5521), which lasts seven days dedicated to Yehovah.

Key words

• da.Ber ("speak", H1696G) — piel imperative, an intensive command form directing Moses to actively transmit speech to the people.
• be.Nei ("[the] people of", H1121G) — masculine plural construct, linking directly to Yisra'El, forming the phrase "the sons/people of Israel."
• chag ("[the] festival of", H2282) — masculine singular construct, grammatically bound to ha-Sukkot, producing "festival of the booths" as a fixed designation.
• shiv.'At ("seven", H7651) — cardinal number in construct state, joined to yamim ("days", H3117G) to form "seven of days" = "seven days."
• Yah.weh ("Yehovah", H3068G) — proper name preceded by the preposition la ("to"), marking the festival's dedication "to Yehovah."

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with the imperative da.Ber ("speak", H1696G) followed by the prepositional phrase 'el-be.Nei Yisra'El ("to the people of Israel"), then le.'Mor ("saying", H0559), an infinitive construct that introduces the reported speech—a common formula in legal/instructional passages where a command to speak is followed by the content of what is to be said.

The date is expressed through a construct chain: ba-chamishah 'asar yom ("on the fifteenth day") uses two cardinal numbers (chamishah, "five", and 'asar, "-teen") combined to form "fifteen," followed by yom ("day", H3117G). This is anchored to la-chodesh ha-shevi'i ha-zeh ("of this seventh month"), where the demonstrative zeh ("this", H2088) specifies the particular month being discussed within the calendar sequence established earlier in the chapter.

The festival name itself, chag ha-Sukkot ("festival of the booths"), uses a construct relationship where chag (H2282) governs ha-Sukkot (H5521), a feminine plural noun referring to temporary shelters. The duration formula shiv'at yamim ("seven of days") again uses construct state, a standard Hebrew pattern for expressing "X days" through the number-plus-noun construct chain. The final phrase la-YHWH ("to Yehovah") uses the preposition le (H9005) to indicate dedication or orientation toward the deity, without any verb specifying the nature of that dedication within this verse.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders chag ha-Sukkot as ἑορτὴ σκηνῶν ("festival of tents/tabernacles"), using σκηνῶν (tents) rather than a term specifically meaning "booths," though both refer to temporary structures. The Vulgate uses feriae tabernaculorum ("festivals/holidays of tabernacles"), plural feriae where the Hebrew has singular chag ("festival", H2282). The Vulgate also renders the seven-day clause as a separate independent statement ("erunt... septem diebus Domino") rather than preserving the construct-chain compactness of the Hebrew shiv'at yamim la-YHWH.