Numbers 15:9

Summary

Numbers 15:9 specifies the grain offering that accompanies the sacrifice of a young bull: three-tenths (of an ephah) of fine flour mixed with half a hin of oil. The verse continues a sequential legal instruction about offerings tied to a bovine animal.

Key words

• hikRiv ("he will bring near", H7126H) — hiphil (causative) sequential perfect; the causative stem indicates the subject causes the offering to be brought near, continuing the narrative/legal sequence begun earlier in the passage.
• ben-haBakar ("the young one of the cattle", H1121H + H1241) — construct chain meaning "young bull/offspring of the herd"; the construct form links "young one" directly to "the cattle" as its genitive.
• minChah ("a grain offering", H4503G) — feminine singular noun designating the specific category of offering (grain-based, not animal).
• baLul ("mixed", H1101A) — qal passive participle, masculine singular; describes the fine flour as having been mixed (passive voice, no agent specified in the Hebrew).
• chaTzi haHin ("the half of the hin", H2677 + H1969) — construct noun chaTzi ("half of") governing haHin, a defined unit of liquid measure, giving the precise quantity of oil.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence structure is built around the verb hikRiv ("he will bring near," H7126H), a hiphil sequential perfect that keeps the verse attached to the preceding legal instructions as part of a continuous procedural sequence — the causative stem implies that a human subject causes the offering to be presented, rather than the offering moving on its own. The object of this bringing-near is introduced by 'al ("with," H5921A) plus the construct chain ben-haBakar ("the young one of the cattle," H1121H + H1241), identifying the animal that the grain offering accompanies.

The grain offering itself, minChah (H4503G), is defined by a list of nouns in apposition or further specification: Solet ("fine flour," H5560), a quantity of sheloShah 'esroNim ("three tenths," H7969 + H6241), and the qualifying passive participle baLul ("mixed," H1101A) describing the flour's mixed state. The instrument of mixing is given via the prepositional phrase ba-Shemen ("with the oil," H9003 + H8081), and the quantity of oil is fixed by the construct phrase chaTzi ha-Hin ("half of the hin," H2677 + H1969). The construct chains throughout (ben-haBakar, chaTzi haHin) compress what English or Spanish render with prepositional phrases ("of the," "of a") into single grammatical units in Hebrew.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders ben-haBakar ("the young one of the cattle," H1121H+H1241) as τοῦ μόσχου ("the calf/bull"), a single noun rather than the Hebrew's construct chain. The Vulgate uses "per singulos boves" ("for each ox"), introducing a distributive sense ("per," "singulos") not explicitly marked in the Hebrew construct phrase.