Numbers 28:5
וַעֲשִׂירִית הָאֵיפָה סֹלֶת לְמִנְחָה בְּלוּלָה בְּשֶׁמֶן כָּתִית רְבִיעִת הַהִֽין׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וַעֲשִׂירִ֧ית הָאֵיפָ֛ה סֹ֖לֶת לְמִנְחָ֑ה בְּלוּלָ֛ה בְּשֶׁ֥מֶן כָּתִ֖ית רְבִיעִ֥ת הַהִֽין׃
καὶ ποιήσεις τὸ δέκατον τοῦ οἰφὶ σεμίδαλιν εἰς θυσίαν ἀναπεποιημένην ἐν ἐλαίω ἐν τετάρτῳ τοῦ εἵν,
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
decimam partem ephi similæ, quæ conspersa sit oleo purissimo, et habeat quartam partem hin.
junto con una ofrenda de grano de un décimo de efa de harina fina mezclada con un cuarto de hin de aceite puro de oliva.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y la décima de un epha de flor de harina, amasada con una cuarta de un hin de aceite molido, en presente.
along with a tenth of an ephah of fine flour as a grain offering, mixed with a quarter hin of oil from pressed olives.
✦ What the text says
Summary
Numbers 28:5 specifies the additional grain offering accompanying a sacrifice: a tenth of an ephah of fine flour, prepared as a grain offering and mixed with a quarter hin of pressed oil. The verse consists entirely of measurements and descriptive qualifiers, with no independent verb of its own in Hebrew.
Key words
- 'asirit ("tenth of", H6224) — feminine singular construct, forming a fraction phrase ("a tenth of the ephah").
- solet ("fine flour", H5560) — the substance being measured, the base ingredient of the minchah.
- minchah ("a grain offering", H4503G) — names the category of offering constituted by the flour.
- belulah ("mixed", H1101A) — Qal passive participle, feminine singular, describing the flour's state as already combined with oil.
- katit ("pressed", H3795) — describes the manner of extraction of the shemen ("oil"), modifying the oil in a construct relationship shemen katit ("oil of pressing" / "pressed oil").
What the text says
The verse is built almost entirely from construct chains and fractional expressions rather than a full independent clause. 'Asirit ha'efah ("a tenth of the ephah") sets the quantity of solet ("fine flour"), and this flour is designated le-minchah ("for/as a grain offering") using the preposition le (H9005). The participle belulah ("mixed") then qualifies this flour as already combined with something — specified by be-shemen katit ("with pressed oil"). A second fraction, revi'it ha-hin ("a fourth of the hin"), gives the exact quantity of that oil. The Hebrew has no finite verb in this verse; it depends grammatically on the verb governing the sacrificial instructions in the preceding verses, so the sentence reads as an appended specification of measurements rather than a new command.
The participle form of belulah is notable: as a passive participle, it presents the mixing as a completed, ongoing state characterizing the flour, not as an action to be performed by the reader in that moment — the flour is described as "in a mixed condition."
Differences between versions
The LXX text opens with ποιήσεις ("you shall make"), a finite verb not present in the Hebrew of this verse, which lacks its own verb and depends on the verb from the surrounding context. This makes the LXX clause more self-contained than the Hebrew fragment.
Regarding the oil, the Hebrew shemen katit ("oil of pressing/pressed oil") is rendered in the Vulgate as oleo purissimo ("purest oil"), shifting the description from the method of extraction (pressing) to a claim about purity/quality. The LXX simply has ἐν ἐλαίῳ ("with oil") without reproducing the qualifier "pressed" found in the Hebrew katit.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.