Leviticus 6:28

Summary

This verse gives instructions for the vessel used to boil the sin offering: an earthenware vessel must be broken after use, while a bronze vessel is to be scoured and rinsed with water instead of destroyed.

Key words

• kheli ("a vessel of", H3627) — masculine singular construct noun, appears twice, linking to "earthenware" and "bronze" to specify the vessel's material.
• teVushal ("it will be boiled", H1310) — pual (intensive passive) imperfect, describing the earthenware vessel's ongoing/future use for boiling.
• yishaVer ("it will be broken", H7665) — niphal (passive/reflexive) imperfect, the required destruction of the clay vessel after use.
• buShalah ("it was boiled", H1310) — pual perfect, marking completed boiling action in the bronze-vessel clause, contrasting grammatically with the imperfect used for earthenware.
• moRak ("it will be scoured", H4838) and shuTaf ("it will be rinsed", H7857) — pual sequential perfects, chaining two required cleaning actions for the bronze vessel instead of breakage.

What the text says

The verse divides into two conditional clauses joined by ve'im ("and if", H9002+H0518A). The first clause treats the earthenware vessel (kheli-Cheres, H3627+H2789) using a relative clause introduced by 'asher ("which", H0834A): "which it will be boiled in it" (teVushal-bo), followed by the required outcome yishaVer ("it will be broken"). Both these verbs are imperfect in form, describing the vessel's function and required fate in a general, ongoing-applicability sense — the clay vessel is broken as a general rule whenever it has served this function.

The second clause shifts grammatical aspect: buShalah ("it was boiled") is perfect, marking the boiling as a completed condition before the response is triggered. This is followed by two sequential perfects, moRak ("it will be scoured") and shuTaf ("it will be rinsed"), joined by the narrative vav (H9001), which chains actions in sequence rather than presenting them as separate conditions — first scouring, then rinsing with water (ba-Mayim, H4325G). The grammatical shift from imperfect (clay vessel) to perfect+sequential-perfect chain (bronze vessel) marks a structural distinction between the single required outcome for earthenware (breaking) and the two-step procedure for bronze (scour, then rinse).

Differences between versions

The LXX renders teVushal with ἐψεθῇ ("boiled," subjunctive), matching the conditional/relative sense of the Hebrew 'asher. The Vulgate collapses the relative clause into a simpler statement, "in quo cocta est" ("in which it was cooked"), using a perfect verb where the Hebrew uses an imperfect (teVushal), slightly shifting the aspectual nuance. For the second clause, the LXX’s ἐκτρίψει ("it will scour") and ἐκκλύσει ("it will rinse") preserve the two-action sequence found in the Hebrew moRak...shuTaf, as does the Vulgate’s "defricabitur, et lavabitur."