Leviticus 4:17

Summary

The verse describes the priest dipping his finger in the blood and sprinkling it seven times before Yehovah, directed toward the curtain (parokhet). This is a ritual action continuing a sequence of actions described in the preceding verses.

Key words

• ta.Val ("he will dip", H2881) — qal sequential perfect, continuing the narrative chain of prior actions performed by the priest.
• 'etz.ba.'o ("his finger", H0676) — feminine singular noun in construct with the pronominal suffix "his," specifying the instrument used for the ritual action.
• hi.Zah ("he will spatter [it]", H5137A) — hiphil (causative) sequential perfect; the causative stem indicates the priest causes the blood to scatter, distinct from a simple action verb.
• She.va' pe.'a.Mim ("seven times", H7651 + H6471) — cardinal number plus plural noun, quantifying the repeated sprinkling action.
• pa.Ro.khet ("curtain", H6532) — feminine singular noun, the object toward which the sprinkling is directed.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built on two sequential perfect verbs — ta.Val ("he will dip", H2881) and hi.Zah ("he will spatter [it]", H5137A) — both connected by the narrative vav (H9001), which continues a chain of ritual actions established earlier in the chapter. The sequential perfect form indicates that these actions follow logically and temporally from what precedes them in the ritual sequence.

The verb hi.Zah is in the hiphil stem, a causative form. This grammatical choice frames the priest not merely as one who flings blood, but as one who causes the blood to be scattered or sprinkled — the causative nuance is a feature of Hebrew verbal morphology that does not always carry over distinctly into translation.

The spatial description at the end of the verse uses two constructions with pe.nei / fe.nei ("face of" / "before", H6440G), both construct forms. The first, li-fnei Yehovah ("before the face of Yehovah"), indicates the general orientation of the action — toward Yehovah. The second, 'et pe.nei ha-parokhet ("with the face of the curtain"), specifies a further, more precise spatial target: the front of the curtain (parokhet, H6532). The repetition of the same noun (pe.nei, "face of") in two different construct phrases creates a layered spatial description — first the general divine orientation, then the specific physical object — a structure visible in the Hebrew syntax through the doubled construct noun.

Differences between versions

The LXX adds τοῦ μόσχου ("of the calf") after "the blood," specifying the source of the blood, which is not explicit in this Hebrew clause itself. The LXX also renders the curtain as τοῦ καταπετάσματος τοῦ ἁγίου ("the curtain of the holy place"), adding "holy" (ἁγίου) as a qualifier not present in the Hebrew parokhet (H6532) at this point. The Vulgate's contra velum ("against/toward the veil") condenses the two Hebrew construct phrases (li-fnei Yehovah and 'et pe.nei ha-parokhet) into a single spatial reference, omitting explicit mention of Yehovah in this clause.