Numbers 28:4

Summary

Numbers 28:4 specifies the timing of the daily lamb offering: one lamb is to be offered in the morning, and the second lamb is to be offered bein ha'arbayim, literally "between the evenings." The verse uses parallel syntax to mark the two halves of the daily ritual.

Key words

• keves ("lamb", H3532) — masculine singular noun, repeated twice, each time marked by the object particle 'et, showing it as the direct object of the verb of offering.
• 'echad ("one", H0259) — cardinal number modifying the first keves, distinguishing it from the second.
• ta'aseh ("you will offer", H6213I) — qal imperfect, second person masculine singular; repeated identically for both clauses, giving the verse its parallel structure.
• boqer ("morning", H1242) — masculine singular noun, marks the time of the first offering.
• 'arbayim ("evenings", H6153) — masculine dual noun, forming the phrase bein ha'arbayim ("between the evenings"), marking the time of the second offering.

What the text says

The verse is built as two mirrored clauses, each following the pattern: object marker + object (keves) + ordinal/cardinal modifier + verb (ta'aseh) + time expression. The repetition of ta'aseh ("you will offer") in both halves reinforces the parallelism between the morning and the second time period, without varying the verb form. The direct object marker 'et appears before each keves, a grammatical feature that has no independent translation but signals that the lamb is the object being acted upon by the verb.

The temporal expression in the second clause, bein ha'arbayim, uses the dual form of 'arbayim ("evenings"), combined with the preposition bein ("between") in construct form. This construction is grammatically distinct from the simple noun boqer ("morning") used in the first clause — the Hebrew treats the second time period as a span "between" two points, rather than a single noun equivalent to "evening."

Differences between versions

The Hebrew phrase bein ha'arbayim ("between the evenings") is rendered in the LXX as pros hesperan ("toward evening"), a simpler single-point expression that does not reflect the dual form of 'arbayim. The Vulgate similarly uses ad vesperum ("at evening"), also collapsing the dual construction into a singular time reference. The RV1909 preserves the dual sense more literally with "entre las dos tardes" ("between the two evenings"), while the BSB ("at twilight") and SBLIBRE ("al atardecer") follow the LXX/Vulgate pattern of a single time point.