Leviticus 8:27

Summary

The verse describes Moses placing all the specified portions on the palms of Aaron and his sons, then waving them as a wave-offering before Yehovah. The action consists of two sequential steps marked by narrative verb forms: placing and waving.

Key words

• va-yiTten ("he put", H5414H) — qal narrative form, continuing the sequence of ritual actions begun earlier in the chapter.
• kappei ("palms of", H3709G) — feminine dual construct noun, indicating the two open hands of each recipient; used twice, once for Aaron and once for his sons.
• va-Yanef ("he waved", H5130B) — hiphil (causative) narrative form of the root meaning "to wave/swing"; the causative stem marks this as an action performed upon the offering, not a self-motion.
• tenuFah ("a wave-offering", H8573) — feminine singular noun, a technical cultic term derived from the same root as yanef, naming the category of offering just enacted.
• li-fnei ("before", from H6440G construct) — construct form meaning literally "to the face of," used with Yehovah to indicate the offering's orientation toward the deity.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built from two coordinated narrative clauses joined by the vav-consecutive pattern (va-yiTten... va-Yanef), typical of Biblical Hebrew narrative sequencing where each verb marks the next event in a chain. The first clause places ha-Kol ("everything," H3605) — referring to the previously listed portions — "on the palms of Aaron and on the palms of his sons" ('al kappei 'Aharon ve-'al kappei vanav), with kappei repeated in construct form for each named party rather than combined into a single phrase.

The second clause uses the hiphil verb va-Yanef together with its cognate noun tenuFah, forming a figura etymologica (verb and noun from the same root) that emphasizes the specific ritual gesture of waving. The direct object marker 'otam ("them," H0853) refers back to ha-Kol, tying the waving action to the same portions just placed in the hands. The phrase li-fnei Yehovah situates the entire gesture spatially and relationally "before the face of Yehovah."

Differences between versions

The LXX renders va-yiTten... 'al kappei ("he put... on the palms of") as ἐπέθηκεν ἐπὶ τὰς χεῖρας ("he placed upon the hands"), using χεῖρας ("hands") rather than a term specifically for "palms," collapsing the Hebrew's dual/construct nuance of kappei. For va-Yanef... tenuFah, the LXX uses ἀνήνεγκεν ἀφαίρεμα ("he offered up... a portion set apart"), where ἀφαίρεμα denotes a "removed portion" rather than reproducing the "waving" root sense present in the Hebrew tenuFah/yanef pair. The Vulgate's levaverunt ("they lifted") likewise shifts the verb from waving to lifting, and changes the subject to Aaron and his sons ("they") rather than Moses as the one performing the waving in the Hebrew.