Numbers 28:28
וּמִנְחָתָם סֹלֶת בְּלוּלָה בַשָּׁמֶן שְׁלֹשָׁה עֶשְׂרֹנִים לַפָּר הָֽאֶחָד שְׁנֵי עֶשְׂרֹנִים לָאַיִל הָאֶחָֽד׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וּמִנְחָתָ֔ם סֹ֖לֶת בְּלוּלָ֣ה בַשָּׁ֑מֶן שְׁלֹשָׁ֤ה עֶשְׂרֹנִים֙ לַפָּ֣ר הָֽאֶחָ֔ד שְׁנֵי֙ עֶשְׂרֹנִ֔ים לָאַ֖יִל הָאֶחָֽד׃
ἡ θυσία αὐτῶν σεμίδαλις ἀναπεποιημένη ἐν ἐλαίῳ, τρία δέκατα τῷ μόσχῳ τῷ ἑνὶ καὶ δύο δέκατα τῷ κριῷ τῷ ἑνί,
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
atque in sacrificiis eorum, similæ oleo conspersæ tres decimas per singulos vitulos, per arietes duas,
Junto con ellos presentarán una ofrenda de grano de harina fina mezclada con aceite: tres décimos de efa por cada toro, dos décimos por el carnero,
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y el presente de ellos, flor de harina amasada con aceite, tres décimas con cada becerro, dos décimas con cada carnero,
together with their grain offerings of fine flour mixed with oil — three-tenths of an ephah with each bull, two-tenths of an ephah with the ram,
✦ What the text says
Summary
Numbers 28:28 specifies the grain offering (minchah) that accompanies the bull and ram sacrifices: fine flour mixed with oil, in the amount of three tenths of an ephah for the bull and two tenths for the ram. The verse gives precise quantities tied to each animal named in the preceding verses.
Key words
- minchatam ("their grain offering", H4503G) — construct noun with 3rd person masculine plural suffix, linking this offering back to the animals mentioned earlier as the ones "belonging to" this grain offering.
- solet ("fine flour", H5560) — feminine singular noun identifying the specific type of flour used, distinct from coarser grain.
- belulah ("mixed", H1101A) — Qal passive participle, feminine singular, describing the flour as already having undergone the action of mixing, agreeing grammatically with solet.
- esronim ("tenths", H6241) — masculine plural noun denoting a measure (a tenth of an ephah), used twice with different numerals (shelosha, "three", H7969; shenei, "two", H8147) to distinguish the quantity per animal.
- ha'echad ("the one", H0259 + H9009) — cardinal number with definite article, repeated twice ("for the one bull," "for the one ram"), marking each animal individually rather than treating them as a group.
What the text says
The Hebrew sentence structure ties the grain offering to specific animals through repetition of la- ("for the") plus the animal noun plus ha'echad ("the one"). This construction — la-par ha'echad ("for the one bull") and la-ayil ha'echad ("for the one ram") — treats each animal as a discrete unit requiring its own calculated portion of flour, rather than a single combined total for all bulls or all rams together. The participle belulah ("mixed", H1101A) is passive, describing the flour's state rather than commanding an action, so the sentence describes the offering's already-prepared composition rather than instructing how to prepare it in this verse.
The numerals shelosha (H7969) and shenei (H8147) function as construct-state or bound numbers followed by esronim (H6241), producing the phrases "three of the tenths" and "two of the tenths," a standard biblical Hebrew way of expressing fractional measures.
Differences between versions
The Vulgate renders the distributive singular construction differently: per singulos vitulos ("through each of the bulls") and per arietes duas uses plural nouns ("bulls," "rams") where the Hebrew and LXX use singular forms (ha-par ha'echad, tō moschō tō heni — "the one bull"). This shifts the emphasis from "per single unit" phrasing in Hebrew/Greek to a broader plural reference in Latin, though the distributive sense (a portion per animal) is preserved in both.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.