Leviticus 9:19

Summary

The verse lists the specific fat portions taken from the ox and the ram for the offering: the fats, the fat tail, the covering (fat), the kidneys, and the lobe of the liver. It is an enumeration of anatomical parts designated for the ritual, connected by repeated conjunctions.

Key words

• cha.la.Vim ("fats", H2459) — masculine plural noun, indicating multiple fatty portions collectively, not a single mass.
• min- ("from", H4480A) — preposition used twice (before ha.Shor and before ha.'Ayil), marking the specific source animals from which the fats are taken.
• 'al.Yah ("fat tail", H0451) — feminine singular noun, a distinct anatomical term for the tail-fat specific to the ram, separate from the general cha.la.Vim.
• yo.Te.ret ("lobe of", H3508) — feminine singular construct noun, grammatically bound to ka.Ved ("liver", H3516), forming the fixed expression "lobe of the liver."
• 'Et (H0853) — the direct object marker preceding ha.cha.la.Vim, signaling that the fats are the grammatical object of an implied verb of taking/bringing, though no verb appears within this verse itself.

What the text says

The Hebrew clause is built as a list without a finite verb inside the verse itself; it functions as a continuation of a prior action (the verse extends the object list from the preceding sentence in the chapter). The direct object marker 'Et (H0853) attaches to ha.cha.la.Vim ("the fats", H2459), establishing this term as the head noun governing the whole enumeration. The two prepositional phrases min-ha.Shor ("from the ox") and u.min-ha.'Ayil ("and from the ram") specify the two animals from which the fats derive, with u. (H9002) coordinating them as parallel sources.

After naming the general category of fats, the text itemizes specific parts: ha.'al.Yah ("the fat tail", H0451), ha.m.kha.Seh ("the covering", H4374), ha.ke.la.Yot ("the kidneys", H3629, plural), and yo.Te.ret ha.ka.Ved ("the lobe of the liver", H3508 construct + H3516). The construct form of yo.Te.ret binds it directly to ha.ka.Ved, producing a single compound term rather than two separate items. Each item after the first is joined by ve. (H9002), creating a chain of five coordinated fatty parts under the initial governing object ha.cha.la.Vim.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders ha.cha.la.Vim ("the fats") as τὸ στέαρ ("the fat", singular), and specifies the source animals as μόσχου ("calf") and κριοῦ ("ram") — using "calf" where the Hebrew ha.Shor (H7794) specifies "ox." The LXX also adds a phrase, τὸ στέαρ τὸ ἐπ' αὐτῶν ("the fat upon them"), not present as a separate item in the Hebrew list. The Vulgate similarly speaks of "adipem bovis" ("fat of the ox") in the singular and groups "renunculos cum adipibus suis" ("kidneys with their fats"), differing from the Hebrew's simple listing of ha.ke.la.Yot ("the kidneys") without an added qualifier.