Leviticus 5:8

Summary

The verse continues the procedure for an offering involving two birds: the offerer brings them to the priest, who first presents the bird designated as the chatat ("sin offering", H2403H), then nips its head at the neck without fully severing it.

Key words

• hiqriv ("he will present", H7126H) — hiphil sequential perfect; a causative verb marking the priest's formal act of bringing the bird forward for the ritual.
• chatat ("sin offering", H2403H) — feminine singular noun, here preceded by the preposition-article la- ("for the"), identifying which of the two birds receives priority treatment.
• rishonah ("first", H7223G) — feminine ordinal number agreeing with chatat, specifying sequence: this bird is handled before the other.
• malaq ("he will nip off", H4454) — qal sequential perfect; a technical ritual verb for a specific manual action on the bird's neck, distinct from slaughter terms used elsewhere.
• yavdil ("he will separate [it]", H0914) — hiphil imperfect, breaking the chain of sequential perfects; the imperfect form here marks a negated result/limit on the action rather than another sequential step.

What the text says

The verse is built on a chain of sequential perfect verbs — hevi ("he will bring", H0935P), hiqriv, malaq — each attached with the narrative vav (H9001), which in Biblical Hebrew legal/procedural texts marks consecutive steps in a single continuous action rather than separate independent events. This creates a sense of an ordered ritual sequence: bringing, presenting, nipping.

The phrase asher lachatat rishonah uses the relative particle asher (H0834A) with the preposition-article la- (H9005) and the ordinal rishonah (H7223G) to single out "the one that is for the sin offering, first" — grammatically marking which of two birds (implied by context, not visible in this verse alone) is handled first, without yet naming the second.

The final clause shifts grammatical aspect: lo yavdil ("he will not separate [it]", H0914) uses the imperfect rather than continuing the sequential perfect chain. This shift signals not a new sequential act but a qualifying restriction on the immediately preceding action of malaq — the head is nipped mimul orpo ("from in front of its neck", H4136 + H6203, both in construct form linking noun to pronominal suffix H9023 "its") but the separation must stop short of complete severance.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders malaq as ἀποκνίσει ("he will pinch off"), close to the Hebrew's specific manual sense, while the Vulgate uses retorquebit ("he will twist back"), a different physical description of the same action. The Vulgate also adds explanatory detail not in the Hebrew — ita ut collo hæreat ("so that it clings to the neck") — clarifying the result of lo yavdil, whereas the Hebrew and LXX (καὶ οὐ διελεῖ, "and he will not divide") state only the negative restriction without describing the resulting attachment.