Leviticus 6:23

Summary

The verse states that every grain offering belonging to a priest must be kalil ("whole", H3632) — kept entire — and explicitly forbids it from being eaten. The syntax marks a totalizing rule using khol ("every", H3605) that applies to all priestly grain offerings without exception.

Key words

• khol ("every", H3605) — masculine singular construct; opens the clause and governs the following noun chain, signaling that the rule applies universally, with no exceptions among priestly grain offerings.
• minchat ("grain offering of", H4503G) — feminine singular construct; forms a construct chain with kohen, producing "grain offering of a priest," tying the object directly to its owner.
• kohen ("a priest", H3548) — masculine singular; the second term in the construct chain, specifying whose offering is under discussion.
• kalil ("a whole offering", H3632) — masculine singular adjective; functions as the predicate describing the state the offering must remain in — entire, undivided.
• te'akhel ("it will be eaten", H0398) — niphal (passive) imperfect; the passive voice removes the agent, framing the prohibition as a state of the offering itself ("it is not eaten") rather than a command aimed at a specific person.

What the text says

The clause opens with ve-khol-minchat kohen ("and every grain offering of a priest"), a construct chain that binds minchat ("grain offering of") to kohen ("a priest") as a single unit, further governed by khol ("every"). This construction places the subject up front before any verb appears, emphasizing categorical scope. The predicate kalil tihyeh ("whole it will be") uses the qal imperfect of hayah ("to be", H1961) with the adjective kalil preceding it, a common Hebrew word order for stative description — the offering's designated condition is completeness or wholeness, not partial consumption.

The second half, lo te'akhel ("it will not be eaten"), uses the niphal (passive) imperfect of 'akhal ("to eat", H0398). The niphal removes any explicit human subject, so the sentence does not say "no one shall eat it" but rather describes the offering's own passive fate — it simply is not eaten. This grammatical choice shifts focus from the agent to the object's status.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew kalil ("whole", H3632) denotes entirety or completeness without specifying the means. The LXX renders this as ὁλόκαυτος ("wholly burnt"), and the Vulgate expands further with "igne consumetur" ("it will be consumed by fire"), both making explicit a burning process that the Hebrew adjective itself does not state directly.