Leviticus 9:24

Summary

Fire emerges from before Yehovah and consumes the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. When the people see this, they shout and fall with their faces to the ground.

Key words

• va-Te.tze' ("and it went out", H3318L) — qal narrative verb, feminine subject ('esh, "fire"), marking the first sequential action of the scene.
• mi-li-f.nei ("from before", H6440G construct with prepositions H9006/H9005) — construct form of "face," here idiomatic for divine presence, indicating the fire's point of origin.
• va-To.khal ("and it consumed", H0398) — qal narrative verb, feminine subject continuing from 'esh, describing the action of the fire upon the offerings.
• va-i.Yar' ("and it/he saw", H7200G) — qal narrative verb, singular, agreeing with the collective singular noun kol-ha-'Am ("all the people"), shifting the narrative focus to the congregation's reaction.
• va-i.yi.pe.Lu ("and they fell", H5307G) — qal narrative verb, plural, describing the people's physical response, followed by 'al-pe.nei-Hem ("on their faces", H6440H + H9028).

What the text says

The verse is built as a chain of five narrative (vav-consecutive) verbs: va-Te.tze' ("went out"), va-To.khal ("consumed"), va-i.Yar' ("saw"), va-i.ya.Ro.nu ("shouted"), va-i.yi.pe.Lu ("fell"). This chain creates a tight cause-and-effect sequence typical of Biblical Hebrew narrative prose, where each action follows directly from the previous one without additional connectors beyond the vav.

The subject of the first two verbs is 'esh ("fire", H0784), a feminine noun, which explains the feminine verb forms Te.tze' and To.khal. The fire's origin is expressed with the construct phrase mi-li-f.nei Yehovah ("from before Yehovah"), literally "from the face(s) of," an idiom for divine presence rather than a claim about a physical face. The object of consumption is marked twice with the direct object marker 'et (H0853, untranslated): first ha-'olah ("the burnt offering") and then ha-chalavim ("the fat portions"), joined by the conjunction ve- ("and").

The subject then shifts to kol-ha-'am ("all the people", H3605+H5971A), a singular collective noun that takes a singular verb va-i.Yar' ("and it/he saw") but is followed by plural verbs va-i.ya.Ro.nu ("they shouted") and va-i.yi.pe.Lu ("they fell"), reflecting the collective-yet-plural nature of the noun in Hebrew syntax. The final phrase 'al-pe.nei-hem ("on their faces") uses the construct noun pe.nei ("faces of") with the third-person plural suffix -hem ("their").

Differences between versions

The LXX reads καὶ ἐξέστη ("and was amazed/astonished") where the Hebrew has va-i.ya.Ro.nu ("they shouted," H7442B), a divergence in the verb describing the people's reaction. The Vulgate renders this same verb as laudaverunt Dominum ("they praised the Lord"), adding "the Lord" as an explicit object not present in the Hebrew text. The Vulgate also inserts ecce ("behold") at the start of the verse, an addition not found in the Hebrew or the LXX as given.