Numbers 29:16

Summary

The verse specifies an additional offering: one male goat as a sin offering, presented on top of (beyond) the regular daily burnt offering, along with its accompanying grain offering and drink offering.

Key words

• se'ir ("a male goat of", H8163B) — construct form linking to 'izim, forming the phrase "a goat of goats," a common Hebrew idiom for specifying the animal type.
• 'echad ("one", H0259) — cardinal number in feminine singular form, quantifying the goat offering as a single animal.
• chattat ("a sin offering", H2403H) — feminine singular noun identifying the purpose/category of this goat offering.
• millevad (from H9006 + H9005 + H0905J, "besides/apart from") — a compound preposition built from min ("from") + le ("to") + vad ("apart"), signaling that this offering is additional to what follows.
• tamid ("continuity", H8548) — masculine singular noun modifying 'olat ("burnt offering of"), describing the perpetual or regular nature of that offering.

What the text says

The verse opens with a construct chain: se'ir-'izim 'echad ("one male goat of goats"), followed by chattat ("sin offering") functioning appositionally to define the goat's ritual purpose. This construction—noun of a species plus a number—is a standard way in Biblical Hebrew to specify a single animal from a general category.

The compound preposition milevad ("from-to-apart," rendered "besides" or "apart from") introduces a clause of exclusion or addition, indicating that the sin offering just mentioned is supplementary to another offering. This second offering is identified through another construct chain: 'olat ha-tamid ("burnt offering of the continuity/perpetuity"), meaning the offering characterized by regularity. The construct relationship here ties 'olat directly to tamid, producing the sense of an offering performed on a continual or fixed basis.

The final two nouns, minchatah ("its grain offering") and niskah ("its drink offering"), both carry the third-person feminine singular pronominal suffix -ah ("its"), grammatically referring back to 'olat ha-tamid. This suffix structure shows that the grain and drink offerings are grammatically bound to the regular burnt offering, not to the sin offering mentioned earlier.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders milevad as πλὴν ("except/besides") and structures the final clause with plural nouns αἱ θυσίαι αὐτῶν καὶ αἱ σπονδαὶ αὐτῶν ("their sacrifices and their libations"), using plural pronouns where the Hebrew uses singular suffixes (-ah, "its") tied to the singular 'olat ha-tamid. The Vulgate follows a structure similar to the Hebrew, using "sacrificio, et libamine ejus" (singular "its"), aligning with the Hebrew's grammatical singular reference rather than the LXX's plural.