Leviticus 9:18

Summary

The verse describes Aaron slaughtering the ox and the ram as the people's peace offering, after which his sons bring him the blood and he sprinkles it around the altar. The action moves through three narrative stages: slaughter, blood transfer, and sprinkling.

Key words

• yishchat ("he cut [the] throat of", H7819A) — qal narrative verb; the basic term for ritual slaughter by cutting the throat, opening the sequence of actions.
• zevach ("[the] sacrifice of", H2077) — construct noun linking to ha-shelamim, forming the phrase "sacrifice of the peace offerings," identifying the category of offering to which the ox and ram belong.
• yamtzi'u ("they brought forward", H4672) — hiphil (causative) narrative verb; the causative stem indicates that Aaron's sons actively caused the blood to reach him, rather than simply carrying it.
• yizreqehu ("he sprinkled it", H2236) — qal narrative verb with 3rd-person masculine singular object suffix ("it," referring to the blood); the suffix attaches the object directly to the verb without a separate word.
• saviv ("all around", H5439H) — common gender singular noun functioning adverbially, specifying that the sprinkling covered the altar on all sides.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a chain of narrative-vav clauses (va-yishchat, va-yamtzi'u, va-yizreqehu), each marking sequential action: first the slaughter, then the bringing of blood, then the sprinkling. The object marker 'et (H0853) appears before both "the ox" and "the ram," marking them clearly as the direct objects of yishchat, and again before "the blood" as object of the implied transfer to Aaron.

The phrase zevach ha-shelamim 'asher la-'am ("sacrifice of the peace offerings which [was] for the people") uses the construct chain zevach ha-shelamim to classify the offering type, while the relative clause 'asher la-'am specifies whose offering it is — the people's, not Aaron's own. The hiphil form yamtzi'u (from H4672) carries a causative nuance: the sons of Aaron "caused [the blood] to arrive" to him, a slightly more technical action than a plain "bringing." Finally, yizreqehu attaches the pronominal suffix -hu ("it") directly to the sprinkling verb, referring back to "the blood," and saviv closes the verse by specifying the sprinkling was performed on all sides of the altar.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the Hebrew shor ("ox", H7794) as "μόσχον" ("calf" or "young bull"), a narrower term than the Hebrew word, while the Vulgate's bovem ("ox") matches the Hebrew more closely. The Vulgate also renders benei Aharon ("sons of Aaron") as filii sui ("his own sons"), replacing the explicit name with a possessive pronoun referring back to Aaron.