Numbers 15:11

Summary

Numbers 15:11 establishes a general rule stating that "thus it will be done" for each type of sacrificial animal — bull, ram, lamb, or kid — indicating that a previously described procedure applies uniformly across these categories.

Key words

• Ka.khah ("thus", H3602) — a demonstrative adverb pointing backward to instructions given in the preceding verses, signaling that what follows is a summary application clause.
• ye.'a.Seh ("it will be done", H6213A) — niphal imperfect, passive/reflexive voice, meaning no explicit agent performs the action; the verb describes what happens to the animal rather than naming who does it.
• shOr ("bull", H7794) with ha-'e.Chad ("the one", H9009+H0259) — the noun takes the definite article plus a numeral functioning distributively ("the one," i.e., "each one"), a common Hebrew idiom for expressing "each single" item in a list.
• Seh ("small livestock", H7716) — a broader term for a single animal from the flock, here specified further by ba-ke.va.Sim ("among the lambs", H3532) and va-'i.Zim ("among the kids", H5795).
• 'o ("or", H0176A) — repeated conjunction linking four animal categories (bull, ram, lamb, kid) into one list governed by the same rule.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with the adverb Ka.khah ("thus"), which anchors the verse to procedures described earlier in the chapter, followed by the niphal verb ye.'a.Seh ("it will be done"). The niphal stem removes the grammatical subject performing the action, framing the rule impersonally — the action happens to the animal rather than being attributed to a specific actor.

The list structure uses the pattern "preposition + noun + definite article + numeral 'one'" four times: la-shOr ha-'e.Chad ("for the bull, the one"), la-'A.yil ha-'e.Chad ("for the ram, the one"), la-Seh ("for the small-livestock animal"), further specified by ba-ke.va.Sim ("among the lambs") 'o va-'i.Zim ("or among the kids"). This repetition of "the one" after each noun is a distributive construction, meaning "each single" bull or ram, rather than referring to a specific individual animal already mentioned.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate fragment given ("Sic facies") only preserves the opening words ("thus you will do"), using a second-person active verb where the Hebrew has a third-person passive/impersonal niphal (ye.'a.Seh, "it will be done"). The LXX similarly renders with second-person active ποιήσεις ("you will do"), diverging from the Hebrew's impersonal passive construction. The LXX also translates Seh with the specific term ἀμνῷ ("lamb") rather than the broader "small livestock" sense the Hebrew term carries before being narrowed by "among the lambs or kids."