Leviticus 24:9
וְהָֽיְתָה לְאַהֲרֹן וּלְבָנָיו וַאֲכָלֻהוּ בְּמָקוֹם קָדֹשׁ כִּי קֹדֶשׁ קָֽדָשִׁים הוּא לוֹ מֵאִשֵּׁי יְהוָה חָק־עוֹלָֽם׃ ס
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וְהָֽיְתָה֙ לְאַהֲרֹ֣ן וּלְבָנָ֔יו וַאֲכָלֻ֖הוּ בְּמָק֣וֹם קָדֹ֑שׁ כִּ֡י קֹדֶשׁ֩ קָֽדָשִׁ֨ים ה֥וּא ל֛וֹ מֵאִשֵּׁ֥י יְהוָ֖ה חָק־עוֹלָֽם׃ ס
καὶ ἔσται λάρων καὶ τοῖς υἱοῖς αὐτοῦ, καὶ φάγονται αὐτὰ ἐν τόπῳ ἁγίῳ· ἔστιν γὰρ ἅγια τῶν ἁγίων τοῦτο αὐτῶν ἀπὸ τῶν θυσιαζομένων τῷ κυρίῳ, νόμιμον αὐώνιον.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
eruntque Aaron et filiorum ejus, ut comedant eos in loco sancto: quia Sanctum sanctorum est de sacrificiis Domini jure perpetuo.
El pan le pertenecerá a Aarón y a sus hijos, quienes se lo comerán en un lugar sagrado. De las ofrendas hechas por fuego a Yehová, esta será la porción más santa para ellos, por reglamento perpetuo”.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y será de Aarón y de sus hijos, los cuales lo comerán en el lugar santo; porque es cosa muy santa para él, de las ofrendas encendidas á Jehová, por fuero perpetuo.
It belongs to Aaron and his sons, who are to eat it in a holy place; for it is to him a most holy part of the offerings made by fire to the LORD — his portion forever.” Punishment for Blasphemy
✦ What the text says
Summary
Leviticus 24:9 assigns the bread previously described (the lechem panim / bread of the presence, referenced here only by pronominal suffixes) to Aaron and his sons, to be eaten in a holy place. The verse grounds this rule by declaring the bread "a holy thing of holy things" drawn from the fire offerings of Yehovah (H3068G), and calls it a fixed, perpetual portion.
Key words
- hayTah ("it will belong", H1961) — qal sequential perfect, 3rd fem. sing., continuing the narrative chain begun with the preceding verses; the subject (the bread) is not repeated here, only implied.
- 'akhaLu ("they will eat", H0398) — qal sequential perfect, 3rd masc. plur., with the object suffix hu ("it", H9033) attached, referring back to the bread as a single collective item.
- koDesh ("holy thing of", H6944G) + qadaShim ("holy things", H6944G) — a construct chain (noun + noun in the same root) forming a superlative expression, literally "holiness of holinesses."
- 'ishei ("fire offerings of", H0801) — masculine plural construct, linking the bread's holiness to the category of offerings burned for Yehovah.
- choq-oLam ("a prescribed portion of perpetuity", H2706H + H5769G) — construct pair meaning a permanently fixed allotment, not a one-time grant.
What the text says
The verse is built on two sequential perfects — hayTah ("it will belong") and 'akhaLu ("they will eat") — both continuing a narrative chain from what precedes, which is why the subject (the bread) appears only as a pronominal suffix (hu, "it") rather than as an explicit noun in this verse. The clause introduced by ki ("for", H3588A) gives the reason for restricting consumption to a holy place: the item is qoDesh qadaShim, a construct doubling of the same root that intensifies the sense of holiness ("holy of holies" as an expression, not a location). The phrase mei-'ishei Yehovah ("from the fire offerings of Yehovah") ties this bread to the broader category of items burned for Yehovah, and choq-oLam marks the arrangement as a fixed, recurring allotment rather than an occasional gift.
Differences between versions
The Hebrew lo ("to him", H9005+H9033) is grammatically singular, even though it follows references to Aaron and his sons (plural). The LXX renders this with autōn ("of them"), a plural pronoun matching the plural recipients, where the Hebrew retains the singular form. The Vulgate omits an equivalent pronoun altogether, stating simply "quia Sanctum sanctorum est de sacrificiis Domini," without reproducing either the Hebrew singular or the LXX plural reference.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.