Numbers 18:28

Summary

The verse instructs the Levites to set aside a "contribution" (teRumah) for Yehovah from the tithes they themselves receive from the Israelites, and then to give a portion of that to Aaron the priest. The structure creates a chain: Israelites → Levites → Yehovah's portion → Aaron.

Key words

• ta.Ri.mu ("you will offer up", H7311A) — hiphil (causative) imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural: the Levites are made to "lift up/raise" a portion, not simply give it.
• te.ru.Mat ("contribution of", H8641) — feminine singular construct, appearing twice (positions 5 and 22), linking grammatically to Yehovah both times: "the teRumah of Yehovah."
• ma'.se.Ro.tei.khem ("your tithes", H4643 + H9026) — feminine plural construct with pronominal suffix "your," specifying the source material from which the offering is separated.
• tik.Chu ("you will take", H3947H) — qal imperfect, describing the ordinary act of receiving tithes from Israel, contrasted with the hiphil ta.Ri.mu used for the special act of setting aside a portion for Yehovah.
• u.ne.ta.Tem ("and you will give", H5414G + H9001) — qal sequential perfect continuing the verbal chain begun with the imperfect ta.Ri.mu, marking the next step in the sequence: after raising the teRumah, the Levites "give" it onward to Aaron.

What the text says

The sentence opens with ken ("thus", H3651C) plus gam-'atem ("also you", H1571 + H0859D), an adverbial construction that draws a comparison — the Levites are to do something in the same manner as another party, marked explicitly by "also you." This construction signals that the action being commanded mirrors a prior pattern (the Israelites' own offering practice, as the surrounding legal material establishes).

The verbal sequence is grammatically layered: first the hiphil imperfect ta.Ri.mu ("you will lift up/offer up") sets the main future action — a causative form suggesting deliberate elevation or setting-apart of goods, not mere handing over. This governs the object teRumat Yehovah ("the contribution of Yehovah," construct chain), sourced mikkol ma'serotekhem ("from all your tithes," partitive min + construct). The relative clause 'asher tikchu ("which you will take") uses a plain qal imperfect, describing the ordinary receiving of tithes from bene Yisra'el ("the sons of Israel," construct chain marking origin).

The clause then shifts from imperfect to sequential perfect with u-netatem ("and you will give"), a verb form that continues the temporal sequence begun by the initial imperfect — first the setting-aside, then the giving. The object 'et-teRumat Yehovah repeats the same construct phrase from earlier in the verse, now directed le-Aharon ha-kohen ("to Aaron the priest"), closing the transfer chain from Israel to Levites to Yehovah's portion to Aaron.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the initial verb as ἀφελεῖτε ("you will remove/set apart") with the object αὐτοὺς ("them"), differing from the Hebrew's direct object teRumat Yehovah — the Greek separates the tithes themselves as the thing "removed," rather than naming a "contribution of the Lord" as the direct object at that point. The Vulgate compresses the verse structurally, rendering universis quorum accipitis primitias, offerte Domino ("from all whose firstfruits you receive, offer to the Lord"), using primitias ("firstfruits") where the Hebrew has ma'serotekhem ("your tithes", H4643), a divergence in the specific agricultural/cultic term used for the source material.