Leviticus 23:36

Summary

The verse closes the Sukkot festival calendar by prescribing seven days of fire offerings to Yehovah, followed by a distinct eighth day marked by a sacred convocation, an additional fire offering, and a prohibition on ordinary labor. The eighth day is given its own designation, 'atzeret ("solemn assembly", H6116), separate from the seven-day sequence.

Key words

• shiv.'At ("seven", H7651) — construct form linking directly to yamim, setting the time frame "seven of days" for the offering command.
• tak.Ri.vu ("you will present", H7126) — hiphil imperfect, second person plural; the causative stem indicates the worshippers cause the offering to be brought near, with imperfect aspect marking ongoing/repeated action across the seven days.
• sh'mi.Ni ("eighth", H8066) — ordinal number marking the day as numerically distinct from the preceding seven, introduced with the definite article ha ("the").
• hik.rav.Tem ("you will present", H7126) — same hiphil root as tak.Ri.vu, but here a sequential perfect (vav-consecutive), continuing the narrative chain into the eighth-day action.
• 'a.Tze.ret ("solemn assembly", H6116) — feminine singular noun, paired with the pronoun hi' ("it", H1931) to affirm identity: "it [is] an 'atzeret."

What the text says

The verse divides grammatically into two parallel units. The first unit uses tak.Ri.vu, a hiphil imperfect, to command the seven-day offering pattern; the construct phrase shiv.'At yamim ("seven of days") functions adverbially, specifying duration before the verb. The second unit shifts to hik.rav.Tem, a vav-consecutive perfect that grammatically continues the instruction sequence into the eighth day, despite that day being conceptually separate. This verbal shift (imperfect → sequential perfect) is a feature of Biblical Hebrew narrative-legal style, where the vav-consecutive maintains temporal/logical continuity even across a structural break in content.

The eighth day itself receives a double marking: it is called mikra' qodesh ("a convocation of holiness", H4744 construct + H6944) and separately identified as 'atzeret ("solemn assembly", H6116), reinforced by the pronoun hi' ("it", H1931), which grammatically underscores that this day carries its own distinct identity — "it is an 'atzeret" — rather than simply being the last day of the seven. The closing clause, kol-melekhet 'avodah lo' ta'asu ("any work of servitude you will not do"), uses a construct chain (melekhet + 'avodah) to specify a category of labor, negated by lo' with the qal imperfect ta'asu.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders 'esheh ("fire offering", H0801) as holokautōmata ("whole burnt offerings"), a more specific term than the Hebrew's general fire-offering vocabulary. Where the Hebrew states 'atzeret hi' ("it is a solemn assembly"), the LXX reads exodion estin ("it is a departure/conclusion"), a distinct concept emphasizing closure rather than assembly. The Vulgate's cœtus atque collectæ ("gathering and assembly") combines two terms, expanding the single Hebrew noun 'atzeret into a doubled expression.