Leviticus 4:6

Summary

The verse describes the priest dipping his finger in the blood and sprinkling it seven times before Yehovah, in the direction of the curtain of the holy place. It forms part of the sin-offering ritual procedure, specifying the manner and number of the blood application.

Key words

• ta.Val ("he will dip", H2881) — qal sequential perfect, continuing the narrative chain of ritual actions begun in the preceding verse.
• hi.Zah ("he will spatter", H5137A) — hiphil (causative) sequential perfect: the priest causes the blood to scatter/sprinkle, distinct from the simple dipping action.
• 'etz.ba.' ("finger", H0676) — feminine singular construct, bound to the suffix O ("his"), giving "his finger."
• pe.'a.Mim ("times", H6471) — masculine plural, paired with She.va' ("seven", H7651) to specify the exact count of sprinklings.
• pa.Ro.khet ("curtain of", H6532) — feminine singular construct, bound to ha.Ko.desh ("the holy place", H6944G), naming the specific structure toward which the blood is directed.

What the text says

The verse is built on two sequential verbs, ta.Val ("he will dip", H2881) and hi.Zah ("he will spatter", H5137A), both marked as sequential perfects that continue the action begun earlier in the chapter. The first verb is a simple (qal) action — dipping the finger 'etz.ba.' ("finger", H0676) into the blood Dam ("blood", H1818). The second verb shifts to the hiphil stem, marking a causative nuance: the priest does not merely touch or apply the blood but causes it to scatter through repeated motion.

The phrase She.va' pe.'a.Mim ("seven times", H7651 + H6471) quantifies the action precisely, while the double use of li-fnei ("before", H9005+H6440G) and 'et-pe.nei ("with the face of", H0854+H6440G) creates a spatial structure: the sprinkling occurs "before Yehovah" (li-fnei Yehovah) and specifically oriented "toward the face of" the pa.Ro.khet ha.Ko.desh ("curtain of the holy place", H6532+H6944G). The repetition of pe.nei ("face of") in construct form for both Yehovah's presence and the curtain's surface links the divine presence with the physical barrier of the sanctuary, though the Hebrew text does not explain this relationship beyond the grammatical parallel.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders hi.Zah ("he will spatter", H5137A) with προσρανεῖ, a comparable sprinkling verb, and translates the double pe.nei construction more simply as ἔναντι κυρίου ("before the Lord") and κατὰ τὸ καταπέτασμα ("toward the curtain"), collapsing the Hebrew's repeated construct phrase pe.nei into a single directional sense. The Vulgate similarly simplifies with "coram Domino contra velum," not preserving the Hebrew's twofold use of "face of" (pe.nei) for both Yehovah and the curtain.