Leviticus 6:13

Summary

The verse commands that a fire be kept burning continuously on the altar, with an explicit prohibition against letting it go out. It is formulated as two short clauses: a positive command about the fire burning, followed by a negative command that it not be extinguished.

Key words

• 'esh ("a fire", H0784) — common gender singular noun, the subject of the sentence, placed first for emphasis.
• tamid ("continually", H8548) — noun used adverbially, indicating the uninterrupted, ongoing nature of the burning.
• tuqad ("it will burn", H3344) — hophal (causative-passive) imperfect: the fire is caused to burn by an external agent, not burning on its own; the imperfect aspect marks ongoing or repeated action.
• mizbeach ("altar", H4196) — masculine singular noun with the definite article ha ("the", H9009), specifying a particular, known altar.
• tikhveh ("it will be extinguished", H3518) — qal imperfect, following the negation lo' ("not", H3808), forming a prohibition against the fire going out.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence divides into two parts. The first, 'esh tamid tuqad 'al-ha-mizbeach ("a fire continually it will burn on the altar"), places the noun 'esh at the head of the clause, before the verb tuqad. This word order foregrounds the fire itself as the topic. The verb form tuqad is hophal, a causative-passive stem: the fire is not simply burning by itself but is being kept burning, implying that someone causes or maintains this state. The adverbial tamid ("continually") sits between the subject and the verb, reinforcing that the action is uninterrupted rather than a single event.

The second clause, lo' tikhveh ("it will not be extinguished"), uses the qal (basic) stem of tikhveh, in contrast to the causative hophal of the first clause. Here the verb describes the simple state of the fire not going out, without specifying an agent. The shift from the causative hophal (someone keeps it burning) to the plain qal (it does not go out) creates a grammatical distinction between the maintained action and the resulting prohibited state.

Differences between versions

The LXX adds the conjunction καὶ ("and"), joining this verse more explicitly to the preceding one, which is not represented in the Hebrew text as given. The Vulgate renders the construction as a nominal statement, Ignis est iste perpetuus ("this fire is perpetual"), followed by qui numquam deficiet ("which will never fail"), shifting the Hebrew's verbal imperfect forms (tuqad, tikhveh) into a descriptive assertion about the fire's permanent nature rather than two parallel command-like clauses.