Leviticus 23:5

Summary

Leviticus 23:5 fixes the calendar date for the Passover offering: the fourteenth day of the first month, at the time called "between the evenings," designated as a pesach for Yehovah.

Key words

• Cho.desh ("month", H2320G) — appears twice (positions 2 and 9), anchoring the date first with the ordinal "first" and then with the cardinal "fourteen," a common Hebrew pattern for stating calendar dates.
• ri.Shon ("first", H7223G) — ordinal number, masculine singular, modifying Cho.desh to specify which month is meant.
• bein ("between", H0996G) — construct form meaning "between of," here governing the dual noun that follows; construct state signals a fixed grammatical link to the next word rather than an independent noun.
• 'ar.Ba.yim ("evenings", H6153) — masculine dual noun, literally "the two evenings" or "evenings" as a paired/dual form, forming with bein the phrase "between the evenings."
• Pe.sach ("a passover", H6453) — masculine singular noun functioning as a title for the offering/observance, followed by la- ("to") + Yehovah, marking the dedication of the pesach to Yehovah.

What the text says

The verse is built as a date formula followed by a naming clause. The first phrase, ba-Cho.desh ha-ri.Shon ("in the month, the first"), uses the article on both the noun and the ordinal, a standard Hebrew construction for "the first month." The second phrase, be-'ar.ba.'Ah 'a.Sar la-Cho.desh ("on fourteen to the month"), restates "month" with the preposition la- ("of/to"), giving the numeral day within that month — a construction where the day number is not grammatically bound to "month" but linked by the preposition.

The temporal phrase bein ha-'ar.Ba.yim ("between the evenings") uses bein in construct form governing the dual noun 'ar.Ba.yim. The dual form of "evening" does not specify a single sunset moment in the grammar itself; it indicates a paired or bounded time reference, glossed here as "evenings," which the construct "between" frames as an interval rather than a point.

The final clause, Pe.sach la-Yehovah, has no verb: it is a nominal sentence stating that this day/observance is a pesach "belonging to" or "for" Yehovah, using the preposition la- to express dedication or possession rather than describing an action.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders bein ha-'ar.Ba.yim as ἀνὰ μέσον τῶν ἑσπερινῶν ("between the evening [things/hours]"), keeping a plural/dual sense similar to the Hebrew dual. The Vulgate renders the same phrase as ad vesperum ("toward evening"), collapsing the dual "evenings" into a single evening reference. The BSB translation similarly simplifies to "at twilight," while RV1909 preserves the more literal "entre las dos tardes" ("between the two afternoons/evenings"), closer to the Hebrew dual construction.