Numbers 28:8

Summary

Numbers 28:8 instructs that the second lamb of the daily offering is to be presented "between the evenings" (at twilight), following the same pattern as the morning grain offering and drink offering, constituting a fire offering with a soothing aroma to Yehovah.

Key words

• ta'aSeh ("you will offer", H6213I) — qal imperfect, second masculine singular, repeated twice (positions 7 and 19), marking the action of offering as a future/ongoing duty directed at a single addressee.
• bein ("between", H0996G) — construct form of a noun functioning as a preposition, linking to ha'arBayim to form the phrase "between the evenings," a set expression for twilight.
• minChat ("[the] grain offering of", H4503G) — construct form, meaning it must be followed by another noun ("the morning") to complete its sense: "the grain offering of the morning."
• nisKo ("its drink offering", H5262 + H9023) — construct noun with a third-person masculine possessive suffix ("its"), referring back to the grain offering or the daily offering pattern already established.
• 'iSheh ("a fire offering of", H0801) — construct noun beginning a chain of three construct nouns ('iSheh → Reiach → niChoach), building the phrase "a fire offering, an odor of soothing."

What the text says

The verse opens with the direct object marker 'Et (H0853) attached to haKeves haSheni ("the second lamb"), signaling that this lamb is the grammatical object of the verb ta'aSeh ("you will offer"). The verb appears twice in the verse, both times in the qal imperfect second masculine singular form, first governing the offering of the lamb itself, then governing the offering of its accompanying grain and drink offerings. This repetition creates two matching clauses: one for the lamb "between the evenings," and one for its grain and drink offering "like" (ke, H9004) that of the morning.

The phrase bein ha'arBayim uses a construct noun (bein) plus a dual noun ('arBayim, "evenings"), a grammatical dual form referring to a paired or bounded time period — the interval associated with twilight — rather than a literal plural of two separate evenings. The comparison to the morning offering is built through two parallel prepositional phrases: ke-minChat haBoker ("like the grain offering of the morning") and u-khe-nisKo ("and like its drink offering"), both using the preposition ke ("like," H9004) to establish equivalence with the morning pattern already described earlier in the chapter. The final clause stacks three construct nouns — 'iSheh Reiach niChoach — culminating in la-Yehovah ("to Yehovah"), describing the offering's designation as a fire offering with a soothing odor directed to the divine name.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the verb ta'aSeh in the second instance as a plural (ποιήσετε, "you [plural] will offer"), where the Hebrew consistently uses the singular ta'aSeh both times. The LXX also renders bein ha'arBayim as τὸ πρὸς ἑσπέραν ("that toward evening"), a simpler singular time reference compared to the Hebrew's dual construction. The Vulgate's ad vesperam similarly simplifies the dual evening expression into a singular "toward evening."