Leviticus 8:7
וַיִּתֵּן עָלָיו אֶת־הַכֻּתֹּנֶת וַיַּחְגֹּר אֹתוֹ בָּֽאַבְנֵט וַיַּלְבֵּשׁ אֹתוֹ אֶֽת־הַמְּעִיל וַיִּתֵּן עָלָיו אֶת־הָאֵפֹד וַיַּחְגֹּר אֹתוֹ בְּחֵשֶׁב הָֽאֵפֹד וַיֶּאְפֹּד לוֹ בּֽוֹ׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וַיִּתֵּ֨ן עָלָ֜יו אֶת־הַכֻּתֹּ֗נֶת וַיַּחְגֹּ֤ר אֹתוֹ֙ בָּֽאַבְנֵ֔ט וַיַּלְבֵּ֤שׁ אֹתוֹ֙ אֶֽת־הַמְּעִ֔יל וַיִּתֵּ֥ן עָלָ֖יו אֶת־הָאֵפֹ֑ד וַיַּחְגֹּ֣ר אֹת֗וֹ בְּחֵ֙שֶׁב֙ הָֽאֵפֹ֔ד וַיֶּאְפֹּ֥ד ל֖וֹ בּֽוֹ׃
καὶ ἐνέδυσεν αὐτοὺς τὸν χιτῶνα καὶ ἔζωσεν αὐτοὺς τὴν καὶ ἐνέδυσεν αὐτὸν τὸν ὑποδύτην καὶ ἐπέθηκεν ἐπ’ αὐτὸν τὴν ἐπωμίδα, καὶ συνέζωσεν αὐτὸν κατὰ τὴν ποίησιν τῆς ἐπωμίδος καὶ συνέσφιγξεν αὐτὸν ἐν αὐτῇ·
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
vestivit pontificem subucula linea, accingens eum balteo, et induens eum tunica hyacinthina, et desuper humerale imposuit,
Le puso la túnica a Aarón, le ató el cinturón, lo vistió con el manto y le puso el efod. Luego le amarró el cinturón tejido del efod para sujetarlo.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y puso sobre él la túnica, y ciñólo con el cinto; vistióle después el manto, y puso sobre él el ephod, y ciñólo con el cinto del ephod, y ajustólo con él.
He put the tunic on Aaron, tied the sash around him, clothed him with the robe, and put the ephod on him. He tied the woven band of the ephod around him and fastened it to him.
✦ What the text says
Summary
Leviticus 8:7 describes Moses dressing Aaron in the priestly garments during the ordination ceremony: the tunic, sash, robe, ephod, and its woven band. The verse is built as a rapid sequence of six narrative verbs, each marking a discrete step in vesting Aaron.
Key words
- vayyitten ("he put", H5414H) — qal narrative form of "to give/put," used twice (for the tunic and later the ephod), establishing the basic action of placing a garment "on him."
- vayyachgor ("he girded", H2296) — qal narrative, used twice (for the sash and for the ephod's band), marking the binding action distinct from simply "putting on."
- vayyalbesh ("he clothed", H3847) — hiphil (causative) narrative form, contrasting with the qal verbs: it expresses causing someone else to wear a garment, here the robe (me'il, H4598).
- choshev ("[the] girdle of", H2805) — construct noun, syntactically bound to ha'efod ("the ephod", H0646), forming the phrase "girdle of the ephod" rather than a standalone item.
- yeapod ("he girded [with] the ephod", H0640) — a denominative qal verb formed directly from the noun efod; the text uses the ephod's own name as a verb, describing the specific action of fastening the ephod itself.
What the text says
The verse chains six vav-narrative verbs (vayyitten, vayyachgor, vayyalbesh, vayyitten, vayyachgor, vayye'pod), each introduced by the narrative vav (H9001), which in Biblical Hebrew signals sequential action: "and then... and then..." This creates a step-by-step liturgical choreography rather than a summary statement.
A grammatical nuance is the shift from qal (vayyitten, vayyachgor) to hiphil (vayyalbesh) for the robe: the hiphil stem marks Moses as causing Aaron to wear it, distinguishing this specific verb from the simpler "placing" or "girding" actions used elsewhere in the verse. The final verb, vayye'pod (H0640), is built from the same root as the noun "ephod" (H0646) itself — the Hebrew effectively says "and he ephod-ed him with it," a verb that exists only because of this specific garment, which no single English word by itself reproduces.
Differences between versions
The LXX (Swete) renders the first two verbs with plural pronouns — "ἐνέδυσεν αὐτούς" ("he clothed them") and "ἔζωσεν αὐτούς" ("he girded them") — where the Hebrew has the singular suffix alav ("on him", H5921A) and oto ("him", H0853+H9033), referring only to Aaron.
The Vulgate adds material and color details absent from this Hebrew verse — "subucula linea" ("linen undergarment") and "tunica hyacinthina" ("violet-colored tunic") — specifics not present in the Hebrew wording of ha-kuttonet ("the tunic", H3801) itself.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.