Leviticus 4:28

Summary

The verse describes the case of an individual who becomes aware of a sin he has committed and must then bring a female goat without blemish as his offering for that sin. The Hebrew structure links the moment of realization to the obligation to bring a specific animal offering.

Key words

• ho.Da' ("it has been made known", H3045) — hophal (causative passive) perfect: the sin is not discovered by the person's own initiative but "is made known to him" from outside; the passive causative form places the subject as recipient of the knowledge rather than agent of discovery.
• cha.ta.T ("sin", H2403B) — feminine singular construct, appearing twice (once per verse-half), each time bound to the suffix -o ("his"), producing "his sin" in both the identification clause and the offering clause.
• cha.Ta' ("he has sinned", H2398) — qal perfect, repeated twice, describing the completed act of sinning that underlies both mentions of cha.ta.T.
• he.Vi' ("he will bring", H0935P) — hiphil sequential perfect, continuing the narrative chain begun by ho.Da': once the sin is known, the causative action of "bringing" follows as the next link in the sequence.
• se.'i.Rat ("a female goat of", H8166) — feminine singular construct joined to 'i.Zim ("goats", H5795), specifying the exact animal category, further qualified by te.mi.Mah ("unblemished", H8549G) and ne.ke.Vah ("a female", H5347).

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with the conjunction 'o ("or", H0176A), tying this case to a preceding alternative scenario, then moves to the hophal perfect ho.Da', a passive causative form indicating that the sin "is made known" to the person — the grammar itself encodes an external disclosure rather than self-recognition. This clause is followed by chata'to 'asher chata', literally "his sin which he sinned," a construct chain reinforced by the qal perfect cha.Ta', emphasizing the completed, factual nature of the offense.

The narrative vav on ve.he.Vi' marks the sequential consequence: once knowledge occurs, the hiphil form he.Vi' ("he will bring") continues the action chain, a causative verb showing the subject actively causing the offering to be brought. The offering itself, korbano ("his offering," construct with suffix), is specified through a chain of feminine singular terms — se.'i.Rat 'i.Zim, te.mi.Mah, ne.ke.Vah — stacking descriptors (goat-kind, unblemished, female) onto the required animal. The clause closes by repeating 'al-chata'to 'asher chata', mirroring the opening identification of the sin and framing the offering as directly tied to that specific, already-completed transgression.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders ho.Da' with γνωσθῇ ("it becomes known"), matching the passive sense of the Hebrew hophal, and adds ἐν αὐτῇ ("in it/by it") after "the sin," a phrase not present in the Hebrew construct chain. The Vulgate condenses the passage, omitting the second occurrence of "his sin which he sinned" and the term for "female" (ne.ke.Vah), stating simply offeret capram immaculatam ("he shall offer an unblemished she-goat"), without repeating the sin-identification clause found twice in the Hebrew.