Leviticus 8:34

Summary

The verse closes the seven-day ordination ceremony of Aaron and his sons by stating that what was done on that day was commanded by Yehovah, with the stated purpose of making atonement for the priests. The sentence links a completed past action to a divine command whose goal is atonement.

Key words

• 'asah ("he has done", H6213A) — qal perfect, describing the ritual action already performed "on this day."
• tzivvah ("he has commanded", H6680) — piel perfect of the same root family as kaphar's pattern; the piel stem here gives an intensive/causative nuance to "command," marking Yehovah as the authoritative source.
• la'asot ("to do", H6213A) — qal infinitive construct, forming a purpose clause: what was commanded was "to do."
• lekhaper ("to make atonement", H3722A) — piel infinitive construct; the piel stem shifts the root kaphar (cover/atone) into a specific ritual action of atoning, chained after la'asot as a second purpose.
• 'aleikhem ("on you", H5921A + H9036) — preposition with 2nd person masculine plural suffix, marking the priests as the beneficiaries of the atonement.

What the text says

The verse opens with a comparative clause, ka'asher 'asah bayom hazeh ("just as he has done on this day"), using the qal perfect 'asah to refer back to the ritual actions already narrated. The main clause then states tzivvah YHWH ("Yehovah has commanded"), placing the divine name as subject of a piel perfect verb, which in Hebrew syntax carries the weight of formal, authoritative command.

The distinctive feature of this verse is the double infinitive construction: la'asot lekhaper — literally "to do, to atone." The first infinitive (la'asot, qal) is general, denoting the performance of the ritual acts; the second (lekhaper, piel) is specific, denoting the atoning function of those acts. This stacking is not merely stylistic — it structures the purpose of the command in two layers: the doing, then the goal of the doing. The final phrase 'aleikhem ("on/for you") uses the preposition 'al to indicate the priests as recipients of the atonement, rather than a direct object.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the purpose clause with ὥστε ἐξιλάσασθαι ("so that atonement might be made"), a result clause with a middle-voice verb, differing from the Hebrew's stacked infinitive-construct purpose structure (la'asot lekhaper).

The Vulgate diverges more substantially: it reads ut ritus sacrificii compleretur ("so that the rite of sacrifice might be completed"), omitting explicit mention of Yehovah as the one commanding and replacing the atonement vocabulary (kaphar) with completion of a sacrificial rite (ritus sacrificii).