Leviticus 3:11

Summary

The priest burns the sacrificial portions on the altar, described as "food" belonging to a "fire offering" for Yehovah. The verse closes the procedure of the peace/well-being offering by specifying the destination and character of what is burned.

Key words

• hikTir ("he will make smoke", H6999A) — hiphil (causative) verb: the priest causes the offering to go up in smoke; the hiphil stem marks this as an induced action, not something happening on its own. The attached suffix o ("it", H9033) marks the direct object being burned.
• koHen ("priest", H3548) — definite noun (with ha, H9009), identifying the human agent who performs the act.
• mizBecha ("altar", H4196) — definite noun with directional he (H9011) suffixed, giving the sense "toward/onto the altar," marking the altar as the goal of the action rather than merely its location.
• Lechem ("food of", H3899G) — construct noun, grammatically bound to the following word 'isheh, forming the phrase "food of a fire offering."
• 'isheh ("a fire offering", H0801) — absolute noun completing the construct chain; together with Lechem it characterizes what is placed on the altar.
• Yehovah (H3068G) — proper name preceded by the preposition la ("to", H9005), marking the recipient of the offering.

What the text says

The clause opens with the sequential verb veHikTiro ("and he will make it smoke"), combining the narrative ve (H9001) with the hiphil form hikTir and the object suffix o. This construction ties the sentence to the preceding verses describing the preparation of fat portions, and the hiphil stem specifically frames the priest as the one causing the offering material to rise as smoke, rather than the material burning by itself.

The phrase hakoHen hamizBecha places the definite priest as subject and the definite altar, marked with the directional he suffix, as the target of the action — literally "toward the altar." Following this, the construct chain Lechem 'isheh ("food of a fire offering") describes the nature of what is being sent up: the construct form binds Lechem to 'isheh, so the phrase functions as a single descriptive unit rather than two separate items. The final prepositional phrase la-Yehovah identifies the offering's recipient by attaching la directly to the divine name.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the sequence differently, adding the phrase "ὀσμὴ εὐωδίας" ("a scent of aroma"), an element not present in this reconstructed Hebrew wording, and rendering 'isheh as "κάρπωμα" ("offering"). The Vulgate translates Lechem 'isheh as "pabulum ignis et oblationis" ("fuel of fire and of offering"), separating what the Hebrew presents as a bound construct phrase into two coordinated nouns ("ignis et oblationis").