Leviticus 8:26

Summary

The verse describes Moses taking three specific breads from the basket of unleavened bread that stood before Yehovah — one round loaf, one oiled loaf, and one wafer — and placing them on top of the fat portions and the right thigh of the ram, as part of the ordination ritual for Aaron and his sons.

Key words

• ma.Tzot ("unleavened bread", H4682) — feminine plural, referring collectively to the unleavened breads stored in the basket mentioned earlier in the chapter.
• li.f.Nei ("before", from H9005 + H6440G) — construct phrase meaning "to the face of," here describing the basket's position "before Yehovah," indicating ritual placement rather than mere location.
• cha.Lat ("a round perforated bread of", H2471) — feminine singular construct, used twice (once for the plain unleavened loaf, once for the oiled loaf), showing the same bread-type noun governing two different qualifiers.
• aChat / eChad ("one", H0259) — the numeral appears three times, once for each of the three items taken, marking them as discrete single portions rather than an undefined quantity.
• i.Ya.sem ("he placed [them]", H7760H) — qal narrative form ("and then he placed"), continuing the narrative chain begun by lakach ("he took", H3947G) and describing the physical act of laying the breads on the fat and thigh.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with a prepositional phrase, u.mi.Sal ha.ma.Tzot ("and from the basket of the unleavened breads"), which is qualified by the relative clause asher li.f.Nei Yehovah ("which was before Yehovah"). This entire phrase is fronted before the verb lakach ("he took", H3947G), a common Biblical Hebrew structure that places the object taken-from at the head of the clause for emphasis, before naming the subject's action. The verb itself carries no separate stated subject noun in this verse (understood as Moses from context), consistent with the qal perfect form used narratively.

Three items are listed, each marked by construct chains and the numeral aChat/eChad ("one", H0259): chaLat maTzah aChat ("one round loaf of unleavened bread"), ve.chaLat Lechem Shemen aChat ("and one round loaf of bread of oil"), and ve.raKik eChad ("and one wafer"). The repetition of the construct noun chaLat for the first two items, paired with different qualifying nouns (maTzah "unleavened bread" and Lechem Shemen "bread of oil"), shows two distinct bread types built from the same base noun, while the third item, raKik ("thin bread", H7550), stands alone without the chaLat construct, marking it as a structurally different kind of baked item (a wafer rather than a loaf).

The clause continues with the narrative vav-form va.i.Ya.sem ("and he placed"), governing two prepositional phrases: al ha.chala.Vim ("on the fat portions") and ve.al shok ha.ya.Min ("and on the thigh of the right [side]"). The construct shok ("thigh of", H7785) followed by the definite article and ya.Min ("right", H3225G) specifies the right thigh precisely, rather than a general limb.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the three Hebrew bread terms with Greek equivalents — ἄρτον ἄζυμον ("unleavened bread"), ἄρτον ἐξ ἐλαίου ("bread from oil"), and λάγανον ("wafer") — matching the Hebrew's three-item structure. The Vulgate similarly gives panem absque fermento, collyridam conspersam oleo, and laganum, preserving the threefold division, though "collyrida" differs somewhat in image from the Hebrew chaLat ("round perforated bread"). Both versions retain the placement on the fat and right thigh without notable divergence from the Hebrew's spatial description.