Leviticus 7:3

Summary

The verse specifies which fat portions of the sacrificial animal are to be presented: all its fat, the fat tail, and the fat covering the entrails. This describes the offering procedure detailing exactly which internal fat portions belong to the ritual presentation.

Key words

• chelBo ("its fat", H2459 + suffix H9023) — masculine singular noun in construct with a possessive suffix, meaning "its fat"; combined with kol ("all", H3605) it forms the phrase "all its fat."
• yakRiv ("he will present", H7126H) — hiphil (causative) imperfect, third person; the causative stem indicates the offerer causes the item to come near/be brought to the altar, and the imperfect marks this as the expected or repeated future action within the ritual instruction.
• 'alYah ("fat tail", H0451) — feminine singular noun with definite article, naming a specific anatomical portion (the fat tail) as one of the required parts.
• mekhasSeh ("covers", H3680) — piel participle, masculine singular, functioning adjectivally: "the fat that is covering," describing the fat's location relative to the entrails rather than a completed action.
• Kerev ("entrails", H7130H) — masculine singular noun with definite article, the body part over which the described fat lies.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence structure places the object first: ve'et kol-chelbo ("and all its fat") precedes the verb yakriv ("he will present"), followed by mimmennu ("from it"), and then a second object clause listing the specific fat portions — the 'alyah ("fat tail") and hachelev hamekhasseh 'et haqqerev ("the fat that covers the entrails"). This front-loading of the direct object before the verb is a common feature of Hebrew ritual instruction, emphasizing the material being handled before specifying the action performed on it.

The participle mekhasseh ("covers") describes the fat's ongoing physical relationship to the entrails — it is characterized by covering them — rather than narrating a single completed event. The repeated use of the object marker 'et (untranslated grammatical marker) before each named item (the fat tail, the fat covering the entrails) signals that these are distinct, explicitly marked direct objects of the verbal action, reinforcing that each portion is individually specified rather than assumed under a general term for "fat."

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (Offerent ex ea caudam et adipem qui operit vitalia) and the Spanish/English translations align closely with the Hebrew, naming the tail and the fat covering the entrails. The LXX text supplied here (from Swete) does not correspond to this verse's content — it speaks of "leavened loaves" and "gifts... upon a sacrifice of praise of deliverance," material not present in the Hebrew of Leviticus 7:3 as given.