Numbers 28:16

Summary

The verse specifies a date: the fourteenth day of the first month. On this day falls what the text calls Pesach ("Passover", H6453), designated la-YHWH ("to/for Yehovah", H3068G).

Key words

• Cho.desh ("month", H2320G) — masculine singular noun, appearing twice: first with the definite article and the ordinal ri.Shon ("first", H7223G) to name the month, then again in construct-like use with la. ("of the", H9005) to anchor the day-count to that same month.
• 'ar.ba.'Ah 'a.Sar ("four-teen", H0702 + H6240) — a compound cardinal number, common gender, literally "four" plus "-teen" (ten), together forming "fourteen," modifying Yom ("day", H3117G).
• Yom ("day", H3117G) — masculine singular noun, the head noun that the number "fourteen" quantifies.
• Pe.sach ("a passover", H6453) — masculine singular title/noun, standing without a verb, functioning as the subject or predicate nominal of the clause.
• la.YHWH (H9005 + H3068G) — preposition la ("to") prefixed directly to the divine name Yah.weh ("Yehovah", H3068G), marking the passover as belonging to or directed toward Yehovah.

What the text says

The Hebrew clause has no finite verb; it is a nominal sentence built from a temporal phrase followed by a title. The temporal phrase stacks two expressions of "month": first ba-Cho.desh ha-ri.Shon ("in the first month"), then, after specifying the day number 'ar.ba.'Ah 'a.Sar Yom ("fourteen day"), the phrase repeats la-Cho.desh ("of the month") — a construction that in Hebrew calendrical notation restates "month" to bind the day-count back to the month just named, rather than leaving "fourteen day" as an isolated number.

After this double-anchored date formula, the text simply states Pe.sach la-YHWH — "a passover to Yehovah" — with no verb of occurring or being commanded. The date stands first, and the named observance follows appositionally, without syntactic marking of causation, obligation, or performance; the Hebrew leaves the relationship between date and title unexpressed by any verb.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (VULCLEM) supplies the verb erit ("will be"), turning the Hebrew's verbless nominal clause into an explicit future statement ("Phase Domini erit" — "the Passover of the Lord will be"), where the Hebrew has no corresponding verb. The LXX (Swete) likewise renders the clause without a verb, paralleling the Hebrew's nominal structure ("πάσχα κυρίου" — "a passover of the Lord"). Modern renderings such as BSB add "is" ("is the LORD's Passover"), similarly supplying a copula absent in the Hebrew text.