Leviticus 9:6

Summary

Moses announces to the people that the action they are about to perform is what Yehovah has commanded, and states the purpose or result: the kavod ("glory") of Yehovah will appear to them.

Key words

• tzi.Vah ("he has commanded", H6680) — piel perfect: an intensive verb stem denoting a formal, completed act of command by Yehovah.
• ta.'a.Su ("you will do", H6213A) — qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural: an ongoing or future action assigned to the collective addressees.
• ye.Ra' ("it may appear", H7200G) — niphal jussive: the passive/reflexive stem indicates the subject (glory) is the one becoming visible, and the jussive mood expresses a wished-for or resulting event rather than a flat future statement.
• ke.Vod ("glory of", H3519) — construct form, masculine singular, linking directly to the following name to form "glory of Yehovah."
• da.Var ("thing", H1697I) — masculine singular noun, here functioning as "the thing/word" that Moses points to with the demonstrative zeh ("this", H2088).

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative va ("and", H9001) attached to i.Yo.mer ("he said", H0559), the standard qal narrative form that moves the story forward: "and Moses said." Moses' speech consists of a nominal clause: zeh ha-davar ("this [is] the thing"), where the demonstrative zeh points forward to a relative clause defining what "the thing" is — asher tzivvah Yehovah ("which Yehovah has commanded"). The piel perfect tzi.Vah marks the command as a completed, formal act attributed to Yehovah.

The clause continues with ta.'a.Su ("you will do"), a qal imperfect second-person plural verb. Grammatically, this verb sits somewhat loosely after the relative clause — the Hebrew syntax allows it to function as the content of what was commanded ("that you should do") rather than as a separate imperative, which is why translations render it either as an infinitive-like directive ("commanded you to do") or as a following instruction ("do it").

The second half of the verse is joined by ve ("and", H9002) to ye.Ra', a niphal jussive form of the verb "to see/appear." The niphal stem makes the glory of Yehovah (kevod Yehovah) the grammatical subject that "appears" or "is seen," while the jussive mood frames this appearing as a purposed or hoped-for outcome following the completion of the commanded actions, rather than a simple future fact.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders tzi.Vah ("he has commanded") with εἶπεν ("he said") instead of a verb of commanding, and connects it directly to ποιήσατε ("do!") as an imperative, differing from the Hebrew's imperfect ta.'a.Su. The Vulgate separates the clauses with an imperative facite ("do!"), similarly rendering the Hebrew imperfect as a command rather than as an embedded imperfect verb within the relative clause. The Hebrew ye.Ra' (niphal jussive, "let it appear") appears in the LXX as a future passive ὀφθήσεται ("it will appear") and in the Vulgate as apparebit ("it will appear"), both shifting the jussive nuance toward a straightforward future statement.