Numbers 15:7

Summary

The verse specifies that a third of a hin of wine is to be offered as a drink offering (nesekh, H5262), producing "an odor of soothing" for Yehovah. It belongs to a sequence of instructions on accompanying libations for offerings, giving the precise measure and the verb of action.

Key words

• yayin ("wine", H3196) — bare masculine singular noun, the substance being offered.
• Nesekh ("drink offering", H5262) — masculine singular noun following the preposition la ("for the"), naming the ritual category into which the wine is poured.
• shelishit ("the third of...", H7992) — feminine singular construct form of the ordinal "third"; construct state links it directly to the following noun, producing "a third of the hin" rather than a free-standing "third."
• Hin ("hin", H1969) — masculine singular noun with definite article, the unit of liquid measure being fractioned.
• tak.Riv ("you will bring near", H7126H) — Hiphil (causative) imperfect, second person masculine singular; the causative stem marks the action as "causing to come near/presenting," and the imperfect aspect leaves it open as ongoing or future instruction rather than a single completed act.

What the text says

The clause opens with ve-yayin ("and wine") as the topicalized item, followed by la-nesekh ("for the drink offering"), which states the liquid's ritual function before any quantity is given. The quantity itself is expressed through a construct chain: shelishit ha-hin, literally "the third of the hin," where the ordinal number governs the measure noun in construct relation — a common Hebrew way to express fractions of a standard unit. The main verb, tak.riv, is a second-person Hiphil imperfect, meaning the addressee is instructed to "cause to draw near" or "present" the offering; the causative stem underlines that the subject actively brings the item into the ritual sphere rather than passively giving it. The result clause, reiach nichoach la-YHWH ("an odor of soothing to Yehovah"), uses another construct pair, reiach ("odor of") plus nichoach ("soothing"), a fixed idiomatic expression describing the effect of the offering rather than a literal fragrance description.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew verb tak.riv is second-person singular ("you will bring near"), addressed to an individual. The LXX renders it as προσοίσετε, second-person plural ("you [pl.] will bring/offer"), shifting the addressee to a group. The Vulgate uses offeret, third-person singular future ("he will offer"), shifting the grammatical subject away from direct address entirely. The Hebrew construct phrase shelishit ha-hin ("the third of the hin") appears in the LXX as τὸ τρίτον τοῦ εἳν and in the Vulgate as tertiæ partis ejusdem mensuræ ("a third part of the same measure"), both preserving the fractional sense while varying in how explicitly they name the unit "hin."