Numbers 18:18

Summary

The verse states that the meat of certain offerings belongs to Aaron (the addressee, "you"), just as the breast and right thigh from the wave-offering also belong to him. The sentence establishes a comparison between two categories of priestly portions, both assigned by the repeated verb "it will belong."

Key words

• besaram ("their meat", H1320) — masculine singular construct noun with 3rd person plural suffix "their," meaning "the meat/flesh of them," referring back to the animals or offerings mentioned in the preceding context.
• yihyeh ("it will belong / it will be", H1961) — qal imperfect of "to be," used twice in the verse, framing both halves of the comparison with a future/ongoing sense of belonging.
• chazeh ("breast of", H2373) — masculine singular construct noun, "the breast of," specifically linked to ha-tenufah.
• tenufah ("wave-offering", H8573) — feminine singular noun naming the ritual offering category from which the breast portion comes.
• shoq ("thigh of", H7785) — feminine singular construct noun, "the thigh of," paired with ha-yamin.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built in two parallel clauses, each ending with the verb yihyeh ("it will belong/will be," H1961) placed after the object it governs, giving emphasis to the act of belonging rather than the subject performing an action. The first clause, u-vesaram yihyeh-lakh ("and their meat will belong to you"), assigns the meat itself to the addressee, marked by the preposition-plus-suffix lakh ("to you"). The second clause repeats the structure using two construct chains — chazeh ha-tenufah ("breast of the wave-offering") and shoq ha-yamin ("thigh of the right [side]") — joined by the comparative preposition ka-/khe- ("like," H9004), which sets up an analogy: the meat is to be treated like these two specific ritual portions already understood as belonging to the priest.

The construct forms (chazeh, shoq) show that "breast" and "thigh" are not free-standing nouns but are grammatically bound to what follows — "breast of the wave-offering" and "thigh of the right [side]" — meaning the specific right portion of that offering. The double occurrence of yihyeh at the start and end of the verse creates a bracketing structure, reinforcing that both the meat and the traditional priestly portions fall under the same rule of belonging to "you," using the pronominal suffixes -lakh and -kha, both meaning "to you" (masculine singular).

Differences between versions

The LXX renders bes'ram ("their meat") as ta krea ("the meats"), omitting an explicit possessive pronoun corresponding to "their." The Vulgate translates the comparative structure more loosely as sicut pectusculum consecratum ("just as the consecrated breast"), adding "consecrated" (consecratum), a qualifier not present in the Hebrew ha-tenufah ("the wave-offering", H8573), which describes the type of offering rather than explicitly stating a state of consecration.