Numbers 15:20
רֵאשִׁית עֲרִסֹתֵכֶם חַלָּה תָּרִימוּ תְרוּמָה כִּתְרוּמַת גֹּרֶן כֵּן תָּרִימוּ אֹתָֽהּ׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
Tap a word to see its entry
✦ The same verse in five languages
רֵאשִׁית֙ עֲרִסֹ֣תֵכֶ֔ם חַלָּ֖ה תָּרִ֣ימוּ תְרוּמָ֑ה כִּתְרוּמַ֣ת גֹּ֔רֶן כֵּ֖ן תָּרִ֥ימוּ אֹתָֽהּ׃
ἀπαρχὴν φυράματος ὑμῶν ἄρτον ἀφαίρεμα ἀφοριεῖτε αὐτό· ὡς ἀφαίρεμα ἀπὸ ἅλω, οὕτως ἀφελεῖτε αὐτόν,
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
de cibis vestris. Sicut de areis primitias separatis,
De la primera masa que preparen, ofrecerán una torta como ofrenda especial. La presentarán de la misma manera que la ofrenda especial del grano de la era.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
De lo primero que amasareis, ofreceréis una torta en ofrenda; como la ofrenda de la era, así la ofreceréis.
From the first of your dough, you are to lift up a cake as a contribution; offer it just like an offering from the threshing floor.
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse instructs that from the first of the dough, a cake is to be set aside as a contribution, following the same procedure as the contribution taken from the threshing floor. The comparison establishes that this offering follows a known pattern already used for grain offerings.
Key words
- re.Shit ("[the] first of", H7225G) — construct noun opening the phrase, linking directly to the following noun to specify "the first portion of X."
- 'a.ri.So.tekhem ("your dough", H6182 + H9026) — construct plural noun with a second-person masculine plural suffix, indicating dough belonging to a group ("you all").
- ta.Ri.mu ("you will offer up", H7311A) — hiphil (causative) imperfect, second masculine plural, appearing twice (words 5 and 11), framing the verse with the same causative action of "lifting/setting apart."
- te.ru.Mah / t.ru.Mat ("a contribution"/"contribution of", H8641) — feminine singular noun, appearing once in absolute form and once in construct form, naming the type of offering and then specifying it as "contribution of [the threshing floor]."
- ken ("so", H3651C) — adverb marking the comparison, connecting the dough-offering back to the threshing-floor offering as an equivalent pattern.
What the text says
The Hebrew sentence is built around two parallel clauses, each ending in the same verb form, ta.Ri.mu ("you will offer up", H7311A). The first clause names the object: re.Shit 'a.ri.So.tekhem chal.Lah — "the first of your dough, a cake" — followed by ta.Ri.mu te.ru.Mah, "you will offer up [as] a contribution." The second clause introduces the comparison marked by ki ("like", H9004) attached to t.ru.Mat Go.ren ("contribution of the threshing floor"), then ken ("so", H3651C) resumes the parallel, followed by the same verb ta.Ri.mu with the direct object marker 'o.Tah ("it", H0853 + H9034) referring back to the cake.
This repetition of the causative verb form across both clauses creates a structural mirroring in Hebrew that is not always preserved in translation: the action performed on the dough-cake is grammatically identical to the action performed on the threshing-floor produce, reinforced by the explicit comparative particles ki...ken ("like...so").
Differences between versions
The LXX renders chal.Lah ("a cake", H2471) with ἄρτον ("bread/loaf"), while the Hebrew specifies a chal.Lah, a distinct baked-cake noun. The Vulgate (VULCLEM) compresses the verse differently, rendering the opening as "de cibis vestris" ("from your foods") rather than specifying "dough," and shifts word order so that the threshing-floor comparison appears first grammatically in the Latin clause structure, though the same content is present.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.