Leviticus 8:9

Summary

The verse describes two consecutive actions of placing: first a turban is set on someone's head, then a gold plate is positioned on the front of that turban, described as the "holy crown." The final clause anchors the action as fulfillment of a prior command from Yehovah to Moses.

Key words

• mitznefet ("turban", H4701) — feminine singular noun, appearing twice, naming the headwear onto which the golden ornament is subsequently placed.
• tzitz ("plate of", H6731A) — masculine singular construct noun, meaning literally "flower" or "shining thing," here functioning as the head of a construct chain: "plate of the gold."
• zahav ("gold", H2091) — the material specification completing the construct chain begun by tzitz.
• nezer ("crown of", H5145H) — masculine singular construct noun, placed in apposition to tzitz ha-zahav, restating the object as "the crown of the holiness."
• tzivah ("he had commanded", H6680) — piel perfect verb, marking a completed prior action; the piel stem intensifies the sense of formal, authoritative commanding.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built from two parallel narrative clauses, each opened by the narrative vav-consecutive on va-yasem ("and he placed", H7760A), a qal verb repeated identically both times. This repetition creates a two-step sequence: first the turban is placed on "his head" (rosho, construct noun + 3ms suffix), then a second object is placed "on the turban," specified further by the prepositional phrase el-mul panav ("to the front of his face"), locating the gold plate precisely at the front of the head-covering rather than elsewhere on it.

The object of the second placement is introduced by the direct object marker 'et (H0853) and consists of a double construct chain: tzitz ha-zahav ("plate of the gold") followed by nezer ha-qodesh ("crown of the holiness"). These two construct phrases stand in apposition, both describing the same object from different angles — one naming its material (gold), the other its status (holiness) — without an intervening conjunction in the Hebrew.

The closing clause uses the comparative particle ka'asher ("just as") followed by the piel perfect tzivah ("he had commanded", H6680), placing the entire episode under the authority of a previously given instruction attributed to Yehovah (H3068G) to Mosheh (H4872). The perfect tense of tzivah marks this command as having occurred prior to the narrated action, framing the placement of turban and plate as execution of an earlier directive rather than a spontaneous act.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders nezer ha-qodesh ("crown of the holiness") as τὸ καθηγιασμένον ἅγιον ("the sanctified, holy thing"), using an adjectival/participial construction rather than preserving the construct noun nezer ("crown"). The Vulgate similarly shifts to "laminam auream consecratam in sanctificatione" ("golden plate consecrated in sanctification"), rendering nezer as an abstract qualifier rather than retaining it as a separate noun in construct with "holiness," differing from the Hebrew's paired construct phrases tzitz ha-zahav / nezer ha-qodesh.