Numbers 29:33

Summary

Numbers 29:33 specifies the accompanying grain and drink offerings for the bulls, rams, and lambs sacrificed on this festival day, stating that these must match the number of animals and follow the prescribed ordinance. The verse closes a list of sacrificial instructions by anchoring the quantities to both the animal count and a fixed standard.

Key words

• minchah ("grain offering", H4503G) — feminine singular construct with 3rd person masculine plural suffix ("their"), indicating the grain offering belongs to and corresponds with the previously listed animals.
• nesek ("drink offerings", H5262) — masculine plural construct with the same suffix, denoting the plural libations tied to each type of animal.
• mispar ("number", H4557) — masculine singular construct with suffix "their," forming the phrase "according to their number," which ties the offering quantities directly to the count of animals sacrificed.
• mishpat ("ordinance", H4941I) — masculine singular construct with suffix "their," meaning "according to their ordinance/rule," establishing that a fixed standard governs the proportions.
• parim ("young bulls", H6499), eilim ("rams", H0352A), kevasim ("lambs", H3532) — all masculine plural nouns, each preceded by the preposition-article la- ("for the"), marking them as the recipients of the accompanying offerings.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a compact list without a finite verb, continuing the sacrificial instructions from the preceding verses. The two offering types — minchah ("grain offering") and nesek ("drink offerings") — are each marked with a 3rd person plural possessive suffix, linking them grammatically to the antecedent animals rather than functioning as independent items. The prepositional phrases la-parim, la-eilim, ve-la-kevasim ("for the bulls," "for the rams," and "for the lambs") specify which animals each offering accompanies, using the preposition la- with the definite article fused into the word.

The final two phrases, be-mispar-am ("by their number") and ke-mishpat-am ("according to their ordinance"), both use construct nouns with pronominal suffixes and function adverbially, describing the manner in which the offerings are to be apportioned — matched to animal count and following an established rule. This structure creates a technical, list-like register typical of ritual instruction texts, where grammatical suffixes do the work of connecting each offering to its corresponding sacrificial animal without repeating full nouns.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew ke-mishpat-am ("according to their ordinance") is rendered in the LXX as κατὰ τὴν σύγκρισιν αὐτῶν, using a Greek term meaning "according to their composition/proportion," which shifts the sense from a legal-normative "ordinance" toward a more technical idea of correct mixture or ratio. The Vulgate renders the same phrase as "rite celebrabitis" ("you shall celebrate duly"), introducing an explicit verb of celebration not present in the Hebrew, where the construction remains verbless and list-like.