Numbers 25:13

Summary

Numbers 25:13 states that a covenant of perpetual priesthood will belong to a man (Phinehas, per the surrounding context) and his descendants after him. The reason given is that he was zealous for his God and made atonement on behalf of the people of Israel.

Key words

• Ha.ye.tah ("it will belong", H1961) — qal sequential perfect, third-person feminine, continuing the narrative sequence; the subject is berit ("covenant"), grammatically feminine.
• be.Rit ("a covenant of", H1285) — feminine singular construct noun, linking to kehunnat ("priesthood of") in a chain of construct relationships.
• ke.hu.Nat ("priesthood of", H3550) — feminine singular construct, forming with olam ("perpetuity", H5769) the phrase "priesthood of perpetuity," i.e., an ongoing priestly office.
• ki.Ne' ("he was zealous", H7065) — piel perfect, intensive stem denoting completed zealous action, introduced by the relative asher ("that/who", H834) within the causal clause tachat asher ("because").
• y.kha.Per ("he made atonement", H3722) — piel narrative form (vav-consecutive), intensive stem, marking the second completed action in sequence after the zeal, directed 'al ("on/for", H5921) the be.Nei Yis.ra.'El ("people of Israel", H1121 + H3478).

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with a narrative ve- ("and") attached to Ha.ye.tah, continuing the account from the preceding verses. The subject of this verb — "it will belong" — is the noun phrase berit kehunnat olam, literally "a covenant of priesthood of perpetuity," built through a chain of three construct nouns (berit → kehunnat → olam). This construct chain in Hebrew allows the concept of "covenant," "priesthood," and "perpetuity" to be fused into a single compound expression without需要 an explicit verb "to be" between them, a common feature of Hebrew nominal syntax.

The recipients are marked by prepositional suffixes: lo ("to him") and le-zar'o acharav ("to his offspring after him"), where zar'o is itself a construct form meaning "offspring of him." The causal clause is introduced by tachat asher ("because that"), a construct noun (tachat, "under/in place of") functioning here as a causal conjunction with the relative particle. Two piel verbs follow in sequence: qinne' ("he was zealous," perfect) and yekhapper ("he made atonement," narrative form with vav-consecutive), both intensive stems that convey deliberate, forceful action rather than passive states.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders berit kehunnat olam as διαθήκη ἱερατίας αἰωνία ("a covenant of eternal priesthood"), matching the Hebrew's construct chain closely. The Vulgate similarly gives pactum sacerdotii sempiternum ("a perpetual covenant of priesthood"). However, the Vulgate adds scelus ("crime/sin") to the atonement clause — expiavit scelus filiorum Israel ("he expiated the sin of the sons of Israel") — a specification not present in the Hebrew text, which states only that he made atonement 'al benei Yisrael ("on behalf of the people of Israel") without naming a specific transgression.