Leviticus 9:15
וַיַּקְרֵב אֵת קָרְבַּן הָעָם וַיִּקַּח אֶת־שְׂעִיר הַֽחַטָּאת אֲשֶׁר לָעָם וַיִּשְׁחָטֵהוּ וַֽיְחַטְּאֵהוּ כָּרִאשֽׁוֹן׃
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וַיַּקְרֵ֕ב אֵ֖ת קָרְבַּ֣ן הָעָ֑ם וַיִּקַּ֞ח אֶת־שְׂעִ֤יר הַֽחַטָּאת֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר לָעָ֔ם וַיִּשְׁחָטֵ֥הוּ וַֽיְחַטְּאֵ֖הוּ כָּרִאשֽׁוֹן׃
καὶ προσήνεγκαν τὸ δῶρον τοῦ λαοῦ· καὶ ἔλαβεν τὸν χίμαρον τὸν περὶ τῆς ἁμαρτίας τοῦ λαοῦ, καὶ ἔσφαξεν αὐτὸ καθὰ καὶ τὸ πρῶτον.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Et pro peccato populi offerens, mactavit hircum: expiatoque altari,
Luego presentó la ofrenda del pueblo. Tomó el macho cabrío de la ofrenda por el pecado del pueblo, lo degolló y lo ofreció por el pecado, igual que el primero.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Ofreció también la ofrenda del pueblo, y tomó el macho cabrío que era para la expiación del pueblo, y degollólo, y lo ofreció por el pecado como el primero.
Aaron then presented the people ’s offering. He took the male goat for the people ’s sin offering, slaughtered it, and offered it for sin like the first one.
✦ What the text says
Summary
Leviticus 9:15 describes Aaron presenting the people's offering, taking the goat designated as the sin offering for the people, slaughtering it, and treating it as a sin offering in the same manner as the previous one (referring to Aaron's own sin offering earlier in the chapter).
Key words
- va-i.yak.Rev ("and he presented", H7126H) — hiphil narrative verb, causative stem indicating Aaron brought the offering forward for presentation.
- ka.re.Ban ("present/offering of", H7133A) — construct noun linking to ha-'Am ("the people"), forming "the offering of the people."
- cha.taT ("sin offering", H2403H) — feminine singular noun naming the category of offering the goat belongs to.
- va-i.yish.cha.Te.hu ("and he slaughtered it", H7819A) — qal narrative verb with 3rd person masculine suffix hu ("it/him", H9033) referring back to the goat.
- va-y.cha.te.'E.hu ("and he made it a sin offering", H2398) — piel (intensive) narrative verb, again with suffix hu, denoting the act of processing/offering the animal specifically as a chatta't.
What the text says
The verse is built as a chain of four narrative verbs joined by the vav-consecutive (va, H9001), each advancing the action: presenting, taking, slaughtering, and "sin-offering-ing" (the piel of cha.ta, H2398, used denominatively from the noun cha.taT, "sin offering"). This piel verb form does not simply mean "to sin" but rather "to perform the sin-offering rite," showing that Hebrew can turn the offering's name into an action verb.
The construct chain se.'Ir ha-cha.taT ("male goat of the sin offering", H8163B + H2403H) is further specified by the relative clause 'a.Sher la-'Am ("which was for the people", H0834A), clarifying whose offering this goat represents, distinct from the earlier goat offered for Aaron himself.
The final phrase ka-ri.Shon ("like the first [one]", H7223G) uses an ordinal number to draw a direct comparison to a prior offering in the chapter's sequence, indicating that Aaron performed this rite in the same manner as before, without repeating the details.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders the subject as plural ("προσήνεγκαν," "they presented") where the Hebrew has a singular verb i.yak.Rev ("he presented"), implying a difference in who performs the action. The LXX also omits an explicit rendering of the piel verb va-y.cha.te.'E.hu ("he made it a sin offering") as a separate action, compressing it with the slaughtering into "ἔσφαξεν αὐτὸ" ("he slaughtered it"), while the Hebrew presents slaughtering and sin-offering-making as two distinct verbs. The Vulgate's phrase "expiatoque altari" ("the altar having been purified") introduces a reference to the altar not present in the Hebrew text at this point.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.