Numbers 28:7
וְנִסְכּוֹ רְבִיעִת הַהִין לַכֶּבֶשׂ הָאֶחָד בַּקֹּדֶשׁ הַסֵּךְ נֶסֶךְ שֵׁכָר לַיהוָֽה׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וְנִסְכּוֹ֙ רְבִיעִ֣ת הַהִ֔ין לַכֶּ֖בֶשׂ הָאֶחָ֑ד בַּקֹּ֗דֶשׁ הַסֵּ֛ךְ נֶ֥סֶךְ שֵׁכָ֖ר לַיהוָֽה׃
καὶ σπονδὴν αὐτοῦ τὸ τέταρτον τοῦ εἳν τῷ ἀμνῷ τῷ ἑνί· ἐν τῷ ἁγίῳ σπείσεις σπονδὴν σίκερα κυρίῳ.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Et libabitis vini quartam partem hin per agnos singulos in sanctuario Domini.
La ofrenda líquida que lo acompaña será de un cuarto de hin por cada cordero. Derramarán esta ofrenda de bebida fermentada para Yehová en el santuario.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y su libación, la cuarta de un hin con cada cordero: derramarás libación de superior vino á Jehová en el santuario.
The drink offering accompanying each lamb shall be a quarter hin. Pour out the offering of fermented drink to the LORD in the sanctuary area.
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse specifies the quantity of the drink offering accompanying the daily lamb sacrifice: one quarter of a hin per lamb. It then commands that this liquid offering — made of shekhar ("strong drink") — be poured out to Yehovah in the holy precinct.
Key words
- nis.ko ("its drink offering", H5262) — construct noun with 3rd person suffix, referring back to the lamb just mentioned; establishes the topic before the predicate quantity is given.
- re.vi.'it ("fourth of", H7243) — feminine singular ordinal in construct, syntactically bound to ha.Hin, forming the fraction "a fourth of the hin."
- ha.Sekh ("pour out", H5258A) — Hiphil infinitive (causative stem), expressing the causative act of "making pour" rather than a simple action verb.
- ne.sekh ("a drink offering of", H5262) — same root as nis.ko above, here in construct with shekhar; its repetition right after the infinitive ha.Sekh creates a paronomastic (infinitive + cognate noun) construction.
- she.khar ("strong drink", H7941) — absolute noun specifying the liquid substance to be poured, distinct from ordinary wine terminology.
What the text says
The verse opens with a nominal clause: nis.ko ("its drink offering") functions as subject, and re.vi.'it ha.Hin ("a fourth of the hin") as predicate, fixing the measured quantity for la.Kevesh ha.'echad ("the one lamb"). This is a measurement statement, not a command — no finite verb appears in this clause.
The second half shifts to instruction. Ba.Kodesh ("in the holy place") sets the location, followed by the construction ha.Sekh nesekh shekhar — literally "pour [infinitive] a drink-offering of strong drink." Because ha.Sekh is an infinitive (not a finite verb), the Hebrew here reads more like an infinitive of instruction or a continuation of ritual description than a direct second-person command; the noun nesekh shares the same root (n-s-k, H5262) as ha.Sekh, producing a figura etymologica that emphasizes the act of pouring itself, a nuance not visible when translated as a plain command like "pour out."
Differences between versions
The LXX renders the infinitive construction with a finite second-person verb, speiseis ("you shall pour"), converting the Hebrew's infinitival phrasing into a direct imperative-like statement. It also transliterates shekhar as sikera, preserving it as a loanword rather than translating its meaning.
The Vulgate similarly uses a finite verb, libabitis ("you shall pour a libation"), but renders the liquid as vini ("of wine") rather than distinguishing shekhar ("strong drink") as a separate category, and adds the phrase "per agnos singulos" ("for each single lamb"), making explicit what the Hebrew conveys through the construct phrase la.Kevesh ha.'echad.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.