Leviticus 4:16

Summary

The verse describes the anointed priest bringing a portion of the bull's blood into the Tent of Meeting. This action continues a sequence of ritual steps following an unspecified prior offense or offering described earlier in Leviticus 4.

Key words

• ve.hevi' ("and he will bring", H9001+H0935P) — narrative vav attached to a hiphil sequential perfect; the hiphil stem marks a causative action (the priest causes the blood to be brought/enters with it), and the sequential perfect links this act to the preceding verses in the ritual sequence.
• ha.kohen ("the priest", H3548) — masculine singular noun with definite article, identifying the specific officiant.
• ha.mashiach ("the anointed", H4899) — masculine singular noun with definite article, functioning here as a descriptor of the priest, specifying his anointed status rather than naming a separate figure.
• dam ("blood of", H1818) — construct form, meaning it must be followed by another noun to complete its sense ("blood of the bull"); the construct chain ties the blood directly to its source animal.
• 'ohel ("tent of", H0168G) — construct form paired with mo'ed ("meeting", H4150I), together forming the fixed phrase "tent of meeting," the designated structure where the blood is brought.

What the text says

The verse opens with ve.hevi' ("and he will bring", H9001+H0935P), a hiphil verb marking causative action within a sequential perfect chain — grammatically signaling that this step follows directly from the ritual actions described in the preceding verses of the chapter. The subject is specified through two stacked definite nouns: ha.kohen ("the priest", H3548) and ha.mashiach ("the anointed", H4899), the second modifying the first as an adjectival description rather than introducing a new person.

The object of the bringing is expressed through the partitive preposition mi ("some of", H9006) attached to dam ("blood of", H1818), a construct noun requiring completion by ha.par ("the bull", H6499). This construction indicates that only a portion of the blood is taken, not all of it — the Hebrew grammar makes clear this is a partial quantity rather than the entire volume of blood from the bull.

The destination is marked by the preposition 'el ("into", H0413) followed by the construct phrase 'ohel mo'ed ("tent of meeting", H0168G+H4150I), a fixed technical term for the sanctuary structure. The construct chain functions as a single compound designation rather than two independent nouns in relation.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders dam ha.par ("blood of the bull") with the pronoun "ejus" ("its blood"), referring back to the bull mentioned in a prior verse rather than repeating the noun "bull" explicitly as the Hebrew, LXX, and modern translations do.