Leviticus 4:26

Summary

The verse describes the ritual disposal of the fat from a purification offering: it is burned on the altar following the same procedure as the peace offering. The priest then performs an atonement act on behalf of the offerer, resulting in forgiveness of the offerer's sin.

Key words

• yaqTir ("he will make smoke", H6999A) — Hiphil imperfect, causative form: the priest causes the fat to go up in smoke; the imperfect aspect marks this as the ongoing/prescribed ritual action.
• chelvo ("its fat", H2459 + H9023) — construct noun with pronominal suffix "its," referring back to the sacrificial animal's fat as the object burned.
• kiPer ("he will make atonement", H3722A) — Piel (intensive stem) sequential perfect; the intensive stem marks a specific ritual action of atonement, and the sequential perfect continues the narrative chain begun by the imperfect verb.
• nisLach ("it will be forgiven", H5545) — Niphal (passive) sequential perfect: the passive voice removes the grammatical agent, so the text states forgiveness occurs without naming who forgives.
• chattaTo ("his sin", H2403B + H9023) — construct noun with suffix, the specific sin/sin-offering belonging to the offerer, object of the atonement action.

What the text says

The verse opens with a waw-conjunctive clause (ve'et kol-chelvo, "and all its fat") marked by the direct object marker 'et (H0853), signaling that "all its fat" is the object of the verb yaqTir ("he will make smoke," H6999A). The Hiphil stem of this verb is causative — the subject (the priest, understood from context) causes the fat to become smoke on hammizbeChah ("the altar," H4196) with the directional he suffix (H9011) indicating motion "toward" or "onto" the altar. The comparison clause kechelev zevach hashelaMim ("like the fat of the sacrifice of the peace offerings") uses two chained construct nouns (H2459, H2077) to establish that this fat-burning procedure follows the same pattern as the peace offering ritual described elsewhere.

The verse then shifts into narrative sequence with the vav-conjunctive marked as "narrative vav" (H9001) attached to two verbs in sequential perfect: kiPer ("he will make atonement," H3722A) and nisLach ("it will be forgiven," H5545). The Piel stem of kiPer is grammatically intensive, marking a distinct, deliberate ritual action performed by hakkoHen ("the priest," H3548) "on him" ('aLav, preposition + suffix, H5921A) and stemming "from his sin" (mechattaTo, H2403B + H9023). The final verb, nisLach, is Niphal — a passive/reflexive stem — which structurally omits any named agent of forgiveness; the Hebrew grammar simply states that forgiveness "happens to him" (lo, H9005 + H9033) without specifying who forgives.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders kiPer as "rogabitque... sacerdos" ("the priest will petition/intercede"), a different verbal image than the Hebrew's intensive "make atonement," and separates "pro eo" (for him) from "pro peccato ejus" (for his sin) as two distinct prepositional objects, where the Hebrew has one phrase "mechattaTo" (from his sin). The LXX uses ἐξιλάσεται ("will propitiate/atone"), closer to the Hebrew's ritual sense, and ἀφεθήσεται ("will be released/forgiven"), a passive verb matching the Hebrew Niphal nisLach in leaving the agent unstated.