Leviticus 4:31

Summary

The verse describes the priest removing all the fat from the offering in the same manner as with the peace offering, burning it on the altar as a pleasing aroma to Yehovah, and then performing atonement so that the offerer is forgiven. The sentence is built as a chain of sequential actions culminating in a passive statement of forgiveness.

Key words

• chelbah ("its fat", H2459 + H9024) — construct noun with pronominal suffix, marking the fat as belonging to the specific animal just sacrificed.
• yasir ("he will remove", H5493G) — hiphil (causative) imperfect; the priest causes the fat to be taken away.
• husar ("it was removed", H5493G) — hophal (causative passive) perfect of the same root as yasir, describing a standard, already-established procedure used as the point of comparison.
• hiqtir ("he will make [it] smoke", H6999A) — hiphil sequential perfect; continues the narrative chain, denoting the causative act of turning the fat into smoke on the altar.
• nislach ("it will be forgiven", H5545) — niphal (passive) sequential perfect; the final link in the chain, stating the result without naming an agent.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is structured as a series of verbs linked by the narrative vav (rule 16, 28, 34), each in the sequential perfect form after an initial imperfect (yasir). This chain — remove, burn, atone, be forgiven — presents the ritual as one continuous, ordered procedure rather than a list of separate commands. The comparison clause ka'asher husar chelev me'al zevach ha-shelamim ("just as the fat was removed from the sacrifice of the peace offering") uses a hophal (passive) verb, husar, to describe the removal as a fixed, generalized practice, contrasted with the active hiphil yasir that applies specifically to this offering.

The final verb, nislach ("it will be forgiven", H5545), is niphal, a passive form that does not specify who forgives. This differs grammatically from the preceding verb kipper ("he will make atonement", H3722A), which is active (piel) with the priest as explicit subject. The grammar thus separates the priest's action (atoning) from the resulting state (being forgiven), the latter left without a stated agent in the Hebrew text.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders kipper ("he will make atonement", H3722A) as "rogabitque" ("he will pray/intercede"), while the LXX uses ἐξιλάσεται ("he will propitiate/atone"), closer to the Hebrew piel sense of performing atonement. For nislach ("it will be forgiven", H5545), both the LXX (ἀφεθήσεται) and the Vulgate (dimittetur) preserve the passive construction found in the Hebrew niphal, without naming an agent.