Leviticus 8:16

Summary

The verse describes Moses taking specific internal fat portions and organs — the fat covering the entrails, the lobe of the liver, and both kidneys with their fat — and burning them on the altar. This occurs within the ordination ritual for Aaron and his sons described in Leviticus 8.

Key words

• va-yiqqach ("and he took", H3947) — qal narrative verb form, marking the sequential action that opens the verse.
• cheilev ("fat", H2459) — masculine singular noun, appears twice (lines 6 and 23), referring to suet-type fat rather than general fatness.
• yoteret ("lobe of", H3508) — feminine singular construct noun, linking grammatically to ha-kaved ("the liver", H3516) to specify the appendage of the liver.
• shetei ("two of", H8147) — cardinal number in construct dual form, governing ha-kelayot ("the kidneys", H3629).
• va-yaqter ("and he made [them] smoke", H6999) — hiphil (causative) narrative verb, indicating that Moses caused the fat and organs to go up in smoke on the altar.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a chain of two narrative verbs — va-yiqqach ("and he took") and va-yaqter ("and he made smoke") — both introduced by the narrative vav (H9001), which links this action sequentially to the preceding verses. Between these two verbs sits a long list of direct objects, each marked by the untranslated object marker 'et (H0853): the fat on the entrails, the lobe of the liver, the two kidneys, and their fat. This repeated use of 'et before each item gives the list a formal, itemized quality, as if enumerating discrete cultic components rather than describing them loosely.

The construct chains are notable: yoteret ha-kaved ("lobe of the liver") and shetei ha-kelayot ("two of the kidneys") both use construct nouns (H3508 and H8147) that grammatically bind to the following noun, producing tight noun-phrases rather than separate descriptive clauses. The final phrase chelbe-hen ("their fat", H2459 + H9029) uses a feminine plural pronominal suffix referring back to the two kidneys, confirming that this fat belongs specifically to the kidneys just named, not to the entrails' fat mentioned earlier.

The verb va-yaqter (H6999) is in the hiphil stem, a causative form indicating that Moses caused this material to become smoke — the technical term for burning offerings on the altar. The final word ha-mizbecha ("the altar", H4196) carries the directional he suffix (H9011), meaning "toward the altar" or "onto the altar," specifying the endpoint of the action.

Differences between versions

The LXX names Μωυσῆς ("Moses") as subject already in the first clause ("καὶ ἔλαβεν Μωυσῆς," "and Moses took"), whereas the Hebrew withholds the proper name Mosheh (H4872) until the second verb (va-yaqter Mosheh, "and Moses made smoke"). The Vulgate omits the subject's name entirely in this verse, using only the verb adolevit ("he burned") without repeating "Moses," relying on the prior context to supply the subject.