Leviticus 6:29

Summary

The verse specifies who may eat from the offering just described: any male among the priesthood is permitted to eat it, and the text categorizes this food as belonging to the highest degree of sanctity.

Key words

kol ("every", H3605) — construct form meaning "every/all of," here governing zakhar, producing the phrase "every male."

zakhar ("male", H2145) — masculine singular adjective functioning as a noun; restricts eligibility to males specifically, within the group defined by the following prepositional phrase.

kohanim ("priests", H3548) — masculine plural noun with prefixed preposition ba- ("among the"), placing zakhar within the priestly class as the defining group.

yokhal ("he will eat", H0398) — qal imperfect third-person masculine singular; the imperfect aspect expresses an ongoing or permitted action, often read as prescriptive ("may eat" / "shall eat") rather than a single event.

qodesh qadashim ("holy thing of holy things", H6944G) — a construct chain (singular + plural of the same root) forming a superlative expression, intensifying the noun "holy" to indicate the highest category of consecrated status; followed by the independent pronoun hi' ("it/she", H1931) which functions as the copula linking subject and predicate ("it is...").

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with the subject phrase kol-zakhar ba-kohanim ("every male among the priests"), placing the eligible party at the front for emphasis. The verb yokhal follows, governing the direct object marked by 'et (H0853) with its pronominal suffix -ah ("her/it"), referring back to the offering discussed earlier in the chapter. The construction 'otah — object marker plus suffix — is a standard way in Biblical Hebrew to reattach the verb to a previously mentioned feminine noun without repeating it.

The second half of the verse, qodesh qadashim hi', is a nominal (verbless) clause: noun + noun + pronoun, with no copular verb needed in Hebrew. The doubled construct form qodesh qadashim ("holy of holies," lexically "holiness of holinesses") is a superlative construction, a common Hebrew method for expressing "the holiest" or "most holy" by repeating the noun in singular-construct plus plural-absolute form. The pronoun hi' ("it," grammatically feminine, agreeing with the offering) serves as the predicate link, equivalent to "is" in translation.

Differences between versions

The LXX adds κυρίου ("of the Lord"), rendering the phrase "ἅγια ἁγίων ἐστὶν κυρίου" ("it is a holy of holies of the Lord"), an element not present in the Hebrew text, which simply states qodesh qadashim hi' without any divine name. The Vulgate's "Sanctum sanctorum est" mirrors the Hebrew superlative construction directly, without added specification.