Leviticus 23:40
וּלְקַחְתֶּם לָכֶם בַּיּוֹם הָרִאשׁוֹן פְּרִי עֵץ הָדָר כַּפֹּת תְּמָרִים וַעֲנַף עֵץ־עָבֹת וְעַרְבֵי־נָחַל וּשְׂמַחְתֶּם לִפְנֵי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם שִׁבְעַת יָמִֽים׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וּלְקַחְתֶּ֨ם לָכֶ֜ם בַּיּ֣וֹם הָרִאשׁ֗וֹן פְּרִ֨י עֵ֤ץ הָדָר֙ כַּפֹּ֣ת תְּמָרִ֔ים וַעֲנַ֥ף עֵץ־עָבֹ֖ת וְעַרְבֵי־נָ֑חַל וּשְׂמַחְתֶּ֗ם לִפְנֵ֛י יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶ֖ם שִׁבְעַ֥ת יָמִֽים׃
καὶ λήμψεσθε τῇ πρώτῃ καρπὸν ξύλου ὡραῖον καὶ κάλλυνθρα φοινίκων καὶ κλάδους ξύλου δασεῖς καὶ ἰτέας καὶ ἄγνου κλάδους ἐκ χειμάρρου, εὐφρανθῆναι ἔναντι κυρίου τοῦ θεοῦ ὑμῶν ἑπτὰ ἡμέρας τοῦ ἐνιαυτοῦ·
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Sumetisque vobis die primo fructus arboris pulcherrimæ, spatulasque palmarum, et ramos ligni densarum frondium, et salices de torrente, et lætabimini coram Domino Deo vestro.
El primer día tomarán frutos de los árboles más hermosos, ramas de palmeras, ramas de árboles frondosos y sauces de los arroyos, y se alegrarán delante de Yehová su Dios durante siete días.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y tomaréis el primer día gajos con fruto de árbol hermoso, ramos de palmas, y ramas de árboles espesos, y sauces de los arroyos; y os regocijaréis delante de Jehová vuestro Dios por siete días.
On the first day you are to gather the fruit of majestic trees, the branches of palm trees, and the boughs of leafy trees and of willows of the brook. And you are to rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days.
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse instructs that on the first day (of a festival implied by the preceding sequence) the people are to take specific plant materials — fruit of a splendid tree, palm fronds, leafy branches, and willows from a wadi — and rejoice before Yehovah their God for seven days.
Key words
- lekachTem ("you will take", H3947G) — qal sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine plural; the vav-prefixed perfect continues a chain of commands from the preceding context rather than standing as an isolated statement.
- peri 'etz haDar ("fruit of tree of splendor", H6529/H6086/H1926) — a double construct chain: peri ("fruit of") governs 'etz ("tree of"), which is itself modified by the noun haDar ("splendor"), yielding "fruit of a tree of splendor."
- kapPot temaRim ("fronds of palm trees", H3709I/H8558) — construct noun (feminine plural) + plural noun, literally "palms/fronds of date-palms."
- 'arvei Nachal ("poplars/willows of a wadi", H6155H/H5158A) — construct plural noun governing Nachal ("wadi"), specifying the location of the tree.
- semachTem ("you will rejoice", H8055) — qal sequential perfect, 2nd masculine plural, paired with lekachTem as the second command in the sequence, followed by lifNei ("before", H6440G construct) YHWH.
What the text says
The Hebrew sentence is built on two sequential perfect verbs, lekachTem ("you will take") and semachTem ("you will rejoice"), both continuing a narrative/legal chain begun earlier with the vav-prefix (H9001). Between these two verbs sits a long series of construct chains naming the plant materials to be taken: peri 'etz haDar ("fruit of a tree of splendor"), kapPot temaRim ("fronds of palm trees"), 'anaf 'etz 'aVot ("branch of a leafy tree"), and 'arvei Nachal ("poplars/willows of a wadi"). Each item is expressed as a noun-of-noun construction rather than as adjective+noun, so the Hebrew syntax presents a list of "X of Y" phrases strung together with the conjunction va / ve (H9002). The second command, semachTem lifNei YHWH 'eloheiKhem, places the rejoicing "before the face of" (lifNei, construct of paNim) Yehovah, specified for shiv'At yaMim ("seven days", H7651/H3117G), a construct+plural noun pairing meaning "a week of days."
Differences between versions
The LXX renders peri 'etz haDar as καρπὸν ξύλου ὡραῖον, treating "splendor" as an adjective describing the fruit itself ("beautiful fruit") rather than the tree, whereas the Hebrew construct chain attaches haDar to 'etz ("tree of splendor"). The LXX also adds τοῦ ἐνιαυτοῦ ("of the year") after "seven days," a phrase without correspondence in the Hebrew shiv'At yaMim. For 'arvei Nachal, the LXX splits the single Hebrew term into ἰτέας καὶ ἄγνου κλάδους ("willows and branches of chaste-tree"), doubling the referent where the Hebrew has one construct phrase. The Vulgate's salices de torrente stays closer to a single-term rendering, matching the Hebrew's one-phrase structure more directly.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.