Leviticus 3:10

Summary

Leviticus 3:10 continues the list of fat portions that must be removed from a peace offering: both kidneys, the fat covering them and the fat near the loins, and the lobe attached to the liver. The verse closes the enumeration with a single verb stating that this material "he will remove."

Key words

• chelev ("fat", H2459) — the specific fatty tissue singled out for removal, distinct from ordinary flesh; appears twice, tied to two different relative clauses of location.
• she.tei ("[the] two", H8147) — feminine dual cardinal in construct state, syntactically binding to kelayot ("kidneys") to specify a paired anatomical item.
• yoteret ("lobe", H3508) — feminine singular noun naming the appendage of the liver; its gender matches the suffix on the final verb.
• 'asher ("which/that", H0834A) — relative particle used twice, each time introducing a locative clause ("which is on them," "which is on the loins") that specifies where the fat sits.
• yesirennah ("he will remove it", H5493G + H9034) — Hiphil (causative) imperfect verb with a feminine singular pronominal suffix, placed at the very end of the sentence after all the objects have been listed.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a chain of direct objects, each introduced by the object marker 'et (H0853): "the two kidneys," "the fat that is on them," "[the fat] that is on the loins," and "the lobe on the liver." Only after this entire list has been stated does the single finite verb yesirennah appear, governing all the preceding items at once. This verb-final structure is typical of priestly legal instruction: the objects to be handled are named first, and the action that applies to all of them is stated last, functioning almost like a summarizing clause.

The word kelayot ("kidneys") appears twice — once at the start of the list and once near the end, in "on the kidneys" — which frames the whole set of fat portions between the two kidney references. The verb's suffix, -nah (feminine singular, H9034), grammatically points back to the closest feminine singular noun, yoteret ("lobe"), even though the verb's action logically covers the whole list of items just enumerated. This is a feature of Hebrew concord that does not carry over cleanly into English translation, where translators must supply a plural pronoun ("them") to cover the full list.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the Hebrew kesalim ("loins", H3689) as "μηρίων" ("thighs"), a different body-region term than the Hebrew locative noun used here. The Vulgate's phrasing includes the clause "quae operit ventrem atque universa vitalia" ("which covers the belly and all the vital parts"), material not corresponding to any word in the Hebrew list of this verse, and it also reorders the items, placing "cum renibus" at the very start rather than following the Hebrew's kidney-framed sequence.